I have always enjoyed a good movie. There is just something about character arcs, a good plot, and, especially, some memorable quotes.
Here is a rundown of the latest movies that I watched.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I watched Hamnet on Peacock. It is about how the death of William Shakespeare’s son inspired the tragedy Hamlet. To me, the best part of the movie is in the opening scenes when Shakespeare first meets his soon-to-be wife as she is practicing the ancient sport of falconry. Now, it was actually a hawk. Is it still called falconry, then? I digress.
Then, on Memorial Day, I watched Valkyrie with Tom Cruise. This movie came out a few years ago and is about a conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. If you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Spoiler alert... it raises one main question in my mind. We see Hitler’s bunker being blown up, and then the characters in the movie assume Hitler is dead. Later in the movie, you hear news reports that Hitler is alive. You then hear Hitler on a radio broadcast. So, here is the question. Was Hitler actually killed in the blast? He is only heard but is not seen. I know propaganda was highly used among the Third Reich, so this could be a valid argument. As Church Lady said on Saturday Night Live, “Talk amongst yourselves.”
The other night, I watched the original Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren. This is always a classic, and it has a number of religious undertones about evil not winning over goodness. I cannot wait to watch the new one once it comes out in theaters. As a side note, I still have my He-Man lunch box. I just need to dig it out the closet.
Lately, I have also been watching some really good podcasts on YouTube. One of them was Matt Fradd interviewing Malcolm Guite on Pints with Aquinas. It was a great interview that dealt a lot with the friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkein.
What made me decide to write this column is that there is a common thread between all these movies and podcast videos. The common thread is that there is a valid argument against artificial intelligence, which is a hot-button topic today, especially following the release of Pope Leo’s encyclical.
Here is my take. Artificial intelligence is a useful tool, but that is all it is. We should not let it usurp our God-given logic and reason. For example, only a human mind can create a great movie like Masters of the Universe or write a great novel like Lord of the Rings that lasts the test of time.
Artificial intelligence just looks bland and dull. All of the posts I see on social media that are created by artificial intelligence all looks the same.
If artificial intelligence remains unchecked, then we will have a lot in common with another great movie, The Terminator. How can we slow this progression, you ask. Use your God-given creativity to create your own social media posts for one thing.
Ok, maybe I should have used artificial intelligence to write a better column. But, I doubt artificial intelligence digresses.
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