So I watched World War Z today with Arleen.
Wasn't too bad despite the writing weaknesses. There was a definite "entertainment value" to it, although not necessarily impressive. I found myself at times just waiting for it to get over so I could get on with the rest of the day.
Where I became dumbfounded was that this damn movie took over 200 MILLION DOLLARS to produce. This two hour episode of Brad Pitt running around blowing up shit to awkward actors with too much grey makeup on screetching was the final result of this investment.
This reminded me of Avatar which took over 400 MILLION dollars to create. Let's put this in persepective...
Congress provides funding for scientific research, this funding supports new discovery. This funding (for non-human health sciences) is funneled from the US government into The National Science Foundation (NSF) and is delegated to universities, non-profits, companies etc, in the form of grants. These grants are what fuel the raw bulk of labs in the nation and are the primary reason we literally keep on discovering new shit each year. These discoveries not only employ scientists, but stimulate commerce by developing new tools/products/technology that requires skilled labor which in the end makes all of our lives better/richer/more comfortable.
The budget for NSF in 2012 was 7.03 billion, while that's a big number keep in mind that this chunk of change fuels basically ALL THE FUCKING SCIENCE IN THE COUNTRY. Due to the weak economy, the funding for 2013 dropped to 6.9 billion.
In perspective, thousands of scientists lost their jobs, a multitude of research developments were halted, and new discoveries/technology will never exist. Instead for the SAME exact amount of money lost to the NSF budget, we got fucking AVATAR.
Great, I watched blue people have freaky hair sex while riding a screwed up pterodactyl on an imaginary planet.
Don't get me wrong I like watching a well written movie, but how in hell can I justify 200 million to see brad pit shoot himself up with a random virus to hide from zombies, or 400 million to see stereotyped military figures blow up a damned tree on an imaginary planet.
Maybe I'm just getting old and bitter, but seriously where are our priorities and why do movies matter so much to our culture?
-Joey
