Things I've Noticed: Final Courses can be a lot of fun

Since 2004 I’ve been slowly but steadily working towards a Bachelors Degree in Professional Arts, majoring in Communications Studies. Last Thursday I handed in my final assignment of my final course, so now all I’ve got to do is sit and wait for it to get marked and then I will be in possession of a University degree.

My final course was called CMNS 425: Film & Genre, and my final three papers were on the following topics: 1) A Critical Review and discussion of the cultural influence of the film Night of the Living Dead, 2) A look at the development and evolution of the Horror genre based on the films Dracula (1931), The Curse of Frankenstein (1958), and Halloween (1978), and 3) A look at the concept of re-imagining in the horror genre, specifically focusing on the recent re-imaginings of Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Here’s what I can say about the course – it was a whole lot of fun, it gave me a good idea for my next October-thon blog post thingy (I’ll be looking at a lot of horror re-imaginings), and I do feel that I learned a little bit more about my personal favourite genre.

Now I’m looking at Grad School, and as more than a few of my choices are in the States, I’ve got to take the GRE test (Graduate Record Examinations) before I can apply – I’m pretty sure the test won’t be as fun as my last course, but what the heck, I like taking standardized tests as much as the next guy!

In defense of Avatar

Normally I would be doing a character of the week right now, but as I saw Avatar last night and then read or watched all kinds of negative reviews on it today, I thought I would give my opinion of the film.

Many of the reviews basically saw that although the film has some stunning visuals, it's story is derivative of films ranging from Dances with Wolves to Ferngully (which is entirely true by the way). In my opinion however, this misses the point.

The point of a story is to bring the audience in and keep them engaged, something that for me and my twelve-year-old daughter, Avatar definitely succeeded in.

Deciding whether or not a film has value in the big picture is tricky. Watching the film I definitely saw many aspects of earlier SF films that I had seen as a kid, but the thing I try to keep in mind is that films like Avatar are the ones that SF writers 20 years from now will have seen in their youth. People say this film doesn't say anything new, but they forget that to take into account that it is speaking to a new generation of fans.

In the end, I found the film a good way to pass an afternoon, but for my daughter, it said some new things, and it will be these kids, who in 10 years will really be able to tell us if the film was a classic or not.