Netflix-Sharknado and Black Fish

For reasons unclear to me, my family has been all about ocean movies this week, and the spectrum is pretty wide-Sharknado and Black Fish.

The good thing about Netflix is the streaming video feature. My daughter hears about both Sharknado and Black Fish, looks them up and the next thing I know, we're having an ocean film festival.




So let's talk about Sharknado first. It's bad on so many levels that I have to think that John Heard demanded his character be killed early so that he wouldn't have to suffer in the film. I don't know if it's intentionally bad, like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, or just bad because it's just bad.

I knew I was in trouble from the beginning, when my daughter pointed out that tornados form over land and hurricanes form over water. That being said, it was bad from the title and only got worse as the movie progressed forward. Not to spoil the plot, let's just say that sharks fall from the sky and eat people.

I'll never get those two hours back. But at least I didn't have to pay a rental fee. The worst part, though, is I'll probably watch the sequel-and I've already downloaded the theme song from eMusic.

Black Fish, though, had a profound effect on me. I'll never go to Sea World again, in spite of the morbid curiosity that I really want to satisfy by eyeballing Tilikum, the killer Killer Whale that the movie is about. I totally respect everyone that is boycotting Sea World Orlando (Heart, Barenaked Ladies, Joan Jett, the Beach Boys, Trace Adkins, Trisha Yearwood, Pat Benatar and REO Speedwagon, according to Wikipedia). The LA Times reports that Disney Pixar creative team is changing the storyline of Finding Dory after seeing Black Fish shortly after the films release in August.

It's like Supersize Me and Fast Food Nation (the book, not the movie, which was pretty lame), the one-two punch that got me to stop eating at McDonalds. I understand why places like Sea World-or any zoo in the world exists. People want to experience nature and can't get to nature where it exists. So we set up places where people can interact with nature safely. And places like Sea World do provide insight into the animals housed there. But should animals be kept in captivity for my amusement?

A healthy whale swims thousands of miles in his normal life probably isn't that happy in a tank, regardless of the tank size. I don't know how much awareness an orca actually has, but if they can experience happiness, they most likely won't be experiencing it with a trainer on their back.

I just read Sea World's rebuttal, and I'm not overly convinced by what the park considers misrepresentations.

Netflix both and make your decisions on their quality.