As the second half of our trimester commenced, BCM325 went on as always, but this time with a great list of productions some of which I personally have always loved and a few new ones as well. This blog will contain a critical analysis of tweets and interactions that have occurred based on the screenings of the productions during our lecture. I feel like it has indeed gotten easier to multitask while watching a movie and it’s gotten more natural to want to talk about my opinions after watching something, which is a habit I’m picking up at home too!
List of Movies/T.V Shows Screened
- The Matrix
- Iron Man
- Ready Player One
- Free Guy
- Nosedive (Black Mirror)
The Matrix
I, unfortunately, had to watch this movie alone and wasn’t in class for all the interesting discussions I probably missed out on. The matrix has always been one of my favorites, I’ve always been a speculative girl, and the fact that this movie was discussing themes of realities and AI monsters that were sucking on human energy to survive. This movie made me think a lot about choices and free will and how in reality not one person has made a choice that was solely based on what they wanted. I kind of do consent to the fact that we might all be in a simulation, have you ever felt a ‘glitch in the matrix’ moment yourself? I know I have. There are some things that just don’t make sense to me but again these are all conspiracies. Maybes and maybe not.
Iron Man
Ever since I was a child, I’ve always been fascinated with the Marvel Universe. Watching it in this setting, and being tasked with critically assessing this film sparked a lot of thoughts in my mind. The line between what’s considered being human and being Cyborg for instance, and relating this with regard to the evolution of technology and the course of humanity, it begs the question, how far are humans willing to go for survival and where will it lead us.
Cyborgs in this context would be a very normal occurrence, for medical reasons and slight body modifications and enhancements which I find very interesting, to be honest. If given the resources I’m sure humans would suck it dry. Marvel itself has a very unique approach to evolving technologies and post-humanism, with extremely advanced A.I’s like J.A.R.V.I.S and we can see sentient intelligence slowly becoming a very natural part of this world.
Ready Player One
This movie was very interesting to me, the first time I watched it I wasn’t so taken with this concept of virtual life and I could wrap my head around the fact that people would willingly give up their mortal, physical lives for something so expendable. The recent years and this class, have taught me otherwise, human dystopias can appear in many forms and now, this is one I find most intriguing. The OASIS harbors real lives and relationships, it has its own commercial systems and economies which really begs the question, how fast do you think we’re going to take to accustom ourselves to virtual life. In the movie, the real world becomes a wasteland and their only priority seems to be their rankings on the OASIS, the line began to blur between what they deemed as reality and virtuality. I mean we’re not really that far off if we consider the metaverse.
Free Guy
This movie has been in my TBW for the longest time, and it being screened during class was honestly an enjoyable experience for me. Free guy was released with the notion that it was just a fun little action/sci-fi/comedy of an NPC breaking out of their constraints. It actually had a wholesome message, it wanted to portray the fact that regardless of your realities, you have reasons to be happy. I started thinking about the implications it has on Friendly – AI programs, will they become sentient and start breaking out of their shells and defining their own morals? At what point do these AI start empathizing and is that even a good thing?
Nosedive
Black Mirror always talks about very apparent social issues and nosedive covered an issue I feel is very relevant in our current social scenario. We’re always at ends with ourselves to be the best and to be liked by everyone, social media culture is toxic to the point that people judge worth to the number of followers, likes, and comments you have. In nosedive this situation is amplified by taking their rating system a step further, it decides every aspect of your life for you. Your career, friend circle, neighborhood all depend on the rating you have. The higher the better, your standard of living depends on it. One moment that stuck with me from the episode was when she was locked up and finally let her mask slip and be truly unfiltered. I think this was my favorite screening since it sparked so many conversations in class that was coming from a place all of us could relate to.
This trimester has been filled with thought-provoking conversations and discussions of interesting themes. Its surprising how much you can learn sometimes just by observing and analysing.
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