A Little of This 'N That

I haven't updated this thing in a week, so I felt obligated to do so, and I had some decent topics as well. I will split this up into sections, since they are all so unrelated.

Movies

Ryan and I went to see I Am Legend tonight. I had been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. Not only have I never read the book by Richard Matheson, but I have also never seen the other two films based off of it, The Last Man on Earth, and The Omega Man. While I did enjoy the film and thought the sight of seeing a place like Manhattan completely empty and on it's way to being reclaimed by nature, I thought the film did have some issues. The story begins after the chain of events leading to the end of civilization has already taken place, and slowly, through flashbacks we are given pieces of the puzzle as to what brought the whole thing on. I think Will Smith did a good job at creating a character who you could sympathize with, and one scene in the movie even made me cry.The only real problems I had were some pacing issues, and some of the special effects. The use of flashbacks was well done and they were intermixed at the appropriate places and times, but where the problems come in is with the last 30 minutes of the film. I think so much happens all at once that the events as they play out are not given enough justice and seem rushed. This also leads to an ending that seems rushed.

This film relies heavily on the use of CGI. Animals, effects, scenery, creatures. You will be hard pressed to find a shot that doesn't integrate some form of CGI into it, save for a few interior shots. While a lot of the CGI is well done, I think the protagonists rely too heavily on CGI where they could have taken more traditional approaches with the use of prosthetics/puppetry etc. Some of the CGI involving the creatures has a fair amount of that CGI'ish look too it, which makes it easy to suddenly feel removed from the believability of the film. I think traditional effects would have gone a long way with these creatures being believable, especially considering their origins.

This is the second film I have seen in the last month (The Mist) which is rare, considering that we seldom go out to see movies anymore, since we have a better setup for watching them at home. One thing that I find interesting is that of these two films, both have had very much what I consider a non-Hollywood ending. I have to hand it to the film industry. It is somewhat refreshing to see films that don't wrap it all up in a fun little package with a bow for you to walk out of the theater smiling and being happy. That's what we're all used to already.

Overall, I give this film 4 out of 5 spiders.

Time Flies

You know, the older I get, the more time seems to slip by faster and faster. I have especially noticed this over the last couple of years. The months and seasons just seem to pass ever more quickly. I read an article today which sheds some light on this, and it turns out, this is a natural process of the brain.

Researchers wanted to do a study on why things seem to move in slow motion during emergencies or times when the mind is in great distress. They performed a test whereby people fell 150 feet into a net, and they had them watch numbers flash quickly across a wrist-worn screen while doing so. The actual fall only took 3 seconds, but the subjects felt like they were falling 3 times as long. The researchers theorized that the brain operates at a faster rate, so they assumed that these subjects should have been able to interpret the numbers on their screens as they were falling, which under normal circumstances would not be readable.

It turns out that they could not read the numbers any better during the fall, even though they all felt like time slowed down. As it turns out, in times of great mental stress or stimulation, a part of the brain called the amygdala kicks in and begins recording an extra set of the memories already being recorded by other parts of your brain. This action creates very strong memories which are interpreted as being longer since they are more powerful than standard memories.

How does this all apply to time passing faster as you get older? Well, when people are young and experiencing things for the first time, the amygdala is called into action frequently, making the memories more impactful and giving the illusion of time passing more slowly. As we get older and have "seen it all", the amygdala does not kick in as often and our memory are only recorded once, and interpreted as time moving faster. I think this study is quite fascinating, and it's good to know there is a scientific explanation to the quickening of time we experience.

Well, that's it for me tonight. See you all later.