Monday, August 13, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, August 13, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
15
'Bourne' holds viewers' attention
'Bourne' again, the
legacy continues with
a new face
By AKSHAY SETH
DailyArts Writer
I'll be the first to admit that I
wasn't expecting much from the
fourth installment of the Bourne
series. Why? The
same old reasons *
any fan of the tril-
ogy would likely The Boume
list - No Damon,L
no Greengrass
and a plotline At Quality16
thatseemed like a and Rave
direct, unimagi-
native rip-off of Universal
the first three
films. In other words, the project
had all the tell-tale signs of a Hol-
lywood studio struggling to milk
the last few dimes out of a franchise
that didn't really need any more
screen time. But as it so happens,
"The Bourne Legacy," although
flawed, isn't a complete failure:
There's no point dancing around
the most obvious mistake here -
the storyline centers on the pain-
fully dull premise that "there was
never just one" super-spy. It's a
cheap way to start off a reboot and
the blandness behind it all never
gives the script an opportunity to
grab the audience. Instead, writer
and.director Tony Gilroy ("Michael
Clayton") leaves us thinking 'No
shit. Would the United States of
America really put all their money
behind one program?'
Of course not. But we are told to
take this as some kind of unprec-
edented revelation. The product
of this revelation is Aaron Cross
(Jeremy Renner, "The Avengers").
Cross is a covert agent for Outcome,
a government-funded agency with
many of the same directives as
Treadstone, the infamous program
that produced Jason Bourne..
Interestingly, Gilroy chose to
set the film along a timeline run-
ning parallel to the events of "The
Bourne Ultimatum." Most of the
action takes place around the time
Jason Bourne re-enters the coun-
try and helps Pamela Landy expose
the CIA's role in the illicit activities
of the Treadstone Initiative. Con-
sequently, the U.S. government is
forced to do damage control to pro-
tect many of the other beta stage
training procedures still on the
drawing board. Surprise, surprise
- the first step of said "damage con-
trol" involves terminating Outcome
along with all of its agents. And
thus, the manhunt begins.
At its best, the action in the film
is intelligent if not thrilling. Rather
than Greengrass's shaky, seizure-
inducing camera work, Gilroy opts
for a more straight-laced approach
to the fight sequences. For most of
the movie, the gambit works. The
stunts are well orchestrated and
paced beautifully until we wind
down towards the tail end of the
film, which involves a drawn out
Poorly-timed primaries
City council elections should be non-partisan
Last week's elections were - for the most part - quite uneventful.
What seemed to dominate headlines, rather was the low voter
turnout in Ann Arbor. With many people on summer vacation
and even more students living elsewhere this summer, voter turnout
'Can you feel the love tonight?'
motorcycle chase that fizzles away
into an overwhelmingly unsatisfy-
ing conclusion.
The writing is similarly impres-
sive yet hollow - missing the
nuanced brilliance of the predeces-
sors. The film manages to keep us
engaged, but the excitement and
unpredictability from the original
trilogy is nowhere to be found.
A bonus is the easy charisma
behind Renner's acting. Yes, that
magnetic vulnerability Matt
Damon was able to create in Jason
Bourne is not present in this film.
But Renner remarkably manages
to avoid Damon's shadow by some-
how making us feel sorry for his
character. As a result, we end up
caring about Aaron Cross and this
entire unfortunate mess he finds
himself in. Is it the same way we
felt about Bourne? No. But when
all's said and done, you can only
expect so much.
was minimal.
Absentee ballots are a way
to combat this problem, but
unfortunately many students do
not seek out this option or are
unaware that it exists. However,
Ann Arbor City Council makes
decisions that have a profound
effect on studentlife, and many of
the recipients of these decisions
aren't physically present to voice
their opinion for whom they feel
represents them the best. City
Council elections should be non-
partisan and elections should
only happen in November so that
students have the opportunity to
influence decisions that greatly
affect them.
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012, was the
primary election day for Ann
Arbor residents to vote for city
council members, state represen-
tatives and state senators. When
polls closed on Tuesday, "pre-
cinct 1-1 had counted 15 ballots
(.77 percent of registered voters).
Precinct 1-2 had counted four
votes (49 percent of registered
voters). Precinct 4-1 had count-
ed eight ballots (39 percent of
registered voters) while 3-2 had
counted 59 ballots (2.79 percent
of registered voters)." Low voter
turnout is expected, and this year
was no exception.
With less than 1 percent of
voters voting in many precincts,.
this past election does not accu-
rately represent the University's
student body. Elections must be
pushed back until November, or
else Ann Arbor will continue to
let a minority of residents deter-
mine who will possibly represent
them. This isn't not democracy
and it certainly isn't represen-
tative. Changing the day of the
election is the simplest way to
give students the opportunity to
actively contribute to their com-
munity.
CAMPAIGN
From Page 7
conspire to bring "insourcing" of
Chinese laborers to the North Caro-
lina district. The bylaws to do so can
only be dodged if a Republican can-
didate can oust Cam. Meet Marty
- someone who wore Crocs to his
mother's funeral - the best worst
option for the partners in crime.
Since his father refers to him
as, "Richard Simmons' hobbit
son" and his brother nicknames
him, "Mouthful of pubes," Marty's
only stimulus is his Jesus-loving,
wouldn't-hurt-a-fat-kid nuclear
family. The kin's character is exem-
plified during a dinner-table confes-
sional scene in which the Marty's
wife voices her attraction to Drew
Carey and an under-10 son admits
to having a beer with an elderly man
down the street, followed by Marty
getting down to business with the
obligatory squeezing of his spouse's
jugs.
The meat of the story marinates
as the candidates one-up each other
-via unconscionable and downright
hilarious television ads - one of
which borders on a certain Tommy
Lee/Pam Anderson tape. Another
rests on a candidate "adopting" the
son of his opponent. It is entirely
outrageous, butwhere would a farce
be without that "Billy Madison"-
caliber of folly?
Unironically, the film ironi-
cally illustrates the primo bullshit
that pervades politics. Candidates,
in some cases, don't wholly com-
prehend the messages, plans and
vernaculars they advocate. "The
Campaign" exaggerates this stupid-
ity in a fresh and effective manner.
Cam and Marty make Hermain
Cain (in his prime, mind you) speak
like Ayn Rand.
The only problem with "The
Campaign" is its flagrant false start
in avoiding banality and by spend-
ing too much time with the lens on
the air-conditioned commentators.
Show us the race for crying out
loud! Fortunately, the false start is,
by and large, negligible.
Through tools like a one-day-
stand in a Porta-Potty and punch-
ing a rugrat io the jowls, "The
Campaign" succeeds for what it is:
slapstick to produce guffaws, not
redefine the comedy genre (see:
"Ghostbusters").
During your post-showing dis-
cussion with your cynical buddy,
one question begs itself, "Did you
laugh?" A simple three-letter word
should suffice. And in a brisk 85
minutes, Cam's kindly son epito-
mizes our director's LOL-fest, "Win
at all costs." Jay Roach is a fierce
competitor, like Usain Bolt - farci-
cally speaking, of course.
Time to act
Last week, my hometown finally tog with climate change. And even
received a considerable amount of if global warming isn't connected to
rain after weeks of miserably high this particular drought, we still need
temperatures and to take action to prevent ourselves
minimal precipi- from inflicting further damage on our
tation. It was a planet - before it's too late.
welcome relief
and a bit of a sur-
prise - I was so
accustomed to the It's time to
lack of rain that
I almost forgot address global
that it's supposed MICHAEL
to rain every now SPAETH warming.
and then during
the summer.
Unfortunately,
many people across the country have So far, President Barack Obama
been suffering from an even more seems to be concerned about climate
severe absence of rain. According change. In an interview with Roll-
to the Aug. 7 Drought Monitor map, ing Stone earlier this year, Obama
52.27 percent of the U.S. and Puer- outlined a few steps that he wants to
to Rico is "in moderate drought or take to help deal with global warm-
worse and 38.48 percentis "in severe tog: "Doubling fuel-efficiency stan-
drought or worse." The PBS New- dards on cars is going to take a whole
sHour also noted during its Friday lot of carbon out of our atmosphere.
broadcast that the U.S. Department We're going to continue to push on
of Agriculture "now projects 10.8 bil- energy efficiency, and renewable
lion bushels of corn to be produced," energy standards, and the promo-
which is "the lowest average corn tion of green energy." He also believes
yield in 15 years." that we can find a way to address cli-
A few people have been citing mate change "that is entirely compat-
global warming as the cause of recent ible with strong economic growth
record-breaking hot temperatures and job creation - that taking steps,
and droughts. In a recent op-ed for for example, to retrofit buildings all
the Washington Post, James Hansen, across America with existing tech-
who directs the NASA Goddard Insti- nologies will reduce our power usage
tute for Space Studies, wrote that "it by 15 or 20 percent. That's an achiev-
is no longer enough to say that global able goal, and we should be getting
warming will increase the likelihood started now."
of extreme weather and to repeat the In his op-ed, Hansen proposed
caveat that no individual weather the establishment of "a gradually
event can be directly linked to cli- rising fee on carbon collected from
mate change. To the contrary, our fossil-fuel companies, with 100 per-
analysis shows that, for the extreme cent of the money rebated to all legal
hot weather of the recent past, there residents on a per capita basis" to help
is virtually no explanation other than reduce global warming. He argued
climate change." that "this would stimulate innova-
While some aren't convinced that tions and create a robustclean-energy
global warming is the cause of the economy with millions of new jobs."
current drought, an increasing num- These ideas are certainly much
ber of reputable voices are empha- more promising than those of Mitt
sizing the monumental threats that Romney, who said in October that
global warming poses for our planet. "we don'twknow what's causingtcli-
In a recent op-ed for The New York mate change on this planet." His
Times, Prof. Richard Muller from running mate, Paul Ryan, wrote in
the University of California, Berke- December 2009, "Unilateral eco-
ley declared he is "a converted skep- nomic restraint in the name of fight-
tic" about global warming. He wrote ing global warming has been a tough
that the results of a recent analysis sell in our communities, where much
conducted by the Berkeley Earth of the state is buried under snow."
Surface Temperature project "show But no matter what we decide to do,
that the average temperature of the we need to make sure that we take
earth's land has risen by two and decisive action to deal with climate
a half degrees Fahrenheit over the change right now, before we damage
past 250 years, including an increase our planet beyond repair.
of one and a half degrees over the We can't wait until we're suffering
most recent 50 years. Moreover, it from natural disasters to start seni-
appears likely that essentially all of ously addressing global warming. We
this increase results from the human have to take action now, so that these
emission of greenhouse gases." natural disasters will never happen in
If global warming is contributing the first place.
to the current drought, then this sum-
mer should be a loud wake-up call Michael Spaeth can be reached
for people all over the country that at micspa@umich.edu
we need to get serious about deal-
Finance the arts
New millage in A2 will enhance the city's individuality
Ann Arbor: is considered by many to be one of the most well-
known cultural hubs in Michigan. And while Michigan foot-
ball games may attract many of the city's tourists, the art
scene is a major part of what distinguishes Ann Arbor. To maintain
this vibrant art scene, residents pay taxes. A proposed millage would
replace the current Percent for Art program. Voters should support
this new proposed millage as it promises to bring concerts and events
to Ann Arbor that will make the city even more attractive to tourists,
simultaneously giving residents a vibrant city in which to live and
work.
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A ballot proposal that would
change the way Ann Arbor pub-
lic art is funded was announced
Thursday night. City Council-
member Christopher Taylor (D-
Ward 3) is the primary sponsor
of this proposal. According to
Taylor, this art millage would
cost the average household
$10.97 a year. The current Per-
cent for Art program takes away
more than $2 million from vari-
ous city funds and is extremely
limiting. The proposed millage
would be more-flexible and allow
for temporary installments, con-
certs and events.
Ann Arbor is thriving through-
out.the economic downturn com-
pared to other cities in Michigan,
This can be attributed, in part,
to the individuality of the city.
Ann Arbor's local government
has the responsibility to serve its
citizens beyond their basic rights
and maintain an arts scene that
separates it from other cities, thus
encouraging tourism. This mill-
age promises to do so, and voters
should support it.