From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Mon Jul 29 2002 - 18:02:38 MDT
On Monday, July 29, 2002 12:34 PM Scott Badger w_scott_badger@yahoo.com
wrote:
> Actually, I'm not offering a review.
Okay.
> I just wanted to bring your collective attention to an
> animated feature I rented last night titled, "Waking
> Life". Topics touched upon in this film include,
> existentialism, identity, transhumanism, metamind, and
> much more. Fascinating and stylistic animation, as
> well.
I saw it a few weeks ago... It was reviewed at Kurweil's site
(http://kurzweilai.net/), so it's not exactly unknown in transhumanist
circles.
I hope the next few paragraphs don't spoil the film. I've tried to be
abstract and just focus on the whole film, but those of you who haven't
seen it are warned.
The animation -- basically rotoscoping with some flat out animation --
was good. Even so, at times, I found it annoying. In some scenes, if a
character moved slightly, it seemed like his or her whole body became a
two-dimensional collage. Maybe this was intended, but it wasn't always
effective if it was. (This is a lot different than a film like "Ghost
in the Shell," where the animation tries to be ultrareal -- which is not
to condemn "Waking Life.")
The story seemed to be kind of a rewriter of the director's -- Richard
Linklater -- earlier film "Slacker," though with a twist. A lot of the
philosophy in it -- aside from the overarching theme of the tale -- is
more like window dressing than plot-driving. It's only toward the end
that some of the philosophical views start to link together with the
plot.
Overall, I found it entertaining and a bit interesting, but also long
and longwinded.
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/MyWorksBySubject.html
See my film picks at:
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Film.html
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