Story of the flu – or: there is no bird like pig’

Posted by: parsley - 01/05/2009, 14:18 0 Comments, 225 Views

(Tagline) Brothers, they say the pandemic swine flu is coming . They say there will be millions of victims. They say we shall all die. Everyone is in crisis, So let me feel threatened as well.

Well, do you still remember those old thrillers about mad cow disease, where the main character was Apocalypse Cow? Then, came Terminator Duck and Chicken Rambo , and now, on tv and in cinemas, here comes Karate Pig, a new movie about biological bomb threats.

(In this rythm, Easter Bunny can bring us something deadly viruses as well. There will follow, one by one, Dolly the sheep, Sylvia the goat, why not, Jack the Kangaroo . I say that it announces a series with great success.) But to tell you, in short, the story.

The action starts in Mexico. Today. (Here I was going to say: “Once upon a time in Mexico…”, because the theme is not at all new, but we'd better not make confusions between the movies ). The action is focused on this guy, Karate Pig, a sort of a Chuck Norris among pigs, only that for the negative side. Actually, the action revolves around him, but he's not the most important villain in the movie, it's his associate, a malefic and mysterious guy, numbered cod AH1N1. One would think that only a 007 kind of guy would beat him, but it's not like that.

Karate Pig, ordinele him the H1N1, spreads terror in the towns where he is traveling, without any discrimination (ie including among his fellows), making more and more victims. Here the script is a little weak, because an experienced viewer who doesn't get scared by such movies, too easily, can ask, for instance:
- How many managed to kill the villain of H1N1? (Answer: hundreds, he says, but we don't know for sure if those people were killed by him, because they were already suffering from various diseases)
- How far have survived the attacks orchestrated by H1N1? (Answer: the rest of world)
- How many of the Karate-Pig's fellows (pigs like him, namely) matures at his din Cauze AH1N1? (Answer: none)
- How many casualties cynical record H1N1 scare us, in comparison to an ordinary flu, let's say? (Answer : minus a few hundred thousand a year, to speak like well-respected economists, now in times of a crisis)
- Etc.

Evident, such questions are absurd and even immoral, since the present film does not aim to compete with Terminator. The script is deliberately keeping us in suspense, and petty questions like : Well, which victims? are answered with subtle suggestions: well, don't worry, they will come!

Furthermore, if we have a little patience, we are immediately offered a clue, which reveals how narrow the perception of some people can be when it comes to an existential tragedy. The true victims of the monstrous agreement between the two criminals are not those who were unlucky enough to run into Karate Pig, but all those who can meet at a certain time, during their current or future life, H1N1 agent in person, because by that time they will already be paralyzed by fear, only at the thought of it, so they will no longer be able do anything. Here we realize suddenly and irreversibly that we, all, can be victims. This is the climax of the action. Moreover, those who are more sensitive by nature realize that they are actually being victims all the time, and they have been like that since they were children: victims of smallpox, of chickenpox, of mumps, of the traffic, of the pollution. However, the tragedy is well dosed and movie doesn't become excessively sentimental. Only enough to keep us interested in what follows. Let's not forget, however, that this is an action movie.

Well, exactly when we realize that disaster can cause perverse H1N1, exactly when we no longer have any hope for our planet and even for the entire galaxy, here comes the hero of the movie, savior of all, named Tamiflu, of Roche.

I agree, here the film follows a classical and always successful scheme used in Superman, Batman, Spiderman or X-man (a remake has been already released, with the American Relenza Glaxo Smith in the leading role) but it's worth mentioning, however, some of its obvious merits.

First, that Tamiflu is far from behaving like a secretive arongant star, and he can be found almost anywhere (in pharmacies). Second, we are told openly from the beginning (in the first part of the movie, in any case), that Tamiflu can paste the evil H1N1 and that even without the need to make it dust Karate Pig (which shows that he is not only a popular guy, but he has, in addition, a good heart, because he does not want to sacrifice the pig for nothing, only because it was wrong and that the H1N1 ĂŽnhÄitat with dezaxatul, but he offers him a second chance). Plus that the movie is not getting absurd, and it doesn't claim that Tamiflu can beat anyone (it is clearly admitted, for instance, that no one in the world could face the Mafia clans Malaria and Aids).

Tamiflu, we are told, only to less strained muscles and it solves the H1N1. And this is all that we need to know so far. well, Here there's another weak link in the script, in my opinion, in the sense that the suspense is damaged a little. Well if we know beforehand that H1N1 can be destroyed without problems Tamiflu, we are not scared of him anymore and we realize that we can no longer be victims. In this moment, we lose all the adrenaline, and where is the pleasure?

Well, This is where the movie director's talent intervene, gracefully compensating the gaps in the script : after we are shown how capable Tamiflu is, we see the wicked Karate Pig, then we see Tamiflu again, who is prepared but nobody calls him because people do not really know him (how irresponsible of them!), and then countless horrors caused by H1N1, then a moment of Tamiflu's training to lift our moral, then we reveal the detailed plans of his evil AH1N1 Mexico-and then the world that- is not enough (of, this is taken from another movie, but who cares about such things anymore) and who laughs at Tamiflu with such conviction, that he makes us doubt the ability of the latter to save the situation…well, and so, one here, one there, I can not say I got bored.

The movie is good, no doubt, and already has an impressive box office. But I will not tell you more because I don't want to ruin your curiosity. However try not to compare it too much with Apocalypse Cow or other older thrillers (if you want original scripts, watch National Geographic), but rather think positively and imagine what future surprises are reserved for us, movie fans and especially thriller fans, in the following movies of this series. Me personally, I can't wait for Terminator Duck II (after all, we were promised one episode every autumn and spring, remember?) but, of course, in my eyes, the Duck could never compete with…Karate Pig is back!

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