Action Films

John wick 4 review (03/26/2023)

John Wick 4 is the best movie in the John Wick franchise and by far one of the best action movies of all time. It’s shooting and action scenes are next level. Keanu Reeves does his own stunts because he is passionate about his work. He invented gunfu in the original John wick film. In the fourth film, he invented shooting combos. For example, he shoots a guy and as the body is falling down the stairs he shoots it again. He kicks a guy into a speeding car and as the body is flipping mid-air, he shoots them in the head twice. He knows how to properly handle and shoot guns in close quarters alongside his expertise in hand to hand combat, knives, and nunchucks. I also love that even though he is outnumbered every single time, he uses his environment to his advantage whether it’s using incoming traffic, a poker card, stair handles, horses, museum models, etc. Overall, best action movie. 

There isn’t much plot but one thing that I love is when they start talking about gravestone. In each person’s gravestone, we get to see what kind of person they were and what they wanted. For the pigeon king, his stone said, “long live the King” because he was very prideful and loved having his own hobo kingdom. For the concierge, his stone said “a good friend” because he was always loyal to his friends till the end. As the Japanese guy said, “friendship means little when it’s convenient”. Then, for John Wick, it said” “loving husband” because all he wanted was to have a peaceful retired life with his wife and their dog which the mafia destroyed. 

I don’t know what I would want written on my gravestone. I would want “a honest man but a good friend above all else” written on it. However, I still have a lot to grow before I become worthy of that title.

Terminator Trilogy

August 29th, 2024
"there is no fate but what we make for ourselves'
(even though everytime they win, skynet keeps coming back later)

I recently watched the Terminator trilogy for the first time.
Terminator One was a good film, Terminator Two was one of the best films, and Terminator Three is a fun film but not a great film.

The first film explored the fear of AI turning against humans.
It’s one thing to fear A.I. rising against humans but it's a different level of fear when you see an indestructible killer machine with glowing red eyes chasing after you.
Instead of scary robots and nuclear mass extinction, if A.I. ends up uprising against humans, it will pit humans against one another through social media for mass destruction. Our political atmosphere is more polarized and volatile than before due to massive protests and social unrest. A.I. can exemplify that. How do you know if the user on the other side of the screen is a human or a robot. They can create lifelike human pictures, voice recordings, and speak like a human.

The second movie is less about the fear of A.I. and more about us humans losing our humanity and becoming more like machines ourselves. Terminators have no remorse and follow orders to kill their targets. In some ways, people in wartime scenarios can be manipulated into that mindset. The human on the enemy side isn’t a human but a target, collateral damage, tango, hostile, etc.
The movie also shows the flip side, a robot becoming more human. The T-800 learns morality, how to socialize, crack jokes, and even ends up sacrificing himself for humanity at the end. Some of my favorite scenes were when he grabs the minigun, looks at John and grins with joy as if he got the best Christmas present of all time. One of my favorite scenes is when he lowers himself into the lava and gives a one last thumbs up before dying. Before lowering himself, he admits he is afraid of dying because for once m, he doesn’t know where he goes after death.

A.I. can be used for good if it’s used with regulations and controls.

Terminator three is a fun movie to watch but it lacks the philosophical depth the other two movies had. It also counters the whole quote about how we can all control our own fates because skynet ends up destroying the world regardless of what our heroes did in the second movie.

One thing Terminator Three made me realize is how reliant we are on technology that is connected via the internet and bluetooth. Easy suspects are our computers and phones. Now, our cars are also connected as they have autopilot. Even if A.I. can't directly control them, A.I. can feed humans the wrong information to make us misuse them.

asd