Examining the FlashFoward Pilot

Is it worth watching another show every week?

BY COLIN ENQUIST

With all the hype built around FlashForward, how could I not watch the series premiere? 12.46 million viewers must have though the same thing! Plus the series is produced and co-created by David S. Goyer (The Unborn), who I adore. Goyer even wrote and directed the pilot episode. The series premiere of FlashForward fell on September 24th, 2009 (more on this date a little later!).

If you have been living in a media free world for the past couple of months or just ignored the constant push by ABC then I will quickly lay out the premise for you.

A mysterious global event causes everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds. Many people worldwide see what appear to be visions of their lives six months (April 29th, 2010 to be specific) in the future. The event causes great catastrophe across the globe due to people blacking out while driving cars, airplanes or any other form of mechanical machinery that could kill someone if it were being run by a unconcious person behind the controls, while the people who survived are left wondering if what they saw will actually happen.

It seems the main protagonist will be Mark Bedford (Joseph Fiennes), a Los Angeles FBI Agent now tasked with leading the team to solve the mystery about the global event causing every person to black out. I am not going to even mention the rest of the large ensemble cast that has been put together because we have yet to even see many of the actors/actresses actually in the show.

Despite the show being billed as the next Lost, I never really expected the pilot to be so similar. The first 15 minutes are almost the same as the pilot to Lost. It opens with Mark Bedford, waking up, confused. Quickly we flash back to hours before, giving us a brief explanation of what Bedford has just gone through. Once we catch up to where we started, Bedford is helping innocents that have been injured. After a few more similarities the show takes off in its own direction. The creators of the show like Lost and if you were paying attention you would have noticed the Oceanic billboard (picture to your left!) in the background of one scene. I had to go back later to read what the sign actually said, “Perfect Safety Record”. The characters from Lost probably got a kick out of that!

I was not attached emotionally yet to any of the characters introduced during the first 35 minutes of the show and it felt like the show was just planning on laying out the global event without working any emotion into the show until further episodes. Of course that ending with Bedford and his daughter Charlie (Lennon Wynn) sitting on the swings tossed what I thought was going to be the weakness of the pilot out of the window. When Charlie handed her father a friendship bracelet, it hit me pretty hard. That one scene asks the big question about the visions themselves. Are they a self-fulfilling prophecy?

From wikipedia.com

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and ancient India, it is 20th-century sociologist Robert K. Merton who is credited with coining the expression "self-fulfilling prophecy" and formalizing its structure and consequences. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, Merton gives as a feature of the self-fulfilling prophecy: Ie: when Roxanna falsely believes that her marriage will fail and fears such failure will occur that it actually causes the marriage to fail.

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come 'true'. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.

In other words, a prophecy declared as truth when it is actually false may sufficiently influence people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy.

This could be one of the main themes surrounding the series, fate vs. free will. Can you change your future? This reminded me of a fable one of my teachers used to tell in class. The old fable deals with a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A man goes out to the marketplace in Mecca and encounters Death, who clearly recognizes him and gives him a meaningful look. The guy is sure that Death is soon going to come claim him, so he gets the fastest camels he can find and makes an all-day and all-night journey to Samarra. After his arrival, Death encounters him on the street and claims his life. "But," the man says, "I saw you in Mecca yesterday and was sure you would claim me there." "Yes, I was very puzzled by that meeting," says Death, "because Fate had decreed that I take you today in Samarra and I didn't see how that would be possible with you in Mecca yesterday."

Like any good show many questions were asked in this first episode to get you to stick around for the answer. While I do not expect any of these to be revelations we find out about anytime soon, some of the questions were very interesting.Fellow FBI Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho) doesn’t have a vision; he seems to think it is because he will be dead in 6 months. I do not buy that, it was proved at the end that someone did not black out, maybe he was conscious? It would explain how he got so far away from the car before Bedford found him. The biggest question would be the cliff-hanger ending. Who is the man at Comerica Park and why did he stay conscious?

I will stick around for a couple more episodes at least but I would like to feel more emotionally involved with the characters. The premise of the show is captivating; it won’t keep me around just based on that though. Premiering on 9/24, the show seems to be considered in real time as the event prophesizes something to do with 4/29 in 2010. Does this mean the season finale is that day? I am intrigued by the prospect of a show basing events on a current timeline. Also 9/24 flipped is 4/29, am I looking into this a little much? What did you think about the show?

Ponyo is Magical

Although it is just an eco friendly version of Pinocchio

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Hayao Miyazaki is a legend in Japanese cinema. He has even seen some mild success over in North America with Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. The latest animated adventure from the mind of Miyazaki took Japan by storm in 2008, winning several awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. Studio Ghibli brings Ponyo to the American shore with the help of Walt Disney Pictures, John Lasseter and a stellar voice cast of Cate Blanchett, Noah Cyrus, Matt Damon, Frankie Jonas, Tina Fey and Liam Neeson.

At the heart of the film is Sōsuke, a mature 5 years old, who finds a goldfish in the sea which he dubs Ponyo. It turns out Ponyo is not a normal fish. Quickly Ponyo and Sōsuke form a friendship. Ponyo decides that she wants to become a real girl. The transformation of Ponyo happens early in the film but Ponyo does not understand (and neither do we) the forces she has unleased upon the world. This is truly where the adventure begins.

Miyazaki and his team of artists bring us into a very magical world. The water colour-esque artistry used for the backdrop is absolutely stunning. This is one thing that animted CGI films lack. With the animators putting so much focus on the CGI characters (and these characters usually look fantastic) the backdrops suffer and don’t visually pop with emotion like a hand drawn film does. Obviously some exceptions do come along but for the most part I will take the animation of Ponyo over something done on a computer (I am not saying computer animators do not work hard, just stating my preferance).

Ponyo follows along the usual Miyazaki themes. Like most of his other films, enviromentilsm is the most prominent. The characters are shown gazing at the beauty of the sea that surrounds them. Out of sight, out of mind, they do not realize the pollution under the surface. Only admiring the beauty of what can be seen, ignoring the truth. They must understand it to some extant though, as I have never witnessed a film show so prominently a character repeatedly shutting off the lights after he (or she) leaves a room.

A few things did bother me. One being the love story told about two 5 year olds seemed a little far fetched. It was not the love aspect but rather the depth and understanding Sōsuke and Ponyo seemed to have of love.

The audience is suppose to take everything in this film at face value. Never giving us many reasons of why the sea got angry. Some of these questions could have been cut out of the North American release of the film. Many times imports lose a few scenes due to translation problems and I am hoping that is the case and the DVD version will have a subtitled version of the film along with the English dubbing.

Miyazaki’s newest film may not be his best and is probably his weakest endevour that I have seen but it is a very artistic tale about innocence and love. You may want to wait for a subtitled version (I am under the assumption that it would be better because they normally are) even though the new voice cast does extremely well. I would not tell you to skip this film, I actually recommend seeing it, but there is no need to rush out and see it like I did.

3 out of 5

WTF Book of the Month: Beat the Reaper

Apparently that oath to do no harm is more like a suggestion!

BY LAURA GIES

I'm a vampire junkie. I can admit it. I think I first got hooked on Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire series, and I've worked my way through both Buffy and Angel. I've read Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, and a whole slew of minor unknown's. I suppose I'm more of a supernatural junkie, I love anything with werewolves, faeries, if it's not human, I'll give it a go. However, I also love reading, and I'm depleting the good supernatural authors (and several of the bad ones) faster than they can be printed, and my book shelf is all of a certain theme, so I've been attempting to broaden my horizons.

To this end, anytime anyone recommends a book, or I overhear a conversation about a book, or I see a book mentioned on a show or movie that is outside of my normal reading bubble, I request it from the library. I've had up to the maximum number of requests on more than one occasion (I think it's 27), and my record for books taken out from the library at one time is 15. That's this week. My librarian knows me by name and is getting back strain from all the books I'm making her carry, but she's a good sport. As you can imagine, this technique has lead me to read a much wider variety of books, and some of them are either so awesome or so awful as to blow my mind. Which brings me to the topic of my post, the "WTF Book of the Month." This will be my regular feature (I hope!) and trust me, there are plenty to choose from. I promise this will be the last post with a giant introduction!

This month's selection is Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell.

Best WTF moment of the book: AN unarmed, naked Peter Brown (aka: Pietro "Bearclaw" Brwna), cuts open his own leg and removes his fibula to use as a knife against his attackers. From the mouth of the narrator, "so I shove my fingers through the membrane that runs between the fibula and the tibia, and grab hold oft he bone...And now I need to break it. Ideally without wrecking my ankle or knee (393, Large Print Ed., Little, Brown & Co., New York, NY., 2009)."

Pietro Brwna was living a relatively normal life with his grandparents in West Orange until he came home one day to find his grandparents murdered when he was 14. Pietro became obsessed with finding their killers, and learns that they were murdered so a couple of guys could "get made" in the mob. He befriends "Skinflick" Locano, the son of a made mob lawyer, and through his connections becomes a mob assassin, and kills the two men responsible. He only kills really bad guys, though.

Of course, all of that is back story. In the here and now, Pietro has entered the Witness Protection Program and is now Peter Brown (because the Program is very creative), an intern in the worst hospital ever. In this first person narrative, we follow along as Peter fends off a would-be mugger, disposes of a gun in the hospital, goes on his rounds, attempts to treat patients and self medicates, and that's before his day starts going downhill. On his rounds he is recognized by a patient from his old life, and has to do whatever he can to avoid the mob guys that come gunning for him.

Bazell, the author, moves seamlessly back and forth between time frames, as comfortable in Peter's memories of the past as he is in the present day. The reader picks up on Peter's exhaustion as he moves through his night shift, his frustration when the life he's been leading is forced back into his past. Despite the fact that he is a mob hitman, you feel sympathy for Peter and you want him to succeed, rooting for him the whole way.

Beat the Reaper is not my usual reading fare, but this fast-paced breakout novel for Josh Bazell has me chomping hoping he isn't a one-trick pony.

4 out of 5

Is FlashForward the Next Lost?

That is what ABC is counting on

BY COLIN ENQUIST

With ABC ending the cult phenomenon Lost in its 6th season this upcoming year, they will need to fill the void left from Lost's enormous ratings every week. ABC is hoping that FlashForward does just that. The show is based off of the Canadian science fiction writer’s 1999 Prix-Aurora Award winning novel of the same name written by Robert J. Sawyer. Starting on September 24th in the Thursday evening time slot, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 p.m. Central.

The cast is large and quite good, Joseph Fiennes (The Escapists), John Cho (Star Trek), Jack Davenport (Swingtown), Zachary Knighton (The Hitcher), Peyton List (Big Shots), Brían F. O'Byrne (Doubt), Gabrielle Union (Deliver Us From Eva), Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) , Christine Woods and Adam Tsekhman, round out the stellar ensemble cast. Sonya Walger and Dominic Monaghan seemed to have been poached directly from Lost to bring some familiarity with the cast to new viewers, I am sure ABC is hoping that these familiar faces bring in a good chunk of the Lost crowd. The pilot was written by David S. Goyer (The Unborn) (who also directed) and Brannon Braga (24).

A mysterious global event causes everyone to simultaneously experience, for two minutes and seventeen seconds, his or her life six months in the future. When it is over, many are dead in accidents involving vehicles, aircraft, and any other device needing human control. Everyone who survived is left wondering if what they saw will actually happen. A Los Angeles FBI agent named Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) tries to figure out what exactly happened and why it happened. Along with his team, he creates a database of people's flash forwards from around the world called the Mosaic Collective (for which a website has been launched).

Looks and sounds interesting. It really feels like it could fill the empty space that will be in my TV schedule when Lost finally departs. Unlike Lost though, I will be watching this show from the start, not having to cram 5 seasons in one summer will be a big relief! Tune in on September 24th, 2009 and watch FlashForward, maybe you will be watching the next hit TV series. Maybe not though, only time will tell.

Paranormal Activity the Scariest Movie Ever?

No idea, but it sure looks like it could be!

BY COLIN ENQUIST

The Exorcist, Alien, It, The Shining, Psycho may hold that title on some lists floating around the internet but it sounds like a new film could perch itself on top of a few of those lists. That film is Paranormal Activity. Yes I could be saying a bit much since the film has not officially been released and I am basing this solely off of what I have read, heard and witnessed in the trailer (which is below) because I have yet to see it as well.

Director Oren Peli wrote and directed this low-budget horror film. It is his debut film, made on a shoestring budget of $11, 000. Paramount Pictures is getting creative for the release of the film, screening it Sept. 24th for free in select cities at midnight while the film debuts at Austin’s Fantastic Fest when the clock strikes twelve. The studio has also created a Demand It widget where if the film is not playing in your city, you can “demand” that it does. The film is drawing comparisons to the Blair Witch Project from those who have seen it.

Check out the trailer for this supernatural thriller. You might want to leave the lights on! Tell me what you thought of the trailer.

Below is the lucky cities that are getting the free midnight screenings. If the film is not playing in your town, DEMAND IT HERE!

Austin (Alamo Draft House)
Seattle (Neptune)
Ann Arbor, Michigan (State)
Durham, North Carolina (Southpoint 16)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana (RAVE Mall of Louisiana 15)
Boulder, Colorado (Cinemark 16)
Columbus, Ohio (Studio 35)
Orlando, Florida (AMC Universal Cineplex)
Madison, Wisconsin (Marcus Eastgate 16)
Santa Cruz, California (Del Mar 3)
State College, Pennsylvania (Premiere College 9)
Tucson, Arizona (El Con)
Lincoln, Nebraska (Ross Media Center)

Wizards of Waverly Place

The Movie!

By MATTHEW LUECKE

I have a six year old son which means I don’t get out much. When I do watch a movie, it’s not Inglorious Basterds or The Time Traveler’s Wife. It is Cars, Wall*E or The Hannah Montana Movie. Thus, my “summer” movie for this year was the Disney Channel premier of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie.

Why should you care? Well, it was the second most watched Disney movie of all time, behind only High School Musical 2: Musicalier. (This franchise even has an ice show!) Eleven million people tuned in for the premier, including Yours Truly.

The premise of the series: a wizard (“Jerry Russo”) falls in love with a mortal (“Theresa”), has to give up his powers, and raises 3 teenage kids (“Justin,” “Alex,” and “Max”), who are wizards in training. Eventually, the kids will be in some sort of contest to determine which of them will become the family wizard while the other two lose their powers forever. The set-up for the movie is that the family goes on vacation to a Caribbean Island where their parents met, noted for famous magic/wizard stuff.

Let me start by saying, I like this show, and I like this movie. But, there are plot holes a truck could drive through. For instance, Justin’s (David Henrie) best friend “Zeke” is referred to as “Zack” for an entire episode. Sometimes Jerry (David Deluise) is aware of magic related stuff other mortals aren’t and sometimes he isn’t. There are spells and magic objects that do the exact same thing, but only referred to in different episodes. In the movie, Alex (Selena Gomez) and her mother (Maria Canals Barrera) have mother-daughter problems as set-up for the movie; but they’ve never had any of these problems in the show.

Because of these problems, Alex, while holding the family’s magic wand (1st time mentioned) and The Book of Forbidden Spells (1st time mentioned) wishes her parents never met. Reality goes all squiggly and the parents don’t know each other and don’t know the kids. The kids have to figure out a way to reverse Alex’s spell before they disappear (not Back to the Future disappear, but Twister disappear). So, Alex and Justin go on a quest to find the Stone of Dreams, which grants any wizard one wish. Hi-jinks ensue, including being thwarted by a wizard-turned-into-a-parrot and the early commencement of the family wizard contest between Justin and Alex only because Max (Jake T. Austin) has already disappeared.

Why does the movie work? For the same reason the show works so well: David Henrie and Selena Gomez have such amazing chemistry together. They are as good as a combo as I have ever seen act together, and I have watched a lot of TV. The show started getting really good when the powers that be recognized the chemistry. The movie wisely spent a good deal of time focusing on Alex and Justin. The special effects are much better for the movie, especially during the rock levitating scene (they have to cross a large canyon). But the interaction between Alex and Justin and how they resolve their brother/sister issues makes the show and movie worthwhile. Overall, I would score the movie a 7 out of 10. But, the plot holes reduce it to a 5 or 5.5.