Okay. First things first, this post is going to include a big phat SPOILER. So this is your official SPOILER alert. If you don't want to hear about the ending of this movie, stop reading, go away, get out of here now! After this however, abandon all ye hope! So...moving on...Saw this flick over the Thankstaking holidays, part of family ritual and my Pops loves this kind of thing. Wasn't going to see it because I just thought it'd be a silly blockbuster--even though the apocalyptic scenes looked great. But, I gotta admit, this flick wasn't so bad. As far as science goes--not to mention anthropology (butchering Mayan belief systems)--it was laughable. And the heroes defy the odds of imminent destruction so often they are evolutionary wonders. But, perhaps it won me over because I was surprised that they had a black character of depth (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who plays a scientist--not a military guy or the sidekick, but the actual brainiac. Yes there was a typical black president at the end-of-the-world (a running theme in Hollywood) but even he was given a differing role. What did annoy me about the movie was that except for the Chinese and Japanese, no other country populated mostly by people of color made the survival list. Even when they're saving "humanity's culture," it's the Mona Lisa and Michaelango's David that you see--nada else I can remember. There's an explanation for this a bit at the end, which fits nicely into the plot, that it's mostly the wealthy (and hence wealthy nations) that get to select who lives or dies. The "poor South" or "Third World," where most of humanity lives, is left to die in the massive upheaval--even if some of them are the smartest people on the planet, as is shown through a graphic scene in India. As for Africa--in what has become typical for these flicks, the entire continent does a disappearing act. Who doesn't remember Independence Day, when Africa is represented by two half-nude Maasai children walking through tall grass, to gaze at the wreckage of alien ships, not a hint of modernity about them. So just when I thought about the only thing directly from Africa in this flick would be the elephants and giraffes to be preserved aboard the "arks" with the fortunate few of humanity, the ending leaves a surprise.The only continent left on Earth is...Africa. And as the film ends, and pans away, the several hundred thousand survivors of the apocalypse are seen heading towards it, to begin anew. Following The Day After Tommorrow, where the survivors of the "First World" are sent scurrying to live in dependency on their once scorned neighbors of the global south, this is the second apocalyptic flick with this theme.So here's my question--what the heck happened to Africa? Was there upheaval there too? Was it "wiped clean" of it's inhabitants so that others could come settle? That's a disturbing thought rife with colonialist sentiment. But then I recall, the images they showed of the continent had familar swaths of green, which would be vegetation that could not have survived the floods that consumed the rest of the planet. So does this mean Africa went mostly untouched? Did most of its population and culture and ecosystems survive? And will the continent now have to contend with the arrival of the most recent colonizers of what is left of the industrial world? That'd make for a heck of a sequel--"2013- The Scramble for Africa." Fanfaction anyone?Your thoughts if you got em'...
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