The Current War: Director's Cut (2017)

I like to make the distinction that Thomas Edison was a businessman Whereas Nikola Tesla was an inventor.  Like Henry Ford, Edison didn’t really invent anything.  He just found a new way to make a light bulb.  He basically made it so that people could buy and use them.

This isn’t to say that Edison didn’t make contributions, but Tesla was the one that had more of a scientific mind and could create new things, like the coil named for him.  He was even trying to make it so that electricity could be transmitted wirelessly.  So, it’s only natural that Edison gets all the schools named for him.  Right?

When I saw the coming attractions for The Current War, I thought that Tesla might get his due.  He was featured in said trailers.  Nope.  The movie was mostly about how Westinghouse and Edison brought lights to the people.  Part of this was the power supply, which Tesla had a part in.  However, Tesla’s part in the movie was not what I had hoped.  He was shown in a few scenes, mostly being pushed out of something he was working on.

It worries me sometimes if I can’t get at least six paragraphs into a review.  I’d go into a detailed recap, but there’s not much for me to share.  The movie focuses on Edison.  He’s shown as being very petty and driven.  He’ll resort to demeaning the competition if it means getting what he wanted.

Overall, it was very bland and plain.  Having an even pace isn’t always a good thing.  Here, it makes it monotonous.  It’s like the movie got rejected by PBS, so they toned it down a little and got a theatrical release.  (I kind of feel like I forgot most of the movie once I walked out of the theater, so if I got a few details wrong, please forgive me.)

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The Grinch (2018)

There’s a part of me that didn’t want to write this review.  I wasn’t sure I’d have much to contribute that a hundred people haven’t said before.  This is The Grinch, after all.  Between the book and the coming attractions, there won’t be too many surprises in the movie.  Aside from which, it’s not like I get many page views anyway.  I’m not sure this review will be the deciding factor for a lot of people.

There’s also the compulsive part of me that has to write a review.

The Grinch follows Dr. Seuss’s basic story pretty closely, from what I can tell.  (It’s an 86-minute adaptation of a relatively small book, so there are going to be a few embellishments.)  The Grinch doesn’t like Christmas.  He decides to steal Christmas from Whoville by stealing all of the presents and decorations.  In the end, he realizes the true meaning of Christmas.

I’m not sure why we need another adaptation.  There’s the 1996 version, with Boris Karloff.  There’s also the 2000 version with Jim Carrey.  There’s even a 1992 version that I hadn’t heard of.  The problem with calling the movie into question is that I risk seeming a little grinchy myself.  However, it does seem like a pretty safe movie to make, especially right before Christmas.

This version makes the Grinch not so mean.  We even get a little back story as to why he is what he is.  Benedict Cumberbatch plays him as someone who just doesn’t like people, which is understandable to anyone who has had to deal with a lot of people.  He’s the personification of that impulse to just stay away from everyone.  (It’s sort of like that Mark Twain quote, “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.”)

I went into the theater wondering if it would be a cash grab, but it was a fairly good production.  It might be bearable for most adults, but it’s definitely going to be enjoyed more by the children.  This movie comes across as a viable alternative to the 1966 movie.  I think the older version is going to come across as dated, especially considering that it’s over 50 years old.  I could definitely see a TV station or two playing this version for Christmas next year.

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Doctor Strange (2016)

Origin stories are an important part of the mythos of a character.  The Incredible Hulk is the result of exposure to gamma radiation.  Captain America was brought about by way of a serum.  These are important parts of the characters’ stories.  Even when they’re changed for the sake of a movie, they help explain why that person is the way that they are.

Doctor Strange got his own movie in 2016.  At the start of the movie, Dr. Stephen Strange is a famous neurosurgeon.  He has his pick of patients.  (These include a few throwaway references to other Marvel characters.)  All is going well for Dr. Strange until he has an accident.  He loses the use of his hands, which prevents him from being the perfect doctor that he once was.

He tries just about any experimental surgery that comes his way, selling everything he has to be able to afford them.  He eventually hears about a paraplegic named Jonathan Pangborn who managed to regain use of his legs.  Pangborn to Kamar-Taj, a place where he might be able to regain the use of his hands.  Dr. Strange has just enough money to make it there and meet The Ancient One, who demonstrates her powers.  Strange is hesitant.  He doesn’t believe in the astral plane and spiritual healing.  Even after her demonstration, it’s a bit much to accept.

Still, he stays and learns what he can.  With a photographic memory, he’s able to become a skilled sorcerer quickly.  We learn that Earth is protected by Sanctums, led by The Ancient One.  There are many sorcerers trained there with the intent of protecting the Sanctums, which are all connected to Kamar-Taj.  When Kaecilius, a former student, attacks a Sanctum, there’s a real threat.

Kaecilius is trying to make a deal with a guy from another dimension.  If successful, Kaecilius would become immortal.  As you might imagine, an immortal Kaecilius would be bad for us.  Dr. Strange knows he has to help, but is conflicted about hurting people, as he never really stopped being a doctor.  It’s up to a few other sorcerers to get him where he needs to be to save the world.

I’ve read articles that have compared the movie to Inception.  I have to say that it’s a fair comparison.  The movie seems like it’s a vehicle for the CGI, coming across as a mixture of Inception and The Matrix.  M. C. Escher would enjoy the scenery.  On a technical level, the movie is great.

What I found lacking was the story.  Dr. Strange spends a lot of time trying to get his hands back.  Then, he spends a lot of time learning how to be a sorcerer.  We do get some fighting throughout the movie, but it isn’t until the end that we get any sort of real conflict.  The movie even opens with an inception-style fight, but there’s no sense of rooting for anyone.

I felt like the story focused too much on Dr. Strange before becoming a hero.  I get that this is what an origin story is.  However, we see too much of the Doctor and not enough of the Strange.  He’s the kind of doctor that that reminds everyone that he’s a doctor.  (He didn’t work hard all of those years at Strange Medical School to be called Mr. Strange.)

I think my problem was expecting more action sequences.  We are shown a journey that Dr. Strange has to take.  He’s a man of science told to simply believe in the metaphysical.  I admit that I would have handled it the same way.  If someone told me that the power to heal myself was based in mysticism, I’d think they were trying to sell me something and with good reason.

It was a lot like a pilot episode meant to set us up for something even bigger.  The movie is equal parts mysticism and action, but it doesn’t quite work.  It alternates rather than blends.  There were scenes that were too heavy on explaining things.  It works better when we have just enough to get what‘s going on.

IMDb doesn’t list a sequel as of yet, but it would be interesting to see how they handle it.  A lot could be forgiven if they knock that one out of the park.

IMDb page

The Imitation Game (2014)

I remember watching Wheel of Fortune as a child.  For those that have never seen an episode, contestants are playing a version of hangman with prizes.  The winner of the game goes on to a bonus round where they have to select five consonants and one vowel.  Those are the only selections they can make.  If they’re lucky, a lot of blank spaces will be filled in, making it easy for them to win. I had noticed that people tended towards R, S, T, L and N for their consonants and usually picked E as their vowel.  I asked my mother why this was.  She told me that those are the most commonly sued letters in English.  If you have no idea which letters to pick, you pick those.  (This was before they started giving you those letters outright.  The ones you‘d pick now are C, D, M and A.)

This is important for cryptographers.  If you have an encrypted text of sufficient length, you can do a frequency analysis.  If it’s encrypted with a simple substitution cipher, you’ll get most of the letters right.  The Germans got around this by using the Enigma.  It had been around before the war, but proved useful to the German government because it moved the cipher every so often.  You might start moving one letter off, with A becoming B.  After each letter, the machine moves one additional letter so that A becomes C, then D, then E.  This makes frequency analysis useless.  The easiest way for Allied Forces to break the code was basically to steal a machine and the corresponding code book.

There had to be an easier way.  Poland had broken the Enigma, but this wasn’t the same machine.  Germany had made the military version better than the commercial version by adding two rotors.  Enter Alan Turing.  He believed that he could build a machine that could make a brute-force attack easier.  The machine would run through possible combinations until it found one.  If they could eliminate enough combinations, it would work.

He and several other people worked at Bletchley Park to break the Enigma.  Turing was not a social person.  He successfully made a power play at Bletchley Park, then fired two of his coworkers.  He did want to work with Joan Clarke at a time when women were usually relegated to the secretary pool.  He could rub people the wrong way, but he did get his machine to work.  He was able to decode Axis messages, thus shortening the war and saving millions of lives.

Being that this is based on history, those familiar with Turing’s life will probably know how the movie ends.  Those that don’t might want to stop reading, as I’m about to give away the ending.  During his time at Bletchley Park, Turing was suspected of being a spy.  He was cleared, but it turned out that he had another secret:  He was homosexual.  Given the option of prison or chemical castration, Turing chose castration.  He eventually committed suicide.

I asked in a previous review how historical figures might react to modern technology.  Consider that I’m writing this review on a device that is his legacy.  I do this knowing that other people will be using other similar devices.  I even get hits from IMDb’s mobile page.  How would Turing feel about a device that had more utility and computing power than he could imagine possible and could fit in your pocket?

I wonder what history would look like had he lived.  Modern computing owes its existence because of what he did.  You’re reading this on a computer because of him.  The fact that he was gay trumped this.  The title of the movie refers to what eventually became known as the Turing test, which is designed to test if you’re dealing with a person or not.  Imagine the further contributions he could have made.

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