Victoria-Louise Sweet
Stories (3/0)
American Cinema, Technology and Cyborg Embodiment
Wall-e (Benjamin A. Burtt) is an animation about a robot named Wall-e the last of his kind whose ‘directive’ is to clean the earth because it has become uninhabitable for humans. Wall-e has developed emotion over the years, which is shown by his collection of objects he likes, such as lighters, bulbs and videos of musicals. One day, a spaceship drops off another Robot; Eve (Elissa Knight) who Wall-e quickly falls in love with. Her ‘directive’ is to find life on earth, which she finds after Wall-e shows her his collection, as a plant is part of his collection. Eva holds the plant in a compartment and shuts down. Wall-e looks after her until eventually, she is collected by a spaceship. Wall-e chases it and holds onto the outside of the spaceship. They are taken to the mothership where all the humans have escaped to due to the global warming back on earth. All the humans have become obese and forgotten how to walk as they have been on the ship for 700 years. The plant goes missing as the autopilot has taken control of the ship as classified information is later revealed; the planet Earth is no longer safe. Also, a robot character Auto (MacInTalk) has actually been feeding the humans, human because after 700 years there would be nothing else on the ship to eat and there were no farms visible throughout the film. Nevertheless, the captain (Jeff Garlin) realises that Auto has been controlling the ship since the beginning and regains control. He returns everyone back to earth because he realises that life is sustainable again because the plant has survived. Wall-e and Eve find the plant and take it to the Holo-Detector chamber while the pilot fights off and switches off auto. They return to earth, start farming and rebuilding a society on their home planet.
By Victoria-Louise Sweet7 years ago in Geeks
American Cinema, Technology and Cyborg Embodiment
Iron Man 2 is about Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) a businessman who in the previous film made a device that kept him alive when he was kidnapped. Furthermore, he made a metal superhero suit to help him escape, whenever Tony wears the suit people call him Iron Man. In this film, he refuses to sell it to the military and tries to reassure them that there is no threat from other countries because of this technology. However, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) makes another version of the suit with the same kind of technology and battles with Tony. Ivan is defeated and sent to prison where he breaks free. The military finds him and pays him to make the suits. Nevertheless, at the presentation of the suits, Ivan makes one suit but double crosses the military and turns the other suites into drones to battle with Tony. Luckily, Iron Man and his friend Lt. Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes (Don Cheadle) defeat him and the drones he created. Throughout the film, it is also emphasised that the device that is keeping Tony alive is not sustainable as a result of increased blood toxicity. He does not tell his love interest Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) about his imminent death so she does not worry. However, a couple of Avengers find out and Tony creates a new more sustainable device to keep him alive.
By Victoria-Louise Sweet7 years ago in Geeks
Should We Let Technology Take Over?
Digital technology has always fascinated me, especially the speed with which it has changed and improved, in my lifetime. "Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry" (Anon, Online). I loved the convenience of it as a child and the aesthetics as a teen as … "the skin of devices such as toasters and vacuums became smooth and shiny" (Gray, 1995 p. 398). I remember playing paint and educational CD-ROMs on the family desktop computer seeing the transition of portable technology from floppy disc to memory sticks. My mum has always told me that she had to pay £1000 to have a mobile phone for a month when she was pregnant with me. With improvement and demand, I pay £20 a month for not only calls and texts but also unlimited internet access. However, in the recent years, I have been worried that technology is too accessible and is taking over our lives. For example, my great cousin got an iPad for Christmas and she is 4. "A significant number of young people are spending an increasing proportion of their waking hours playing computer-based games…" (Gray, 1995, p 403). Not many people have just one family computer or television anymore. Therefore, in this article, by researching and comparing films I would like to consider whether or not this is a problem. As when the first film L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station) was projected the audience literally ran out of their seats because they were scared that the train on screen would kill them.
By Victoria-Louise Sweet7 years ago in Geeks