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Day of the Animals: A Retrospective

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You know a movie people love to riff and is unbearable without anyone talking over it? Birdemic. That movie has characters with zero chemistry, no charisma, horrible acting and even worse editing and special effects. The whole point of that movie is to warn people about global warming and the effects it would have on the environment and the inhabitants of this planet. Why am I mentioning such a movie? Well, because in 1977, a movie called Day of the Animals was released in theaters and it also deals with animals and the environment also. The main difference is that this movie was done so much better with a better budget, “good” actors and it also has a plot that actually is easy to decipher without any monologue scientific babble going on that comes out of nowhere and delays the movie from finishing. With that being said, comparing the two movies isn’t fair and should not the best reference to go on. The one question to ask is this movie enjoyable to watch? We’ll be breaking down the movie based on plot, the suspense/animal attacks that are frequent throughout the movie and the overall message of the movie. Let’s roll up our sleeves and put on plenty of sunblock as we take a dive into the mountains and explore Day of the Animals.

We open the movie with a text scroll. It warns us about aerosol canisters and its harm on the ozone layer and what it can do to the environment. It sets the mood for the movie. The movie is about a bunch of weekend hikers who go into the woods with a guide to get away from the city life and get back in touch with nature. We have a bunch of characters including a professor, former football player, two young lovers, a couple going through a rough patch, an ad executive, mother and her son, an anchorwoman, a Native American and the tour guide. So, it’s a great turn out. They take helicopters and go into the woods where they start to hike but notice that it is very quiet out there. They don’t hear any animals except for a lone screech/caw of a hawk. As they get further and further into the woods, they notice the animals stalking them. The birds are gathered together on the branches and just stare at them. It only becomes a problem when a woman (the one in the rough patch) gets attacked by a lone wolf. After the wolf retreats, the rough patch couple split from the group to get help while the rest of the tour continue. This is when the audience will start to know this is the beginning of the end for many of these characters. We just don’t know yet who will die and who will survive. The plot has a nice beat of the drum with the movie. It doesn’t really try to hurry up the action and the animal attack scenes but rather have the tension of the people grow and start to splinter as they start to lose hope that they will make it out alive. Though the pacing in the beginning could be a little contrived and not too interesting, it does make up for it with exposition of different characters just so we know a little bit more about them and give some sort of humanity to them so they don’t feel like a cardboard cutout of stock characters. I do enjoy each character has some sort of personality and even if it is annoying or racist, they still have their defining characteristic as well as a defining moment in the movie whether its a fight scene, a death scene or just for surviving.

From the beginning of the movie, we get lots of different scenes with animals and reptiles in their habitat doing their thing. It it shot very nice with just a nice hint of that 1970’s grainy film that we often associate with this time period. It would be nice having Morgan Freeman narrating the nature shots for how frequent they were using them but I digress. The animal attack scenes are done very well. The protagonists have their uneasiness in the wild and the animals are constantly stalking them throughout with a lone hawk seemingly being the boss/lookout. It’s when the music builds to that uneasy sound or the dead silence is when the animals will attack. Though they don’t get graphic with the blood and the final cue de grace, the shots being implemented show the animals attacking with some angles of the animals mouths, humans screaming and the rest of the characters reacting to the attack. It creates the uncomfortable image of an animal attacking and what it will look like if you were on the other end. In the pack attack sequences, there is so much going on and all you see are swarms of the animals and a lonely body on the ground squirming and the fighting. I enjoy the scenes with the animals because it offers us variety. We get a chance with swarm of hawks, mountain lions, wolves, rats, rattlesnakes, and even German shepherds’. I think the suspense of the animals and what they can actually do to a human offers us a glimpse of what to do and not to do when confronted by animals in the woods or even on your own street.

With the action sequences and the animals going crazy and attacking people, what is the message the director is trying to tell us? Is this supposed to have a profound impact on the consumers daily life or is the movie a cash grab to incite the same kind of uneasiness and fear like The Birds did with Hitchcock? I think with the text scroll, it has a little bit of both. The director, lead actor and producer of the movie did Grizzly the year before to much success. That movie was compared to a knockoff of Jaws. This movie is I guess the knockoff of The Birds. I don’t really think the director was trying to give a profound message about the environment but rather used the ozone depletion as a way to give a reason to why the animals are attacking the people.

Though the director might not have given us his reason, it does offer questions about the ozone layer in general. With all the devastation happening currently right now in America with the hurricanes and a giant earthquake hitting Mexico, how has ozone depletion really affect the planet? I’m not going to go Al Gore on anyone talking about the polar ice caps melting and sea levels rising and the temperature on the planet continually rising (Oh snap, I did say that. Oops). Either or, the radiation that protects us is in the ozone layer and with it constantly decreasing, would radiation poison be a factor in animals natural behavior? Could this be a precursor for things to come? Will we expose enough animals to radiation that they can mutate and there could be an actual Planet of the Apes where humans becomes the endangered species? Maybe? I doubt it. Or, do I?…

Overall, this movie was fun. It tells a concise story and the action and suspense keeps me interested in who will come out on top and who will become the next victim. Some of the acting is a little hokey and it can have extra exposition at the times we don’t really want it, but, it does give the characters a background and some personality instead of stock characters who we don’t know much about and are just scene fillers. The animals are trained very well in the movie and it is nice to have a variety instead of just bears and wolves. If you want to see a movie that is about animals attacking humans caused by poor environment, watch this and avoid Birdemic.

“Day of the Animals” is available on Amazon Prime.

Written by Leon Rudzin

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Dune Part Two: The Lisan Al Gaib comes for you!

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Welcome back to our struggle for control of the known universe already in progress, the continuation of the journey of Paul Atreides from exile to Emperor, Dune Part Two

So when we last left our intrepid if dubious heroes, House Atreides had been betrayed and virtually destroyed, by a combination of House Harkonnens surprise attacks and the added treachery of Emperor Shaddam and his Sardaukar. Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), the last surviving heir (so far) of House Atreides and his mother Jessica, have taken refuge on the desert planet of Arrakis amongst the indigenous Fremen, and as far as most are aware, the other remnants of House Atreides are dead as well. And here is where we catch up with everyone, as the struggle for Atreides emergence and dominance begins in earnest! 

The Emperor’s daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) is known for her many skills, but her copious note-taking and writings on the large events shaping her world come to the forefront as she takes counsel with her father amidst games of chance on their homeworld. Her life is one of luxury and privilege but alas, Irulan is a trained Bene Gesserit and is well aware that in all likelihood, she will be used as a pawn in the marriage games empires have to go through. Bet she never imagined it could be to a House everyone swore had been utterly destroyed. 

Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Paul is trying to integrate himself into the Fremen way of life, which is admittedly far different from the life he led back on the Atreides homeworld of Caladan. (If nothing else, Caladan has vast oceans.) The Fremen are fiercely independent, gloriously strong fighters, survivors who dare to ride and revere the giant sandworms that inhabit their planet that they call Shai-Hulud, and rightfully distrustful of outsiders. After all, the previous stewardship of Arrakis belonged to House Harkonnen, known for their cruelty and glee at hunting Fremen and torturing their victims, sometimes for weeks at a time. But Paul won his and Jessicas way into the Fremen by fair combat against Jamis, and if nothing else, the Fremen are firm in their beliefs of the old ways. 

Or rather, the elder Fremen are, most particularly the famed Fedaykin fighter and Naib (leader) of Sietch Tabr Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is adamant in his unshakable belief that Paul is the foretold Lisan Al Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World, that will lead the Fremen to peace and paradise. Stilgar’s steadfast belief in Paul’s potential only grows, and he manages with just that to convince a great many of the other Fremen elders. The younger generation of Fremen however, of which Paul’s beloved Chani (Zendaya) is a part, generally scoff at the legends of otherworldly prophets and Arrakis as a fabled green, wet heaven. In the beginning, Paul himself swears he doesn’t want to be the Messiah, only a Fremen fighter amongst the rest of them, hundreds of years of the Missionaria Protectiva, the Bene Gesserit practice of spreading useful religious propaganda as seeds on various planets, is working double-time against him. It doesn’t help that Paul’s mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is expounding on that myth as much as she possibly can. 

And why would she do that? Survival yes, but also, Jessica is a thoroughly trained Bene Gesserit and knows of plans within plans within plans. Jessica also has many secrets of her own, and one very important one happens to be that she’s pregnant with Paul’s sister. The Bene Gesserit bodily control may be something out of legend, but even Jessica, possibly Reverend Mother Mohiam’s best and most fractious student, will have trouble with the trial the Fremen are insisting she go through to become truly one of them. The Reverend Mother equivalent of Sietch Tabr, known as their Sayyadina, is old and dying, and the Fremen have to have a Reverend Mother. Jessica tells Paul this much and explains that each culture is different in their trial to become a Reverend Mother, so she honestly doesn’t know what to expect. The reality happens to be worse than she could’ve imagined – Jessica must drink the Water of Life, a deadly poison that comes from Shai-Hulud (sort of), and come out the other side of it. And Jessica manages to do it, barely, with almost all of the consequences going to the poor fetus in her womb, the girl that will grow to become Alia Atreides, an insane legend in her own right. But for now, the unnamed fetus is awake and aware and full of the memories of generations of Bene Gesserit women that came before her – before she was even born

Paul participates in razzia raids amongst the Fremen as they work to take out the spice mining operations of the Harkonnens, immerses himself in the vastly different desert culture of his chosen people, and perhaps most importantly, his romance with his beloved Chani only grows stronger. After declaring his desire to join the fierce fighter elites amongst the Fremen known as Fedaykin, Paul is told by Stilgar that he must summon and ride one of the giant sandworms, the embodiment of Shai-Hulud where the Fremen get their terrible tooth Crysknives from. And after much sendup, in a glorious scene of blinding sand and huge monstrous killer worm-riding, Paul is triumphant and riding atop the sacred creature, his Maker hooks set properly to control the great beast, waving at great distance to his fellow Fremen as Chani looks on in bemusement. 

But that’s all external, and inside Paul is beginning to become divided on what he wants to do. As Jessica pushes the Protectiva hard amongst the women and priestesses of the Fremen, she is also pushing her son to become much larger than he ever wanted to be, if nothing else a conqueror can take revenge for the destruction of House Atreides and the death of her beloved Duke Leto. Paul may have earned his place amongst the Fremen and been given new names – Usul, meaning the strength of the base of the pillar, as his private name within the Sietch; and Muad’Dib, from the small mouse survivor of the desert, well versed in desert ways, called ‘Instructor-of-Boys’ in Fremen legend, as his open-use name – but now everyone wants Paul to be something greater, and potentially more destructive, than what he currently is. It only gets worse when Paul begins to suffer prophetic dreams, and visions when he’s awake, prodding him further to his destiny as an epic conqueror of worlds. Nothing can be done for it, Paul convinces himself that he must take the Water of Life himself, to awaken the sleeping prophet inside himself, and allow him to hopefully See a path through the future. 

The problem with that plan, is that Bene Gesserit are almost exclusively all women, and only they are supposed to know how to transmute poisons internally, along with all sorts of other “witchcraft”. But Jessica has been training Paul in forbidden Bene Gesserit ways all his life, and as much as Paul might rail and even quail against it, there is no denying his incoming destiny, crushing any resistance he may have with all the force of a giant sandworm hunting a spice blow. And even when Paul has finally given in and taken the cursed substance almost mockingly called the Water of Life, it falls to another strong and prophetic in her right female in his life, his beloved Chani, to save him from himself. But even Chani can’t stop Paul’s destructive destiny as the conqueror of the known worlds, guilty of slaying millions upon millions of people in his quest for vengeance, thinly disguised as peace. 

Over on the Harkonnen homeworld of Geidi Prime, “Beast” Rabban (Dave Bautista) is disgusted and enraged at the continuing Fremen raids against the Harkonnens on Arrakis, and terrified of what his uncle the notoriously cruel Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), will do to him in response. The Baron’s nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), heir apparent or na-Baron to House Harkonnen, demonstrates his blood-inborn savagery in a slaughter of the remnants of House Atreides gladiator-style, as his birthday celebration. Pleased with the spectacle, the Baron commands Feyd-Rautha to take control of the fight against this Fremen rebel known as Muad’dib, as Rabban is proving himself more and more useless. And any tool or toy that the Baron finds broken or unusable, is destroyed before being discarded. 

As the legend of Muad’dib grows off Arrakis and circulates among the Imperial worlds, the Emperor grinds his teeth in frustration and the Bene Gesserit, led by Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) as the Emperor’s Truthsayer, begin pushing forward their plots and machinations. Lady Margot Fenring (Lea Seydoux), a criminally underused character in this respect, demonstrates her willingness to be a pawn in Bene Gesserit machinations, but never forget, strong Bene Gesserit women have been breaking their own rules for generations. Just look at what Jessica did. 

As the raids and rebellion on Arrakis continue, both the Emperor and the Baron become more and more desperate, sending in mercenaries and smugglers in the hopes they might have more luck. And aboard one of those smuggler’s vessels happens to be an old hand at being a smuggler himself, the warrior troubadour with the scarred face given him by “Beast” Rabban himself, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin). Reunited with his beloved Duke’s only son, Gurney finds himself swept up in the legend of Muad’dib in the making along with everyone else, though at least from Gurney’s point of view, Paul is using the messianic angle to take revenge for House Atreides. 

Finally, in an act of what could be considered the ultimate in arrogance, Emperor Shaddam Corrino himself comes to Arrakis, along with Princess Irulan and many others of his Court, the Baron, and Feyd-Rautha in tow as well, to crush this upstart Muad’dib and his Fremen warriors. Sadly for all that the powerhouse actor Christopher Walken plays him, Emperor Shaddam Corrino is shown as a doddering old man, cowed in the face of Muad’dib’s overwhelming vitality and growing-ever-stronger legend. And there is where we will end the review, for the final confrontation between all key players in the Known Universe is full of spoilers and derivations from the original opus of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune

For those of you who stuck around long enough to get to the end, after all, Dune Part Two is almost three hours long itself, if you are fans of the original novel and the zany Lynchian masterpiece that was the first Dune film, you may be disappointed or even angered at the changes made to the story for the climactic end scenes. Director Villenuve has an eye for making grand epic scenes like Paul’s sandworm ride but can be a bit scattered when it comes to piecing the story together with all the key players needing to be involved in a way that can be understood by any layman. Dune in any form is a rich, vast universe of storytelling, and even an almost three-hour-long sequel simply can’t cover every last bit that’s in the novels. But if nothing else, the film is an overwhelming feast for the eyes and should bring a whole new legion of fans to the many worlds contained within Dune

If you want to dive further into the Dune-iverse, do yourself a favor and read the Dune prequel books written by Herbert Jr. and Kevin J. Anderson. Until then, dive into the sands of Arrakis along with Shai-Hulud and scream vengeance to the skies with Paul Muad’dib Atreides in Dune Part Two, in theaters now! 

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The 8 Episode Series Tries To Encompass A Lot Leaving Fans In A Cliffhanger.

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The 2010 “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movie by M. Night Shyamalan faced criticism for its deviations from the beloved animated series. The film struggled with pacing, casting, and a lackluster script, disappointing fans who cherished the source material. In contrast, the 2024 Netflix series has generated positive buzz for its commitment to diverse casting, adherence to the original storyline, and improved character development. The series seems poised to capture the essence of the animated show, offering a fresh and faithful adaptation that resonates with both new and existing fans.

Even though the Netflix series comes closer to the core ideals of the animated series, I feel it lacks heart. Many scenes barely scratch the surface of the relationships between the characters and the push-and-pull relationship between Aang and Zuko. I will admit the CG versions of Momo and Appa are just so gosh darn cute.

The 8 episode series tries to encompass a lot leaving fans in a cliffhanger. It’s worth a watch and I am hanging on for the next season to be announced.

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