Evolution

"Coming to wipe that silly face off your planet."

http://www.movie-scum.com/monster-scum-marathon-day-22-evolution-2001/

A recommendation from Netflix and a weird smiley face led me to watch Evolution the other night. The title suggested it would be horribly offensive to someone with a Christian worldview, while the disarming smiley face suggested it was simply a comedy. It WAS simply a comedy.

The basic premise of this movie is: what if a meteor from outer space crashed on earth carrying microorganisms that evolved about a million times faster than we do? Obviously they take evolution for granted at this point, but they had fun playing with the idea. Since evolution is all about adapting and survival of the fittest, these aliens quickly become a problem for all as they begin to assert their dominance over us silly humans. Oh, and they're nitrogen-based (whereas we're carbon-based) so that has some important implications as well.

This movie definitely carries evolutionist ideology with it, but it doesn't strongly push it down the audience's collective throat. It's more used as a foundation to work from, not a point to prove. Not exactly what I was expected, but the movie, though cheesy at times, was fairly entertaining. Of course, evolution is false, but denying it isn't nearly as fun when making a movie about aliens taking over the planet.

And yes, that smiley face only appears on the box as a promotion device to catch your attention. It's no Ghostbuster insignia used throughout the movie to exemplify a cause.

World-Shaking

The World Ends With You

 http://www.giantbomb.com/the-world-ends-with-you/61-20677/

The World Ends With You came out a few years ago, though I've only played it recently (Black Friday deals go!). It didn't have huge commercial success, but it developed a smaller, devoted following. It's a really fun game and incredibly difficult to get the hang of, but it's also packed with modern values, especially in the opening scene:

This beginning monologue portrays a very relativistic attitude, that we each have our own values and we can't force them on anyone else. Neku is a very antisocial person and always has his headphones on to block out other people. Although we don't block others out to the level Neku does, with our technology we try to control our social environment. No longer must we talk to the people sitting next to us on the plane, but we can plug in our headphones, our kindles, and escape into personal bubbles despite the people all around us. With the internet we can connect to people who share similar values all across the country or world.  Neku radically demonstrates how we isolate ourselves from other people and their values. He believes that other people just drag him down and he's better off without wrestling with the values of others. Although Neku may not be exactly likeable to everyone, he is very relatable.

 http://mangaking904.wordpress.com/

The game doesn't stick with the antisocial image for too long: When Neku is forced into a "game" with life-or-death consequences, he's forced to interact with others. Through this more ideas are introduced and the characters grow as they rub against each other. Neku learns about friendship as he works with his partner, Shiki. She has her own issues: she struggles with self-image and jealousy.

The title of this game, The World Ends With You, relates to everyone's personal "world" or experience. When your world ends with you, it's not a very big world at all. Ultimately, Neku comes to learn, the only way to "enjoy every moment with everything you got" (the motto he adopts from his favorite designer, CAT) is to expand your world a little bit at a time as your world interacts with the worlds of others. 

As a sidebar, this game turns fashion into an interesting game concept. Each area of the city in which the game takes place has a "brands chart." If you equip the characters with the popular brands of clothing, they will receive stat bonuses. If they wear the least popular brand they'll receive negatives. As such, the player needs to go on shopping sprees in order to stay fashionable to get those stat bumps.

One last sidebar: The music in this game is very pop/hip hop. The art style is graffiti-esque and looks like it targets the same audience as the music.

 http://www.giantbomb.com/the-world-ends-with-you/61-20677/