Month: December 2021

Chappie

I watched Chappie. It has Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, and Anderson Cooper in it.

Big Warning: there is some violence and one sad part.

In this movie, the police were using robots to keep violence down. A guy named Deon made these robots. His co-worker Vincent was jealous that the police were using Deon’s robots and not his. Deon was also secretly working on an AI that would make the robots more human. His boss told him no when tried to present his findings. So he decided to steal one of the robots and the chip that controls the robots. Then Deon and the damaged robot were kidnapped by gang members. They were wanting him to shut down all the robots. He told him his plan to see if his AI program actually works. They let him and it works. They name the robot Chappie. Chappie learns quickly and does some bad stuff. Vincent decides to use that to his advantage and cause all the robots to shut down so he can show everyone that his pet project is better than the robots. Chappie though kills him and kills the other robot. Chappie then successfully transfers Deon’s consciousness into a robot and then transfers Yo-Landi’s consciousness into a robot too.

I loved the movie. Next week I’m watching I am Mother to finish my AI movies.

Ready Player One (book)

I finished listening to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Yes, there is a movie based on the book and I did watch the movie.

Big Warning: there is some violence and some sad parts.

Note: I had decided to watch and listen to the book because I had read Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook and Meta) had given his employees the book and that the book had inspired him to create Meta. After listening to the book, I can see how it inspired him. OASIS does sound cool with everything stored in the program. I think some people are missing the point that the movie and book are trying to get across about how everyone is living their life inside a virtual world and not in reality. Just like everyone misses the point of the movie Wall-E. Everyone thinks it’s about an annoying robot who finds love. It shows at the end where everyone is stuck to the screens and not living in reality. 

In this book, a guy named James Halliday creates a program named OASIS which is a virtual universe where everything is stored. It is different for everyone school, gaming, or hanging out with friends. Before Halliday dies, he makes a contest where someone would win the keys (Willy Wonda) to the OASIS program and his fortune. In the contest, there are three keys and three gates (the gates weren’t in the movie). A guy named Wade finds the first key in a D&D tunnel (in the movie it’s a race). He meets a girl named Samantha who discovered the tunnel first but couldn’t get past the monster. Wade clears the first gate by being in a movie. Samantha follows after him and a “guy” named H follows after. Wade and H are best friends. Two Japanese guys follow after. The five meet in a virtual chat room, but the two Japanese guys don’t want to join as a group to win the prize.  Then Wade and Samantha date for awhile. But Samantha tells him that they live in a virtual world so he can’t really be in love with her. Then Samantha finds the second key and clears the second gate. The internet group IOI uses cheating to get the second key and clear the second gate. They also kill Daito in the virtual world and the real world (this doesn’t happen in the movie).  They also kill Wade’s aunt. The second key challenge was part of a video game (in the movie it was the movie/book The Shinning).  The second gate is being part of an arcade game. Then IOI gets the three key, but they can’t clear the final gate. Wade finds out about Daito’s death and also figures out where the third key is and has a clue to the last gate. He gets a plan to get into IOI (in the movie Samantha does) and gets information to take down IOI. The third key challenge was to find a guitar (in the movie it is  actually the final gate Castle Anorak). Wade does get the Gunters together to fight IOI. Wade kills Sorrento’s avatar in the huge battle. H, Samantha, and Wade go to the final gate and open the gate, but then suddenly a bomb goes off in the OASIS program. But Wade is still alive in the program because he had an extra life. He ends up doing the last challenge and gets the Easter Egg. He becomes Halliday’s avatar. Sorrento is arrested for murder. Wade finally meets Samantha in person.

I liked this book. I liked the book and the movie equally. I’m listening to next Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline.

Pacific Rim Uprising

I watched Pacific Rim Uprising. I had taped it when it was on HBO. It has John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day, and Rinko Kikuchi in it.

Big Warning: there is some violence.

In this movie, A guy name Jake has a famous dad who saved the world (in the previous movie). He didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. But he is forced to because he gets caught by the police with a young girl. Instead of going to prison, they both have to join the Rim Corp. Then a Jaeger goes rogue so Jake helps find out what is going on. (the villain is obvious. I had guessed who it was the moment Newton had hooked up to that alien brain) In the end, Newton was arrested and the world was saved again. There was a hint like there will be another movie, but I read that there won’t be anymore.

I like the movie. Someone has suggested the movie Chappie so I am watching it next week.

Ex Machina

I watched Ex Machina. I had taped it when it was on Showtime. It has Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno, Claire Selby. and
Gana Bayarsaikhan in it.

Big Warning: there is some violence in it.

In this movie, a man named Caleb “wins” a trip to test out a major project with his boss at a research building in the woods. He has to sign an ADA before knowing the project is. The project was an AI. The test was to see if the AI surpasses human intelligence. The AI’s name is Ava. Caleb does the test over several days. During the test though there are power outages. (It was obvious that Ava was causing the power outages.) Ava tells Caleb that his boss wasn’t being truthful. Caleb decides to get his boss drunk to see himself about the lies his boss was telling. He gets freaked out and he cuts his wrist thinking he was an AI. It was then when his boss tells him he didn’t actually win the trip. He was chosen. The test was actually to see if Ava would escape. The thing was Caleb did recode the system. Ava escapes and leaves Caleb in the research building.

I didn’t like the ending. I don’t like cliffhanger endings and there is not going to be a sequel. But I did like the rest of the movie. Next week I’m watching Pacific Rim Uprising.

The Silver Chair

I finished reading The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis. It is the sixth book of the Narnia book series.

Big Warning: there is a little bit of violence.

In this book, Eustace (the cousin of the four children in the other books) and Jill (a girl who is bullied in school) ask Aslan to bring them to Narnia. They do escape from the school, but they land on a cliff outside of Narnia. Jill accidentally throws Eustace over a cliff and Aslan brings him back to life. He gives Jill and Eustace (mostly Jill) a task to find the prince of Narnia who had been missing for many years. Jill messes up the instructions and they go wild adventures until they make things right. They do find the prince who was enchanted by a witch. The witch had killed the queen (the prince’s mother) and the prince had gone looking for the serpent (the witch) who killed his mother. (I was wondering why this book was called the silver chair.) The silver chair enchanted the prince every night. The enchantment made him believe that he would turn into a serpent and that’s why he was restrained in the chair, but actually, it was so he wouldn’t escape. Eustace and Jill freed the prince. The prince got to see his father one last time before he died. King Caspian got finally to see Aslan’s country like he wanted to in the previous book.

I had looked upon IMDB about if they were making this book into a movie. I saw they were in development, but I don’t know if it will happen.

I loved this book even though it did have a sad ending. I’m taking a small break from Narnia to listen to Ready Player One and Ready Player Two which are both by Ernest Cline.