The Quick Sunday Night Post

Lazy Sunday, nearly finished with my news article, it should be off by tomorrow afternoon. Also mucked around a bit with From Russia With Love, a game I’d reviewed earlier. It still holds up to my initial review and I stand by it; it’s a puff piece. No depth, some mild, shallow fun, but nothing as engaging as Grand Theft Auto or a juicy RPG like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy.

I also got around to watchin Final Cut a movie with Robin Williams in it about a new kind of fictional death ritual called “Rememories” where people had implants put into them before birth that recorded every single moment of their lives. When the person with the implant died, the implant was retrieved and given to a person called a cutter (The Williams character) who was half mortician, half film editor, using a souped up non-linear digital video editor to piece together a feature length presentation of the highlights of the person’s life, conveniently deleting anything that would prove uncomfortable or disturbing to the living.

It reminded a little in pace, and visuals to Gattaca. Both of the films presented a central conceit, and then ran with it for the length of the story, as most good Science Fiction or Fantasy will do. However, where the theme of Gattaca managed to weave in nicely with the plot, to present an intriguing idea, with interesting characters and an engaging story, Final Cut drops the ball, by having a very, VERY interesting idea, some interesting characters to hang the theme on, and an extremely problematic story that falls apart in the last quarter. I won’t say too much about it, except that the personal story of the Williams character and the main plot about a conspiracy to get a hold of footage he has in his possession ends on an entirely unsatisfactory and completely tacked on note. It’s not a happy ending. And I didn’t need it to be. To be honest, I’d rather it not be a happy ending, especially with subject matter as thoughtful as this. However, I do demand that it emotionally, it do justice to the characters, that it follow the natural rhythm of the story, rather than simply drop the axe down because you know you’re getting to the 90 minute mark.

Oh well. Bed time…