Mental illness is more of a priority than it used to be. More and more college students are realizing how much school takes a toll on their mental health. It is stressful thinking about all of the debt people are accumulating. Annually we are reminded how much our tuition is being increased and how much text books will cost each semester. Whether u borrow student loans, or pay out of pocket, how much money we are spending is a stressor. This takes a toll on mental health.
Mental Health of College Students Is Getting Worse by Jessica Colarossi April 21 2022 The Brink
As a college student one of the most important days of our college career is Graduation day. It is the day that we dream of from the first day you start college. The many exams, papers, homework assignments and hours of reading has finally over. The degree has been earned and a deep breath can be taken. So the question is Now what?
Some people have everything planned out and there is no question on what they are going to do. There are many of us who do not know what their next step and it is ok not to know what is next. For those that don’t know this article gives very good options on what is next. These options the article suggest to do can help in leading recent graduates down a path to the career they want and starting their life after college. It also mentions volunteering and going to another country. A few of the options I had not even thought of.
Overall I think this article will give you something to think about. The article gives options for every graduate and where they are in their life. Whatever you choose to do after college, make sure you take the time out to appreciate the great accomplishment of Graduating. College is not easy but it is worth it and it is the beginning of the rest of your life.
The review produced by Screenrant tries hard to give “The Mummy” movie a bone but ends up killing it even faster. The honest truth of the matter, “The Mummy” tries to be something it’s not and doesn’t even do that well. Giving the audience five reasons why the movie was bad and why it was good.
A Disappointingly Small Scale:
Oddly enough for a movie called The Mummy, the story spends very little time in Egypt, or anywhere comparable, and, instead, sets the majority of its action sequences somewhere around Surrey, England. Which doesn’t really spell rip-roaring adventure to most people.
Even when the movie reaches the streets of London for its third act, the sets and locations feel quite limited, and the color palette is remarkably grey and monotonous.
Response: The movie shouldn’t have been set in England in the first place. At least with the last Mummy movie with Branden Frasier, it was based in China with a Chinese mummy. It makes total sense and at no point are you confused. Was the Dragon Emperor a good film like its predecessors? Sort of, but not quite.However, The Dragon Emperor has many redeeming qualities that make it a worthwhile watch.
Isn’t: Tom Cruise Has Still Got It
There are few movie actors left in the business who have the star power of Tom Cruise and, at age 54, he still brought some much-needed charm to The Mummy.
Not only could Cruise sell moments of tension and action, but his all-around enthusiasm for the process energizes the wearier aspects of the movie in a way that few actors possibly could have.
Response: I’ll be honest, I don’t really know much about Tom Cruise, and that’s OK. Although I did like him in “Interview with a Vampire”. He was very mysterious in his villainy. Although in this movie, he’s just not the guy for the role or anybody for that matter.
Generic Screenwriting
Despite some very talented screenwriters working on the project, The Mummy fails to stand out from the blockbuster crowd and this is mostly its own fault.
The popular MacGuffin of a magic rock is introduced almost immediately in the movie and a predictable course of events feels secondary to the movie’s desire to flesh out a fictional universe that audiences will never actually get to see.
Response: The plot was flat; you don’t need to beat around the bush. This director completely misses the essence and fun of the other films. Branden Frasier, along with the rest of its cast, added too much flavor to the franchise just for it to taste bland.
Stunts
Tom Cruise’s dedication to stuntwork on his own movies is well documented and The Mummy is no different. Having the lead actor actually get inside as many of the action shots as they can brings a lot to a movie and it helps this one feel like more of a romp.
Though a lack of originality holds it back, The Mummy is a movie that’s always trying to be entertaining in an almost slapstick kind of way and the physicality of the action adds a lot of personality to the comedy.
Response: “The Mummy” Franchise is not Mission Impossible, a James Bond movie, a spy movie, Jason Born, or Taken. It’s literally a fantasy adventure, and that’s all it ever was.
Tasteless Updates to the Story
For a movie presenting so many distinct time periods and cultural icons, you’d think The Mummy would present at least one of them in a satisfying way.
Aside from sidelining Egypt, and needlessly adding medieval English history to the mix, the movie makes the particularly tasteless choice to set its opening action sequence in modern-day Iraq with a force that is, while stereotypically faceless and nameless, essentially ISIS.
Response: Making more vibrant environments would have helped the film.
A Combined Monster Universe Isn’t a Bad Idea
While The Mummy oftenfails to frame it in an appealing way, the central idea of the movie isn’t a bad one. Universal alone had been doing monster team-ups and crossovers for just shy of three-quarters of a century before the movie came out.
The movie’s idea to unify everything through what would almost certainly be its Nick Fury figure, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and a S.H.I.E.L.D.-like organization with its own potential to spin-off and become evil, there are some entertaining promises made. Even if they’re only just that.
Response: Creating a creature feature universe from other monster franchises wasn’t a terrible concept. What was a terrible concept was using “The Mummy” as its basis to debut. The titles below are all the movies that would have been in theaters if Warner Bros. hadn’t ditched the project. I think Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde could have been a smash hit!
The Dark Universe Begins – and Ends. Universal Pictures. …
Van Helsing. Universal Pictures. …
Johnny Depp’s Invisible Man. Universal Pictures. …
Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback. Universal Pictures. …
Dwayne Johnson’s The Wolfman. …
Creature from the Black Lagoon. …
The Bride of Frankenstein.
It Borrows Very Heavily from Much Better Things
Arguing over how original the story really is is something that you could do with every version of The Mummy, from the original in 1932 to everything that it’s inspired since. But the 2017 version chooses much more poorly with extra cultural references and they often end up contradicting the tone of the movie.
The Mummy wants to be a horror movie in an atmospheric kind of way rather than by showing anything overtly horrific or grotesque but it also wants to be an Indiana Jonesmovie, which, of course, balanced its joyful qualities with more graphic imagery. It’s overwhelming visual similarities to the Uncharted series of video games (which were, themselves, already heavily inspired by The Mummy movies) also feels like an aesthetically-confused choice.
Response: Sure….I suppose
It Brings Horror To a Non-Horror Audience
Not everyone watches movies in the same way and people don’t always have the same access to movies. The Mummy goes for as wide an audience as it can because it wants to reach the most amount of people and make the most amount of money, yes, but it actually succeeds in bringing classical horror aspects to audiences who ordinarily wouldn’t get to see them.
Aside from Cruise’s name bringing his own kind of audience, The Mummy was a financial hit in China, a country famous for its stringent censorship laws surrounding, amongst several other things, the horror genre and the supernatural.
Response: If you want horror elements but not a horror movie, go watch Pan’s Labrinth.
It Puts the Cart Before the Horse
So much of what makes people remember the 2017 version of The Mummy as a bad movie is that it set itself such an unnecessarily high bar for success.
Audiences were definitely holding it up to, at least, the first two Stephen Sommers Mummy movies but the gigantic budget and shared universe were both its own choice yet both feel wasted. They transform it into something that audiences actively root against rather than for.
Response: Were they trying to give this movie a chance? The response says it all regarding the film successs.
A Pervading Sense of Humor
Stories of production troubles on The Mummy are easy to believe but, no matter how things really went down, what the cast and crew were able to pull out of the movie is a light tone and some comedic chemistry from its actors.
Cruise is a big star with a knack for making sure his movies are driven by him but not all about him. He creates entertaining dynamics with a wide variety of talented actors that he’s paired with and allows what’s best about them to really shine in the movie, even if it isn’t for every long.
Response: Tom Cruise added nothing to this movie, nor did the humor.
Conclusion
After tentatively rewatching the (2017) “The Mummy” I realized the movie is empty. The characters have no volume, the anti-protagonist is wildly underutilized, comedic conversations are out of place, and the tone of the movie is too dark (the color of the film). The movie is not fun, and it comes off more as a chore for the audience to get through. Ultimately, I was surprised at a few points throughout the movie and bored at the same time.
There’s a difference. I remember learning about equality early in Kindergarten. However, it wasn’t until high school that I truly understood what equality was. It was only an elementary level of understanding of what equality was, but I began to resonate with the word. Equity, on the other hand, I didn’t know what it was until my mid 20’s. I didn’t understand it until recently. People often think to misunderstand equality and equity because they don’t know what equity means and what equality truly represents.
What is equality? Cambridge dictionary defines equality as “the right of different groups of people to have a similar social position and receive the same treatment.”
What is equity? Equity is defined as “the situation in which everyone is treated fairly according to their needs and no group of people is given special treatment.
Now that we have the definitions of them, what’s the difference and why is it such a big deal? Well, it’s important for understanding today’s drive for social change and social justice. They are not one of the same. We can see it in our social media platforms of people discussing social change: addressing feminism, women’s rights, which parent is better, gender roles, etc. Men and women bashing each other. There are people that downplay people’s efforts to create a more equal system for men and women. They use traditional gender roles to demean, belittle, and gaslight when a negative story about equality or feminism is trending. Yet, so many of them miss the point that just as much as we want equality, we want equity. We want to be treated fairly and justly. Don’t we all?
A really amazing illustration that helped me visualize the difference between equality and equity is this.
A popular term that we have been hearing more and more in the last decade is to be an ally. An ally is a person who recognizes that though they are not a member of a marginalized group(s) they support, they make a concerted effort to better understand the struggle of another’s circumstances.
Advice: It’s impossible to be an ally to everyone, but you can try.
John meada 2019. addressing inbalance
That’s right. We cannot make everyone happy, but that doesn’t mean we cannot try. So let’s try!
Wow! How amazing it is to indulge myself in a world filled with communication, accessible content, and more importantly connection to the world. We see in countless ads and commercials about the importance of what we call “tools” that are said to be “successful” in our lives but is that the case? As the progression of technology continues to rise and climb to the top tier in business, we find ourselves to be more productive towards receiving knowledge and the importance of how the developments would affect us. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook developed the app for easier access to open on the mobile device instead of constantly logging into the computer, but his best creation made to bring the world together and connect was his famous app called Messenger. I am forever grateful for the existence of technology and the content created inside of it.
The times we odd when we were kids back in the 2000’s when telephone devices were just little buttons that could only call within the country, no touch
screens, no opening up YouTube app for entertainment, or better yet, headphone jacks to listen to music, everything was just great. The first phone that was handed to me was an Obama Phone back in 2008. It was a phone that many people wanted, and when it became free to the citizen everybody was hooked onto it. This type of technology was able to keep me, and my family connected to each other wherever we were, any time of the day was one phone call away. Since then, I have never looked back at the fascinating piece of object that made us who we are today. As the creation continued to grow, the next phone that I received was the Samsung Galaxy Avant and this was the first phone that had touch screen compatibility and of course I never knew how to use it, I sort of played around with it and voila, I was an expert! Since Facebook was an app, I downloaded it and I became a Facebook addict.
When Facebook was created back in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook solely for Harvard students to keep in touch with each other. Thousands of students registered, and Facebook blew up drastically. Now, Facebook is one of the biggest online media used for connecting world-wide. Mark Zuckerberg background history of Facebook was based on his and his roommates’ idea and continue to improve the science of Facebook. Mark decided to quit school and commit full-time to his best creation along with the investment money from Angel investor Peter Thiel of $500,000. Who would’ve known that Mr. Zuckerberg would be a top competitor of many individual companies siding with the media. An interviewer, by the name of Stephanopoulos, talked about the problems and issues of Facebook back in 2019 and he said that “It seems like social media drives you just to be reinforced on views you already have. It hardens up everybody.” and Mark replied with “It’s the opposite.” and he relates the answer by explaining that the voice of certain entertainment system are editorial points of view and with friends who you are added, will have their own opinions on certain things. You will see both sides of the debate. Stepping aside from Facebook drama, we have youtubers and “data collectors” making Instagram reels or Snap chat reels for content regarding what this person has been doing, and they use resources from what the creator has said to back up on their idealistic and content to either destroy or put negative thoughts or ideas in the viewers minds.
Facebook has created content for many years, going from old television shows to news advertisements. While we may have seen more content on Facebook today including reels, story posts, and opinionated posts, we see that Facebook has also taken itself to a more heavily negative side towards certain topics, such as political story, economic stories, and personal stories. As a Facebook content user, I watch and analyze the difference in people’s posts and compare them to my own. We can see how the negative post gets more views than a positive post and when you see the comment section you see that there are more in the negative content than a positive content. Facebook has given us the opportunity to be entertained by implementing videos, games, and funny memes.
My experience with Facebook has granted me the opportunity to remember all the memories I have posted in the past, all the bad ones, and good ones, but also all the pictures that weren’t able to be saved. I am happy for the creation of messenger because without messenger, I wouldn’t be able to say good-bye to my grandpa, who deceased in December while I was stationed in Japan. I am forever grateful for the experience of technology and how it made life easier for many people. Thank you for social media and technology.
As a person born in 1999 I grew up playing the sims on a dinosaur PC while my brother who is 13 years older than me played resident evil on his PS1. My two sisters who are ten and seven years older than me flooded their Myspace and Facebook walls with mirror selfies showcasing their Blackberry and Samsung flip ones. Before I knew it I was 13 and blindly launched into the social media era of Instagram and Snapchat in the year 2013. Along with that I was talking to strangers on Omegle.com (Yes, it’s as dangerous as it sounds) while interacting with other internet friends on the Kik app. Do I still have everyone comprehending the situation? This was the time when the floodgates opened introducing an entire new era of social media apps to the world and younger generations such myself.
Research is still studying the psychological effects of people my age growing up influenced by social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook. People my age typically born between 1997-2000 were exposed to this new kind of social media overnight around an early pre-teen age and it was drastically different than good ole’ Myspace or AIM.
Fast forward a year and it is 2014. I was getting ready to go into my freshman year of high school. Around this time a newer website for blogging arose to popularity called Tumblr. It was a blogging website that blew up because they had blogs for literally everything. You name it. Cooking, K-pop, anime, TV shows, fashion, travel, grey’s anatomy, Lana Del Rey, even furries. Yeah.
Content Warning: eating disorders, mental health, and suicide
I could literally write a whole novel- probably an entire book series about Tumblr and its different niches along with revolution it caused on the internet for many teens. I amongst many other isolated and lonely teenagers found myself spending hours on Tumblr looking at blogs re-blogging posts, listening to music, reading stories, and searching hashtags. TW: Before Tumblr had a strict content policy nothing was off limits. Some of the blogs I came across as a teenager were disturbing.
I can recall specifically clicking on this one blog and although I am tempted to say its name I think I’ll just play it safe and leave it out even though the blog is long gone by now. But essentially the blog I stumbled upon was romanticizing the columbine school shooting and was obsessed with the two killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The blogger had endless gifs of them and scenarios written out about the two. I remember being shocked as I scrolled through their page. I decided to message the blog owner (another teenager like myself) trying to reason with them to get some help. To my horrific discovery there were plenty of other bloggers that were mesmerized with serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, and Jeffery Dahmer.
Algorithm is weird and yet it makes sense; you’re bound to come across pages other people in your circle follow. I was following blogs for soft grunge and other darker artistic pages.
Another blog I found on was a pro-eating disorder page. I was looking at all beautiful Tumblr girls in the soft grudges aesthetic when I saw the hashtag “#pro-ana”. The page was filled with skinny attractive girls while in between posts writing “encouraging” messages to keep themselves from eating. Pro-and means the promotion of anorexia and other eating disorders. Things such as, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” were plastered across the blog while also offering links to group chats were people banded together to “support” one another- if you catch my drift. https://lipmag.com/opinion/the-dark-side-of-tumblr/
These were the kinds of girls I found myself in awe over, trying to capture their likeness.
Lastly, this is no surprise and you probably could have assumed from reading my blog that Tumblr was also a space for adult content. You might ask, “Madison, how did you even end up on such pages?” Well, as I mentioned above, as a depressed teenager I found myself loving the grunge aesthetic and music scene. It was a way to express myself and escape. If you watched the video above part of the “aesthetic” was romanticizing mental illness and suicide. I’m not saying its right, it’s awful. But at the time a lot of the bloggers I followed were depressed and so was I. I was consuming content that was idealizing suicidal tendencies and pictures. At the time I found comfort and solace in following blogs that felt the same way I did.
If you are having any thoughts about taking your life or harming yourself please call the suicide lifeline at 988.
Nonetheless I stayed on Tumblr for another 4 years until 2018. I recently pulled up my old blog and scrolled through all my follows and photos I had accumulated on there over the years. All the old memories came rushing back in of who I wanted to be, and what I imagined my life would become. It wasn’t all bad- for real. Although this blog may appear to be a big downer Tumblr was a huge part of my life that showed me beautiful art, places, and gave me lots of inspiration. I eventually unfollowed many of the blogs as I found it wasn’t helping my situation.
In December of 2018 Tumblr enacted strict content policies on their website and many of the blogs I once saw slowly but surely disappeared and deactivated.
These seemingly perfect and beautiful (mostly white) girls were the aesthetic people across the world were trying to achieve. During this time was when Instagram models came to fame as well. This was the rise of when people became engulfed in capturing the perfect photos with the perfect outfits, hair, set-ups, aesthetics, etc. And then came the likes. It was about attention, the numbers, the comments, the follows, the re-blogs and the fame. Representation on Tumblr was few and far in between at the time for said soft-grunge era, so I am using images to represent the photos found during that time. As discussed above many body image issues arose during this time.
It feels weird now to be almost 23 and a trend that I lived and embodied is now being seen as nostalgic by people younger than myself. I literally got a clothing ad email today where it said “dress like Tumblr girl”. I was like, “oh my god. not again.” This is the first time I’m saying this but…I feel old. It’s kind of like how as a teen I romanticized the 2007-2012 emo phase that millennials went through. Well, needless to say I had my time in the sun with the Tumblr phase and the things that came with it. Good and bad. I had fun dressing the way I did, I enjoyed being creative an expressing myself during my teenage hood- I just wish I didn’t take everything so seriously is all. I wish I stepped out of my comfort zone more and didn’t stay in my bedroom all the time glued to Tumblr.com.
Thanks for letting me get all of this off my chest.
To end this, here are some treasured Tumblr photos of myself I took in my “grunge phase” back in early high school
For my first blog, I chose to discuss the world of social media influencers. Being an influencer is a popular job today, due to the rise of social media apps, especially since COVID. Influencers are on every platform on social media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. The rise of influencers increases every year because it is easy to blow up overnight and become a viral sensation. During the COVID pandemic, TikTok became the new viral social media app, that had everyone of all sorts of ages on it, during lockdown when many of us spent our time on our phones, we created content. For many, this content was either shared privately with only friends/family, while others shared it with the world and became viral quickly. Now that you know the backstory, a career in influencing is what many individuals desire. Influencers get free PR packages, attend exclusive events like (The MET Gala & award shows), get travel expenses paid for, and the most famous ones can even get their own TV show all for posting content and advertising it online.
The reason why becoming an “Influencer” has become such a popular job is because of all the perks that come with it. Many individuals today don’t want the traditional 9-5, instead, they’d rather post and create content. For example, the “job” is just to post on Instagram and the influencer gets paid quickly and easily. Influencers make great money, they can make up to 6 figures a month, which is better than getting paid bi-weekly (let’s be honest haha). To be considered an “Influencer” you must have a high number of followers like 50k minimum, once you get noticed on Instagram for example, you begin receiving PR packages. Influencers sometimes work for free in the beginning, ( by advertising a product in their story, or post), they do this to get noticed by the brand first, and if the individual has a high number of followers, the brand will send a FREE PR package, so they can keep posting content about the brand.
The thing about Influencers is that you can never truly believe if they’re being honest or just lying so they can get people to spend money on the product they’re advertising. For example, If I had a dollar for the number of times I’ve heard the phrase “This is the best product I’ve ever used, it works like a charm” – I’d be a millionaire. You can’t trust Influencers, some don’t even experiment or try the product, they’ll post a pic with it, and write a long caption of how great it is, and boom they’re getting thousands of dollars off that post, while you go and buy the product thinking it’s the best thing in the world.
Although there are many perks to being an influencer, let’s discuss the bad side that doesn’t include being canceled or unpopular. I believe the world of social media influencers lacks ethics, many influencers have gotten called out for partnering with “fast fashion brands” that use child labor. The reason why I think these fast fashion brands are still in business and growing, even more, today is because of the influencers who partner with them. I also think since it’s so common these days, nobody cares about “morality”- if 100 influencers are promoting a fast fashion brand, and that 1 person doesn’t, they still have the other 100 who will.
Below are two links that discuss how influencers add to the increasing growth of fast fashion & how the rise of becoming a social media influencer came to be.
Authors note: Thanks for the inspiration Pete. Your post inspired me to also yell at clouds.
My two oldest run down the hill towards me, their hair glows golden in the sun and whips wildly in the wind around their dirty faces, bright red lips laughing. The baby is behind them trying to keep up, occasionally letting out a loud squawk to make sure we know she’s still there. This is a nice summer day. I am, of course, at the bottom of the hill, phone in hand, tapping the screen as fast as I can desperately trying to capture these fleeting moments. Adding to the thousands of images and hours of videos I’ve already managed to horde.
I love what technology has given us. I can adjust any photo and take as many as I want. In my hand is access to all almost all of human knowledge. I can answer almost any question in a matter of seconds, but still I miss something. I miss something tactile.
There’s something that feels really good about having a physical touch. Clicking a shutter that hits real film that get turned into real photographs. I miss buttons that click. I miss the feel of a pen gliding across paper, and as a lefty- leaving and inky smudge on my hand. I miss the musty smell of old books and paging through an encyclopedia. I miss anxiously waiting for something.
A few week ago there was a painting created by artificial intelligence that won first place at the Colorado State Fair. I won’t deny the dedication and talent that went into developing the software and I do find it incredibly fascinating and impressive. He really did put in a lot of work. But, is it real? Where are the blobs of paint? Where are the little gummy bits that dripped to the floor? Where is the smell of titanium white gently wafting from the canvas ?
Neo-luddites call for the destruction of technology, believing that modern problems can’t be cured by technology, only worsened by them. German philosopher Martin Heidegger believed that technology transformed everything in the world into resources, a “standing-reserve,” existing to be used up. Leading to our own abandonment of being, robbing us of awe and wonder.
Unplugging is attractive. In recent years, there has been growth in a movement towards modern homesteading. People growing their own food, making their own clothes. Some are also dedicating themselves to slowing down and enjoying their lives, focusing on quality over quantity.
I don’t think technology is bad. I’m not giving up my phone, but I do want to put it down more. I also want to keep my 35mm camera handy. Loaded with real film, and only 24 exposures that I will mail away to get processed and then have those prints returned to me, maybe in 2-4 weeks. I look forward to waiting for them, anxiously.
As a man of a certain age, I am finding myself more and more overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what we are expected to sort through as we consume media, filter news, keep in contact with friends and family or simply look for a place to grab a cup of coffee. I will be the first to admit that I have no idea what someone means with they say that they take advice from “influencers” when making decisions.
I have included a link to a documentary about a man and a project that was influential to me when I was a young man. In this case, it was a minimalist approach to an artistic endeavor that I believe holds up to this day. In 1998 Jm Brandenburg, rebelling not against iPhones or Tik Tok overload but simply the reams of actual old-fashioned film that his contemporaries would use to capture the perfect image, released the results of an amazing journey. From the first day of fall, until the winter solstice, from his home base in the Boundary Waters, he allowed himself to take only 1 single photo per day. He literally only pressed the button one time per 24 hours.
The resulting book is extraordinary when you weigh the results alongside the knowledge of the amount of patience and commitment it took to plan and execute 90 shareable images that tell the story of a season of change, all with one choice per day. This may sound silly in this day and age, and I’m not saying the current forms/trends of expression are shallow or poorly thought out, but I do feel that undertakings such as this cannot be forgotten.
Who are your main characters and what do they represent within the story?
Film is such an amazing experience to watch, create, and direct. Especially genres you’ve come to love and adore since you were a child. The interesting thing about cinema is that your able to create shorts, animations, trilogies, or movies. With each having there on merit of expertise. Franchises like the movie “Alien” hold a cultural relevance of the late 70’s and early 80’s with its visual effects mainly being prosthetics. Directed by the infamous creator, Ridley Scott and the art by H.R Giger. To the Xenomorphs, to the carefully crafted ship, to the eerie atmosphere all stitch together a work of art. After this entry the audience should understand the power of film, why color is such an important component to storytelling, and finally, the importance of defining your main character/characters within the narrative.
(Osamu Tezuka manga but directed by Rintaro)
Introduction
Believe it or not, Metropolis has three different versions of its narrative. The common thread among all of them is economic, ecological, and technological progress. The era in which it is set almost seems like a 1950s film. This allows it to be its own unique thing in animated cinema. The first version of Metropolis was made and created by Fritz Lang in 1927. The second one was made by Osamu Tezaka. The last edition was revitalized and re-imagined by Rintaro based on the work of Osamu Tezaka in 2001. Luther and Andrew (2012) “Nevertheless, this cinematic imagining of future conditions of life continues to resonate strongly as the film keeps attracting spectators and critical attention, thereby offering us a significant opportunity to analyze the ideological foundations upon which we have constructed our notions of human society, including our approaches to ecology”.
Tima’s Beautiful Anomaly and Fated Destruction
As Tima is catapulted into the story without meaning or awareness, her radiant glow searches through the chaos. Created for one reason, but is given the opportunity to be something else. Her glow is defined as a memorable sequence for the audience to take in and remember. Brito and Cho (2017)”Color is one of the cognitive storytelling elements, its interpretation is captured by the subconscious and it is considered an emotional resource due to its psychological background. On the other hand, the character is also part of cognitive perception and storytelling tool, but this is interpreted consciously, character is considered as a logical resource”. Metropolis itself is a heavily industrialized world where technological advancement exceeds that of the human population. Making robots more suitable for it. Carefully look at the vibrant colors above the city and the dim colors below. They can be used interchangeably to define what’s important. Notice the massive buildings Rintaro displays to show expansion and clutter systematically. Tima, a few times throughout the film, is able to shine so brightly, giving vibrance to the city around her. I understand that Tima is a tool to be used and not to be treated as a human that would have their own thoughts and desires. Her revelation is learning she is not human but somewhere in between after being shot by Rock. Her silver tears represent the loss of her identity. Brito and Cho (2017) “Red conveys more anger, passion, happiness, whereas pink conveys a softness, charm, or courtesy. Moreover, in the world of animation, the color is usually used to emphasize certain objects or people in order to convey stronger feelings to the viewer. The main role played by the color within an animation is to convey emotions and feelings. However, they depend on the physical values of each individual, their social context and subjectivity of the observer. Josef Albers8)”.
As Kenichi attempts to grab onto the rageful Tima, hanging for her life, he tells her to grab his hand. This specific scene is taking place over the explosive city of Metropolis, with its red and orange hues. Pieces of the massive building were falling down around them. She finally looks up at Kenichi, saying, “Who am I?”. Having lost his grip, Tima falls to her demise with her consciousness intact instead of without. Kenichi later tries to find Tima’s remains in the vast debris below but is unsuccessful in his efforts. “Better to have loved than not at all”.
How is Metropolis Being Used
“Andrew and Luther (2012) “[The logical reason an] industrial capitalist society is sustainable so long as it is infused with humanism”]. You will soon learn that the main character, Tima, was the full embodiment of that ideology in theory. At the moment she met Kenichi, it was a human experience. One without control, a guide but an accident. There’s a beautiful sequence where Kenichi and Tima are trying to escape the trigger-happy “Rock” in the barracks down under. Showing their progress in a story that has yet to tell them what’s happening. Eventually in the film, it begins to snow, which seems like a very natural thing that should happen. Although it comes off as empty and desolate. Creating an atmosphere of sorrow, after they find Pero shot and killed. Andrew and Luther (2012) “We may desire a position and perspective outside of systems—ecological, political, or economic—from which to issue cautionary warnings to ourselves, but somehow the formal composition of such cautionary narratives undermines, and thereby makes visible, the impossibility of this same desire. In other words, we see in the panoramic shots of Metropolis the contradictory imagination of ourselves as exterior to and uninvolved in this place as well as interior to and complicit with it”.
Conclusions
Not only does Metropolis explore a possible industrial future, but it does it through color. The film is able to show you massive caverns of industrial trash that have gone unused. While at the same time showing the president’s residency above the clouds. From my analysis, Metropolis was able to explore technological advancement through a multitude of colors. There’s a specific scene where Tima is able to go into the circuit system to find Kenichi. Showing the audience beams of color, ranging from red, blue, and yellow to emphasize Tima’s prowess. The addition of jazz throughout the film also added a beautiful redesign of the environment. Changing our perception of a cluttered city. I believe the film wanted us to answer the looming questions of how we see ourselves, robots, and the environment. Colors are able to show importance within a story or growth and progression within a character.
(Questions to think about)
How can you show progression on a character without telling the audience?
What do you think the robots represent in the film by reading the article?
Yahaira Moreno , Brito, and Cho Dong-Min. “Visual Narrative as a Color Storytelling in Disney and Ghibli Studios.” Cartoon and Animation Studies, The Korean Society of Cartoon and Animation Studies, 31 Dec. 2017, https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201708160569606.page.
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