Tag Archives: Post-Apocalyptic

Movies, Opinion

U Mad (Max) Bro?

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MM-Main-PosterLook, I know this isn’t a surprise to anyone by this point, but MRAs really are the whiniest little pissbabies this side of a playpen full of over-tired toddlers.

I’ll keep my review of Mad Max: Fury Road short: the screenplay of Mad Max: Fury Road was clearly created by someone eating Slayer liner notes and then drinking tequila until they threw up, while drag racing, and I mean that in the best possible way. It had maybe a cumulative 10 minutes worth of spoken dialogue, not counting wordless yelling, and at least 45 minutes of cumulative explosions, and one dude whose whole job was to dangle from bungee cords on the front of a tricked out post-apoc truck playing an electric guitar that shot fire and it was SO FUCKING RAD I SWEAR.
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TV

The 100 (seasons 1 – 2)

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The 100

Creator: Jason Rothenberg

Based on books by: Kass Morgan

2014-2015, The CW

Recommended? Yup

You don’t come home from war.

You don’t get to kill people and stay the same person.

There’s this idea about war and brutality and struggle as a kind of thing the bourgeoisie can keep their hands clean of — or at least just dip into for short moments, like tourists on a war safari.

Maybe the clearest articulation of this problem I’ve ever seen is in “The Epic Pooh,” Michael Moorcock’s ruthless dismantling of The Lord of the Rings. In that essay, presents us the idea that the hobbits represent the middle- and upper-class of England, off to go have an adventure — in which they largely don’t have to do anything unpleasant like kill people since there are other people who can do that — and then return home safe and sound to the Shire. Despite being rather a fan of Middle Earth, I think this is pretty defensible as an interpretation of the text.
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Video Games

Wasteland 2

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Wasteland 2

Wasteland 2

inXile Entertainment, 2014

Recommended? Maybe

Wasteland 2 is probably the longest RPG I’ve ever played, and it doesn’t really have the payoff I feel entitled to after investing so many hours into play. I bet someone’s already come up with some great pun off the name, like “waste-your-life too.” If someone didn’t beat me to it, then I just did.

Still, it’s a game up my alley and I enjoyed it. It’s got tactical, turn-based combat, lots of skills and attributes, and it’s got a good immersive world to play in.

In Wasteland 2, you play a post-apocalyptic cop, one of the elite saviors of humanity known as the Desert Rangers. You’ve got a badge and a gun and you shoot a lot of “raiders.”

Why is it so important in video games that you can buy sex?

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Movies

Snowpiercer (2013)

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Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer

Director: Joon-Ho Bong

Writer: Joon-Ho Bong

Recommended: yes.

Bechdel test: fail.

Trigger Warnings (for the film, not the review): cannibalism, violence, child abduction/labor.

Premise: In the near future, governments across the world decide to dump chemicals into the atmosphere to stop global warming, inadvertently freezing and killing everything and everyone on earth, except for an (un)lucky few who manage to board a train that travels around the entire world once a year. The film takes place about 18 years later.

When I went to see this movie, I had no idea what it was, but when it quickly became clear it was about class war in a dystopian future, it had my attention until the final scene. The poor masses, huddled in the back few carts of the train, led by a man named Curtis, have to travel and fight their way up to the front to confront Wilford, the owner and conductor of the train and the rest of humanity. I would chalk this one up next to V for Vendetta and The Hunger Games in terms of theme.
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Comics

The Massive Volume 1: Black Pacific

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The Massive Volume 1: Black Pacific

The Massive Volume 1: Black Pacific

Written by Brian Wood

Art by Kristian Donaldson, Garry Brown, Dave Stewart, and Brian Wood

2013, Dark Horse Comics

Recommended? Highly!

What do you do when you’re a member of a radical direct action environmental organization and the world really does collapse? This is the question at the heart of the story in The Massive as members of Ninth Wave face the world during a massive eco-social-environmental cataclysm. Ninth Wave, easily a stand in for Sea Shepherd, is comprised of an international crew aboard the Kapital and its missing sister ship the Massive. Volume 3 of the trade paperback was released in early July 2014—this review will look at Volume 1 and contain a few possible SPOILERS to that collection. This volume mostly serves as an introduction to the world and characters, so I don’t think I’ll be giving too much of the overall story arch away.

Set in the current era, the cataclysm depicted in The Massive is one of global climate change. Taken as individual occurrences these events could be ripped from the headlines of today: massive storms across the worlds oceans, unusual seismic activity, mass suicides and die offs of marine life, changes to wind patterns, unusual snowfall and changes to wind patterns. The results are worldwide coastal flooding, loss of power to hugely populated areas, and the destabilization of almost all world governments. This happens in less than a year, and perhaps most amazingly, the world actually takes notice.
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TV

The Walking Dead, seasons 1-4

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The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead, seasons 1-4

2010-2014, AMC

Recommended? If you’re going to watch epic amounts of TV, then yes.

Rooting for The Walking Dead isn’t exactly rooting for the underdog, I know. It’s apparently the most-watched show on cable. But, after binging my way through four seasons, I’ll say this: I’m glad it’s so popular.

As a warning, this review is going to assume you’ve seen the show or don’t care about spoilers. It’s light on specifics, though.

The Walking Dead is a post-apocalyptic zombie drama set primarily in rural Georgia, based on a comic series I haven’t read. When it first came out, I gave it a shot but got kind of bored after a few episodes.

You see, the protagonist is a cop. The second-in-command? Also a cop. This isn’t a really good way to hook me. In fact, throughout the whole first season, I basically felt like the screenwriters were good-cop/bad-copping me: good cop is so good! Bad cop is so bad! Therefore, we need more good cops!
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Movies

Goodbye World (2013)

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goodbye world

Goodbye World

Director: Denis Hennelly

Writers: Denis Hennelly and Sarah Adina Smith

Recommended? Yes

Bechdel Test? I think fail, somewhat surprisingly

There ain’t no justice, just us.

That’s always been one of my favorite anarcho-cliches. And it’s one of the central themes of this low-key apocalypse romantic drama.

Yes, that’s right. It’s an apocalypse movie about thirty-something mostly-white all-hetero couple drama. And I kind of loved it.

For a long time I’ve been saying the problem with movies is they try to be like OMG it’s the biggest deal ever and everything is explosions! and so I’ve been advocating for a post-apoc rom-com. This isn’t very post the apocalypse and it’s not much com in its rom, but I still kind of feel like I got what I was hoping for.
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Books

Into the Forest, by Jean Hegland

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Into the Forest, Jean Hegland

Into the Forest

by Jean Hegland

1996, Dial Press

Recommended? Yes.

I was lying in bed sick.

“Hey,” I said to my friend, “what book should I read?”

“Have you read Into the Forest?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“Read that,” he said. “Post-apocalypse.”

“Is it going to be like The Road?” I asked. I was sick. I didn’t want to read something as doom and gloom as The Road.

“Not really,” he said.

I’m glad I decided to believe him, even if I’m not sure he was telling the truth.
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