Independence Day

Independence Day is a classic alien, science fiction movie. It starts on July 2nd when signals being read on earth are interrupted. The military figures out that there are a whole bunch of object set to collide with earth. Then they find out it they are not just objects but spaceships. As the government tries to communicate with the aliens, a scientist figures out that the aliens are going to destroy major points on earth. On July 3rd, major cities around the US are destroyed. The military tries a counter attack in the air but it back fires and they loose the battle. Will Smith kills an alien but then has to abandon his ship. As he drags the alien across the desert he is met by a government group going to Area 51. The government group  goes to Area 51, an alien cover up, where they get a spaceship and examine the alien. On July 4th, the survivors of the US try to fight back the aliens with Will Smiths character, Captain Steven Hiller. After battles and controversy they successfully kill the aliens by spreading a virus through the aliens mother ship. Hiller is the hero.

I like this movie a lot. I think it does a good job of making Independence Day a movie anyone can watch. It has a little romance, action and science fiction. This movie made me think that we can not be the only people out here in space. We are also a young solar system and anyone else who is out there is more advanced than we are. We probably won't know when the aliens will come to find us. We should be ready at any time and hopefully the government is covering up a stolen spaceship when they come.

iRobot

iRobot staring Will Smith is a movie I would definitely recommend to anyone. It follows a classic plot. Will Smith is a homicide detective living in the future. In this future society robots are in every home being used to help out around the house. The robots are trusted by almost anyone and by most they are trusted enough to watch children. Will Smith's character, Del Spooner,  has a rare situation.. He trusted robots until one day he was in a car crash that sent two cars into a river. Spooner and a little girl were stuck in the cars as they were sinking to the bottom. A robot comes in to save them and only saves Spooner because he had a higher chance of survival. Since then, Spooner resents the robotic race because they have no feelings. A murder comes across his desk at work that even furthers his suspicions. A murder where the number one suspect is a robot. The movie goes on to show that the robots are trying to improve the human race by making humans more like robots. This is bad for the humans. Spooner saves the day and kills all the robots.

I really like this movie. I think it makes you think about how much we are dependent on electronics as a society. Almost everyone has a tv in there house, a cell phone in their pocket and a lap top on their desk. When apple comes out with a new iphone or ipad there are lines that can stretch for a mile sometimes. This movie makes me realize that in our search for the new best thing we have to be careful about what that new best thing is. If we keep going at the rate we are, we will have robots in every ones houses by the end of the century.

Ender's Game Meme

SETI

The search for extraterrestrial  intelligence is a popular subject among the science fiction community. Are aliens really out there somewhere?

 Most of america believes there is something out there, in space, besides us. There is so much more space surrounding us it would be a waste if no one else was out there. Also, traveling the millions of miles takes a long, long time. If aliens are trying to get to us then they will have to travel for a while, they could be trying to find us right now? If they are not trying to physically visit us but trying to get our attention with a signal, it will still have to travel a long distance to get here. Maybe we will hear from them soon?

However, there are a lot of skeptics too. If aliens do exist why don't they already know a way to contact us? Aren't aliens smarter than us so they should know a way to get around space already. We are a relatively young planet, if life exists somewhere else it must be older than us. There are not many planets with atmospheres like ours that are can sustain life.

I think that there is some kind of life out in space besides us. There are so many other planets and other solar systems that could have a planet with life. It might just take aliens a while to get to us.

Cosmos

Cosmos was really boring. Carl Sagan's voice is really weird and (as Mr. Inloes said) soothing in a weird sort of way. It made me really tired. I wonder how it stayed on air for long. Even though it wasn't the most entertaining thing on TV I have ever seen Sagan did present some interesting ideas.

I have to admit I never knew about space travel before. So when Sagan talked about how if you travel at the speed of light time goes much slower for you than it does for everyone else. To me, that seems really cool. Its as close to time travel that seems actually possible. The thing that isn't appealing is that you can't go back. If you travel at the speed of light for 5 years for normal people, you can't go back to where you started.

Another thing that interested me was when Sagan talked about the ideas of how to travel at speed of light. The spaceship that moves by making little hydrogen bombs. The spaceships moves like a machine that goes put, put, put. The idea is really interesting. I think it could be really cool if the scientists figured out how to make a spaceship like this with out it blowing up.

Contact

I really like the movie Contact. It is one of my favorite movies we have watched in class so far. I like that the plot of the story seems almost realistic. The movie uses realistic places and realistic scenarios. I think Jodie Foster does a really good job in this movie too. Her portrayal so far of the determined scientist is impressive. 

So far Contact has not seemed very much like a science fiction movie other than the alien radio signals. The aliens are the only scifi element in the movie. 
I also think the movie accurately portrays the argument between scientists about the exploration of space. Ellie is the side that wants to find extraterrestrial life. She has a job with SETI, which it seems like many scientists don't necessarily respect. Hadden and other scientists the movie mentions represent the other side of the argument. The skeptical side that says looking for E.T. is a waste of time. This side looses a lot of respect for scientists who do look for E.T. I personally think that looking for E.T. is not worth it. The quote from the movie that says "But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space." I think that is true. If it is really just us, the galaxies are just a really big waste of space.

The thing

The thing is an interesting movie. I was not expecting the dog to be the monster/alien thing. I think the setting of Antarctica is more realistic than suburbia. I like the idea that the alien ship crashed there and froze. It makes it seem like an actual possibility in real life. The characters are very interesting. They all have their own personalities but I would not be able to tell you which ones are infected and which ones aren't. I think MacReady is infected because of his clothes being torn up though.

I think it was mean of the scientist to kill all the dogs and ruin all the equipment. I understand why he did it but I don't think it was smart for the long term. He did it because he wanted to contain the aliens. He thought eventually all of the men on the team would become infected and if the infection got outside of the compound they are in it could effect the whole world.

I hope that they beat the monsters/aliens. I also hope that most of the team survives. However, I could see the movie ending with them all dying and the aliens taking over.