The following is a vide for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It once again explores “Megamind,” a movie I’ve highlighted in the past for it’s colorful subversion of the superhero genre. It felt like the time was right to discuss it on my channel. This time, I explore how “Megamind” gave us the first true Incel villain before the concept of an “incel” was a thing.
Like anything involving incels, it’s a distressing topic and bound to generate some less-than-comfortable feelings. I still welcome comments and discussion. Enjoy!
The following is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s another entry in my ongoing series/playlist, Jack’s Comic Gems. This time, I highlight a recent gem called “Transformers vs. Terminator.” Enjoy!
Certain technology advances slowly and steadily. It’s why we’re still waiting for a cure for the common cold. Other technological breakthroughs advance at such a fast rate it’s hard to keep up with. Anyone who doesn’t regularly upgrade their cell phone understands that.
Recently, a new deep fake video hit the web. It’s nothing overly nefarious. It’s actually a play on a real story from the mid-2000s. Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony Stark in the first “Iron Man” movie, Tom Cruise was in the running for that role.
He has since claimed he was never close to getting that role, but it’s still an interesting idea. For most Marvel fans, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than RDJ donning that now-iconic armor. However, there’s no denying that Tom Cruise being Iron Man would’ve changed a franchise, as well as cinematic history.
Well, thanks to deep fake technology, we don’t have to imagine anymore. We can now see for ourselves what it would look like if Tom Cruise had been cast as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. See for yourself.
Watching this, I have to say it was more than a little jarring. It’s not just that seeing someone other than RDJ as Iron Man is strange. I was genuinely impressed by how real it looked.
Yes, it did become a bit obvious at times that there was some digital trickery at work. I’ve seen enough Tom Cruise movies to know what he looks like. I could tell that the body just did not match the iconic face at times.
However, I’m still impressed at just how seamless it appeared, especially when he was in the Iron Man costume. It really did look like Cruise had embraced the role as much as RDJ had. Even though the voice had to come courtesy of a skilled voice actor, the graphics technology is definitely on pace to cross the uncanny valley sooner rather than later.
The implications here are profound. If the technology is already at this point, then it’s a given that Hollywood and propaganda pushers will start embracing it sooner. For Hollywood, who is reeling in wake of a historic pandemic, they may have more incentives to embrace it than most.
Beyond actors and actresses who get “cancelled” for their behavior, it may start as a cost cutting measure. If it costs too much to put Hugh Jackman or Tom Cruise on a movie set, why not just put a cheaper actor in their place and just deep fake the more iconic figure over it? If the technology is that good and nobody can tell the difference, it almost makes too much sense.
It may get to a point where nobody outside the studio knows whether the figure we see on screen was actually “there” to give that moment life. They may just be a digital scan mixed with digitally audio, which is also advancing.
This has even larger implications with propaganda. If the technology gets to a point where we can make any public figure say or do anything we want, no matter how deplorable, then how can we trust any media image? Would “cancel culture” even be feasible at that point? If people can just claim an embarrassing moment was a deep fake, how would we know?
It’s a distressing thought, but it’s something we’ll have to account for. We may end up having to contemplate it sooner than we thought. This technology can already show us a world in which Tom Cruise was cast as Iron Man. What other worlds will it reveal?
It’s a sad fact of life. Certain movies, TV shows, songs, toys, and products just don’t age well. For every timeless classic, like “Citizen Kane” or Mozart operas or Betty White, there’s an “All In The Family” or “Gone With The Wind.” That’s not to say these pieces of popular media are bad or should be censored. They just have a cringy impact in today’s climate.
I love classics as much as the next guy, but even I can’t deny that the lyrics for songs like “Brown Sugar” or “Under My Thumb” by the Rolling Stones have some distressing connotations. I don’t judge anyone who still enjoys those songs or loves the Rolling Stones. Let’s just acknowledge that times change, societies change, and certain media just doesn’t fit anymore.
That being said, it’s also possible for something to age a little too well. Again, I’m not just talking about Keanu Reeves or Betty White. Every now and then, you revisit an old movie, show, or song that doesn’t just fit right into the current cultural climate. It almost fits too well.
That’s how I felt recently while going over some old music. I was updating my workout playlist when I came across some old songs I had from Rage Against The Machine, a band I hadn’t followed closely since high school. In re-listening to some of those songs, I realized two things.
One, they still rock. They rock every bit as much as they did when I was a teenager.
Two, their music has aged way too well in the current political climate.
Now, if you know anything about this band, the kind of music they play, and what they stand for, you’re probably not surprised. Rage Against The Machine is not subtle. Their music is very political. It always has been, going back to their formative years in the mid-1990s.
They’re anti-authoritarian, revolution-heavy act that you don’t see much outside the heyday of the hippie era in the 1960s. As a teenager, I didn’t appreciate that kind of political rhetoric in music. At the time, the only politics I cared about involved how many snow days we were allowed at school.
Now, having grown up and become painfully aware of the current state of politics, I find myself appreciating Rage Against The Machine even more. I know it’s a couple decades too late, but it’s still profound. Just listening to the songs I have, I feel like they could’ve come out today and be just as relevant.
The best example that I came across just happens to be my favorite Rage Against The Machine song of all time, “Sleep Now In The Fire.” When I hear this song, it blows my mind that it came out in 1999. It feels so long ago, but it still rings so true.
Even the music video, which I remember seeing on MTV regularly, has aged remarkably well. I would argue it aged too well. Just see for yourself.
To anyone born after the year 2000, please take a moment to appreciate what the band did here. They defied a decision made by New York City. They played on the steps of the Wall Street Stock Exchange for this video. That could not happen today. In a world after September 11, 2001, they wouldn’t get off with a fine or a warning. They’d go to prison.
Then, there are the lyrics. Just take a moment and read over these lyrics. How much more relevant are they now compared to 1999?
Yeah The world is my expense The cost of my desire Jesus blessed me with its future And I protect it with fire So raise your fists and march around Just don’t take what you need I’ll jail and bury those committed And smother the rest in greed Crawl with me into tomorrow Or I’ll drag you to your grave I’m deep inside your children They’ll betray you in my name
[Chorus] Hey, hey Sleep now in the fire Hey, hey Sleep now in the fire
[Verse 2] The lie is my expense The scope of my desire The party blessed me with its future And I protect it with fire
[Pre-Chorus] I am the Niña, the Pinta, the Santa Maria The noose and the rapist, the fields’ overseer The agents of orange, the priests of Hiroshima The cost of my desire Sleep now in the fire
[Chorus] Hey, hey Sleep now in the fire Hey, hey, hey Sleep now in the fire
[Verse 3] For it’s the end of history It’s caged and frozen still There is no other pill to take So swallow the one that makes you ill
[Pre-Chorus] The Niña, the Pinta, the Santa Maria The noose and the rapist, the fields’ overseer The agents of orange, the priests of Hiroshima The cost of my desire Sleep now in the fire Yeah
It’s downright eerie. The whole song is about how the rich, powerful, and well-connected can get away with anything. They lie, cheat, and steal with impunity. They’ll pay lip service to revolution and change, but never hesitate to throw people in a fire if they get out of line.
It feels like a perfectly dystopian indictment of the current political rhetoric. People on both sides of the political spectrum, liberal and conservative, jealously protect their power and influence. They’ll tell people what they think they want to hear, stoking hatred and fear, all while enjoying the fruits of their position.
Regardless of your politics, you can’t help but appreciate this kind of hard-hitting message. It feels like we’re always at the mercy of the rich and powerful. They play political games. We’re just brought along for the ride.
Rage Against The Machine was making music about this long before the internet, social media, and cable news made those politics so hateful. They dared to rage against a corrupt system before it became a common tool of political theater.
The following is a video I made for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s both a general review and an analysis of the second season of “The Boys,” Amazon Primes bloody and brutal satire of the superhero genre. It has quickly become one of the best new shows on any platform and for good reason. This video is my way of both celebrating and exploring those reasons. Enjoy!
I know this is usually when I post my weekly edition of Sexy Sunday Thoughts. For those who enjoy this weekly dose of sexiness, I apologize. I am unable to provide said dose today.
I do have a good reason, though. Yesterday was exhausting to say the least. The wedding I referenced was dramatic in ways I did not expect. I prefer not to go into details. Again, there’s a good reason for that. Just know that I am still recovering and so is everyone involved.
In lieu of some Sunday Thoughts, please enjoy this video from the YouTube channel, Storytime With Reddit. It involves strippers and real stories about them. That should provide just enough sexiness until next Sunday. Enjoy!
The following is a video for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s a bit of a shift from my previous videos. In this, I try to dissect certain TV tropes from some of my favorite shows. For this video, I’m breaking down how capitalism manifests in two distinct characters, namely Montgomery Burns from “The Simpsons” and Bob Belcher from “Bob’s Burgers.”
I’m very curious to see what kind of response I get here. If you like what you see with this video and want to see more like it, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy!
The following is a video for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s an effort on my part to argue that “Terminator Genysis” was a better movie than people remember. I know many may not agree. I’m willing to take that chance. Enjoy!
Sometimes, you need to do something that expands, twists, or utterly obliterates your perspective. I’ve come to value that more and more as the years go on. When I was young, I had a tendency to get neurotic and obsessive about insanely trivial things.
I’m not just talking about my grades, what clothes I buy, or how I take my coffee. I was so uptight, at times, that I got upset when the school bus was late. I thought not being on time to anything was the end of the goddamn world. From my perspective, it was because I only ever saw things in a narrow, regimented context.
As I got older, that changed. I saw that the world was much bigger than my 10th grade mid-term. The universe was also bigger. Seeing yourself as just a small part of something that’s unbelievably big in a very literal sense changes many things, your perspective being the first.
It can jarring, but humbling. It’s not easy to accept just how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things, but it also reminds you that your significance is still yours to define. It’s just a matter of seeing the forest while tending to your own particular trees.
To that end, I’d like to share a video that shook my perspective to a point where my head hurt, albeit in the best possible way. It’s an old video, but a good one. It’s a simple, 11-minute demonstration that helps people understand a 10-dimensional universe.
Now, this isn’t some sci-fi technobabble from a comic book, nor is it some sort of wild speculation from someone who ingested too much LSD. The idea that we live in a 10-dimensional universe is an actual scientific field of study. Specifically, it’s a theoretical model that attempts to to reconcile the standard model of particle physics with the existence of gravity.
I’m not a physicist, but you don’t need to be one in order to appreciate the concept. Watch the video. See for yourself what it means to live in a 10-dimensional universe. See what it does to your perspective on everything. You might be surprised by it.
Is your brain still intact? If not, take all the time you need. Hopefully, this has tweaked your perspective in all the right ways.
The following is a video for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s part of my comic gems series that highlights an overlooked or underrated gem from the world of comics. Enjoy!
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