Sofija Mijalkovic

spoilers ahead The movie “Arrival”, directed by Denis Villeneuve came out in 2016. It starred Amy Adams in the lead role as a linguistics professor, Louise Banks, and Jeremy Renner as Ian, a physicist. They are brought to one of the twelve alien landing sites to figure out what the aliens want, but for that they need to learn their language and teach them English. The good thing, maybe even amazing is that this movie is one of the rare philosophical movies today, with an amazing story and concept. One of the best elements of the movie is the way it handles the focus on communication and understanding. Communication can be incredibly difficult, especially when it comes to other species and backgrounds that are much different from ours. The Arrival does a great job of portraying this challenge, showing how nonverbal cues and inflections can be used to bridge the gap between cultures. Banks and the aliens must work hard to make each other understand, showing a great amount of mutual respect for the other. The movie also focuses heavily on the idea of time and how it can affect our lives. They presented that idea through the alien language, saying that it’s non linear, but circular, a cycle. Just as we are three dimensional beings, we are not bound by length or width, the aliens and their language are fourth dimensional and are not bound by time, so anyone who speaks the language is also not bound by time, but can see their past, present and future at the same time. That’s where we get the answer why the aliens even came to Earth. They saw their future, saw they needed help from humans and came to Earth to help the humans evolve in order for the humans to be able to help in the future. To help them evolve they offered humans a weapon, their language. The first human who learned the language was Louise Banks who throughout the movie actually sees the future and the past at the same time. We begin the movie thinking her daughter had already died but then learn that her daughter hadn’t even been born she was just seeing her future. But there’s a philosophical question right there, once she can see the future, can she change it? Should she have a daughter she knows is going to die? Or is she going to try to save her life? And did the aliens see their demise and are trying to prevent that by getting the help of humans and by that trying to change the future, or did they already see the humans helping them.

I also really love the design of the aliens and alien ships. Although you can’t really see the full body of the aliens because they are mostly shown as the picture above, and the one time you can see them they’re not very visible, because they are covered in smoke, I still love the ominous feeling they give off. Below is the picture of how the aliens really look. One bad thing I want to mention is that the movie shows the situation from only one point of view, America’s. It’s very subjective instead of taking the true scientist route and being more objective. I think showing how the entire situation was unveiling in different cultures could have been more interesting and that they wasted that opportunity to make an even better film.

 

Overall I think the positives out way the negatives. This is a pretty good and fun movie and I will always recommend it to sci-fi fans.

 

Capitalism is an economic system in which all the means of making money are private, owned not by country, but by people. It’s a system that allows accumulation of wealth and encourages competition for private profit. Most of the countries today have capitalist economies and in some of them, mainly in the USA, exist laws that favor companies rather than people.  Compared with Europe, companies in the USA have it much easier, they can grow bigger and faster, because of the larger market, but the people have it worse. They have less vacation days, no maternity leave and the biggest thing, nothing is free. No free healthcare, daycare, schools, because everything is private.

Feudalism in the middle ages

Capitalism is believed to have started in the 18th century, maybe even the late 17th century after the demolition of feudalism. Capitalism and feudalism may be similar, but there are some key differences, in capitalism everyone is free to become rich and powerful, while in feudalism you have to be born in wealth and power, meaning aristocratic to be able to live like that. Also in capitalism people own the companies and land, while in feudalism, while the noble makes money off of it, the land belongs to the king.

The first capitalist country and the first global economic superpower was Great Britain. They rose to that position in the 19th century because of the technology they had at the time was more advanced than the other countries. Advanced manufacturing technologies allowed faster production and railway systems and steamships allowed faster connection to other countries, meaning more buyers. With that more companies came to be and the ones that already existed became so big they started monopolizing the economy.

British East India Company logos

The Boston tea party

One of those monopolizing companies actually grew so big they became probably the most powerful company to ever exist. British East India Company. That company is a good example of capitalist evil. They monopolized their tea so much, that they didn’t let the settlers in the US sell their own tea, but made them buy theirs while also making them pay taxes for the US and for Great Britain. In some way they could be credited with creating the US, because it was their tea that was thrown in the ocean during the Boston tea party. The real evil of this company can be seen in the east Asia though. They not only monopolized the economy so much that no other companies could even start to exist, but they started selling opium and other addictive drugs, so that people would get addicted and start buying more and more from them.

To summarize, in one hand capitalism can be good, because it gives everyone freedom to become rich while doing whatever they wish, no matter who they are, it produces wealth and innovation and gives power to the people. And on the other hand capitalism can be bad, because once the first person comes to the top, they want to stay there and will do whatever they can do to so, including monopolizing the market (Disney is a great example) and stopping innovations.

 

The MCU wasn’t always bad. In the beginning it was new, original, fun. Sure, not all movies were good, but still it would be fun to watch all of them as a continuation of each other, as a series, but with movies instead of episodes. It is bad now though. It’s bad because they started to value quantity instead of quality. For example, in 2014 only 2 MCU movies came out and in 2023 there are already announced 4 movies and 4 tv series.

I understand that it was bound to happen, that the MCU would have to get bigger at one point, but it didn’t have to be so rushed.  With the Infinity saga they had a long time to establish all the characters, the world they live in, who’s good and who’s evil. Now with the Multiverse saga, they want to achieve the same goal as they did with the Infinity saga, but in a shorter span and with more of the world and characters to introduce. Keep in mind the Infinity saga lasted 11 years and now the Multiverse saga is about to end in 2025 with Avengers Kang Dynasty and Avengers Secret Wars. Counting that it started in 2021, that is only 4 years.

I think that Disney saw how much money the MCU made with Infinity War and Endgame and is pushing the end of the Multiverse saga closer and closer because they again want that huge amount of money from the movies. I think they ultimately doomed themselves, because a lot of people I know, who watch MCU, have gotten so bored of it that they just don’t care anymore, they stopped following the series, they stopped going to the movies. Sooner or later, everyone will get bored, usually people do with every franchise. The thing that is dooming the MCU is the mere amount of it. I think no person in 2025 will want to watch it, because then they will literally have to watch 38 movies and 16 series, probably even more.

 

 

I hate it when people want to watch it in chronological order. That way you’re just going to spoil major plotlines for yourself, and not get to enjoy some easter eggs later down the line. I believe that the best way to watch the MCU is to watch it in the order of the movies and series coming out, with some non-MCU Marvel movies sprinkled in for better understanding of the stories and easter eggs in the later movies.

 

The Infinity Saga

1.  Iron Man
2. The Incredible Hulk
3.  Iron Man 2
4.  Thor
5.  Captain America: The First Avenger
6.  The Avengers
7.  Iron Man 3
8.  Agents of Shield season 1 part 1 (episodes 1-7)
9.  Thor: The Dark World
10.  Agents of Shield season 1 part 2 (episodes 8-16)
11.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier
12.  Agents of Shield season 1 part 3 (episodes 17-22)
13.  Guardians of the Galaxy
14.  Avengers: Age of Ultron
15.  Agents of Shield season 2
16.  Ant-Man
17.  Captain America: Civil War
18.  Agents of Shield season 3
19.  Doctor Strange
20.  Agents of Shield season 4
21.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2
22.  Spider-Man: Homecoming
23.  Thor: Ragnarok
24.  Black Panther
25.  Avengers: Infinity War
26.  Ant-Man and the Wasp
27.  Captain Marvel
28.  Avengers: Endgame

 

Non-MCU Marvel movies

1.  X-Men
2. X2
3. X-Men: The Last Stand
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
5. X-Men: First Class
6. The Wolverine
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past
8. Deadpool
9. X-Men: Apocalypse
10. Logan
11. Deadpool 2
12. Daredevil
13. Jessica Jones
14. The Punisher
15. Fantastic Four
16. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
17. Ghost Rider
18. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
19. Blade
20. Blade II
21. Blade Trinity
22. Spider-Man
23. Spider-Man 2
24. Spider-Man 3
25. The Amazing Spider-Man
26. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
27. Venom

 

The Multiverse Saga

1. Spider-Man: Far From Home
2. WandaVision
3. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
4. Loki season 1
5. Black Widow
6. What If…? season 1
7. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings
8. Eternals
9. Hawkeye
10. Spider-Man: No Way Home
11. Moon-Knight
12. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
13. Ms. Marvel
14. Thor: Love & Thunder
15. I Am Groot
16. She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
17. Werewolf by Night
18. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
19. Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
21. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
22. Secret Invasion
23. Loki season 2
24. The Marvels
25. What If…? season 2
26. Echo
27. X-Men ’97
28. Deadpool and Wolverine
29. Agatha All Along
30. What If…? season 3
31. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
32. Captain America: Brave New World
33. Daredevil: Born Again

Eternals in Serbia came out on 11th November. My family was in Vienna then, so I decided to watch it with my friend on the 12th. I spent the whole day thinking about the movie, avoiding the spoilers, thinking if this movie would change the whole marvel cinematic universe as I know it. I have been a fan on mcu for at least 10 years now, and after the long 2020, I can’t help but get excited for the finally released Black Widow, Shang Chi, and the Eternals. I ran in the theater thrilled to watch the movie, and walked out confused. I mean, it’s supposed to be Marvel, it’s supposed to be fun, full of jokes, and not take itself too seriously. And yet Eternals tried to do that, they tried to make serious movie, of course they add a few jokes here and there, but the feel of it is just different. So much that when I went to watch the second time, it was painfully boring. And I watched Shang-Chi 3 times, knowing full well all the scenes, and still had a lot more fun than watching Eternals.

 

One of the things I hate that mcu movies use constantly, especially, Eternals is the thought that Earth is so special. I mean, how many universe threatening events can happen on just one planet? And suddenly Ajak, who is said to have lead millions of planets to their doom, just suddenly decides that Earth is special? Because the snap just suddenly happened on it. If she feels such remorse, why not save countless other planets and lives.

 

Also, another thought, Thanos is also an eternal. A very powerful and important mutant eternal, who learned to control the cosmic energy, also called a Titanian eternal. So I think it’s safe to assume that he knows about the celestials planting other celestials in the planets and purposely increasing the number of intelligent life on it, so the celestials can rise. Well, what if Thanos, with the snap, wanted to stop that, or just prolong the process, because he’s cutting the population in half, therefore less intelligent life for the celestial to feed of and less destruction of planets and living beings.

Branislav Andjelic is Nikola’s friend and coworker whom I met a few days ago. He is a very interesting person, mostly because he’s had experience in a lot of professions during his life.

He wanted to become a journalist when he was younger, so he decided to go to a journalism university. He was in his third year when he got a job opportunity as a translator in the middle east. He took the job because the pay was really good, but he had to put a pause on his university studies. After that job, he came back to Belgrade and tried to finish his studies, but after some time he realized he just wasn’t cut out for all the studying anymore. Not long after his translating job, he went to Kenya, where he bought a film camera and helped his friend film a documentary about a Ugandan general Tito Okello, for which they got the “Best documentary movie in Yugoslavia” award. After Kenya, he didn’t go back to Serbia, but he went to USA, finished an economy university and began his job as an economics professor in the USA. When he got back to Belgrade he worked for the Serbian president Zoran Djindjic. One of the many things he did was organize a group of people who made the official country domain name for Serbia .rs. Unfortunately, after Djindjic was assassinated, Branislav was sent to jail and he stayed there for three whole months. After he got out he started his wine business, which produces one of the, if not the best wine in the whole Balkan.

He’s probably one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met because he’s accomplished so much in his life. I think he is a very intelligent, hard-working person, who got lucky in the early start of his career with the job opportunity he got, but the person he became today and the position he holds currently are simply the result of his hard work.

Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor and psychotherapist. He’s the founder of the school of individual psychology.

Now you might be wondering what is individual psychology?

Well individual psychology states that every thought and wish a person has actually comes from their fear of their own inferiority and their need to be better than other people.

My personal favorite few of Alfred Adler’s theories are:

• Everybody’s aspiring to be perfect
• Types of people
• Theology

 

Everybody’s aspiring to be perfect

According to Adler every human being is trying their best to be their own perfect self in their own way. He considers it a completely normal and natural process that develops in people as they grow. It’s of course different for every person, as all people are different. Now when Adler says everyone’s aspiring to be perfect, he doesn’t mean having perfect grades, or perfect looks, he means that each person wants to be what they believe is perfect. And their aspiration to achieve such perfection would lead them to work really hard, until they get the satisfaction from fulfilling their wish and achieving their perfection.

A healthy person would direct their need for perfection and success towards social goals, but a mentally unstable person would rather direct them towards themselves.

 

Types of people

Adler wrote about four different personality types that appear in people

 1.  Dominant and superior type

By its name it’s obvious this type is the dominant, aggressive leader that are extremely energetic

2.   Socially useful type

This type is quite similar to the dominant type in terms of energy, but the difference is that dominant people tend to look more out for themselves and make decisions that would definitely benefit them more, while the socially useful type would firstly look out for the social circle and the people around them and try to make their actions benefit more the people than themselves. 

3.   Leaning type

The leaning type is described as people who have very little energy and need other people’s help to get through life.

4.   Avoiding type

This type has the least amount of energy, sometimes it’s said that they don’t have any energy. They avoid social interactions as much as they can and they often tend to get lost in their own heads filled with their comfortable thoughts and little perfect worlds.

 

Theology

Theology is based on the fact that people are more motivated by their expectations of the future, rather than their experiences from the past.

Adler had this thought that contradicted Freud’s idea that states that the past strongly affects how we act currently and motivates our motivations and future desires.

 

5.   Jim Gaffigan

Jim Gaffigan’s jokes are mostly based on his experiences with his family, his failed attempts at slimming down and overall his day to day life. He’s a very clean comic, meaning he doesn’t talk about vulgar things and doesn’t use curse words. Because of that he is a comic that you can watch with your family and it can be fun for everyone.

4.   Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart’s a very funny and relatable comedian that also jokes about his family and his every day-to-day problems, but unlike Jim Gaffigan, he uses a bit harsher languages and his shows are more oriented towards adults than children.

3.   John Mulaney

John Mulaney is a comic that can be enjoyed by everyone. His jokes are based on his everyday life which mostly isn’t that different from others, but the way that his jokes are told makes everyone crack up. He’s also a pretty clean comic, but you may catch him swearing here and there.

2.   Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais is a brilliant comic that can make fun of everyone and everything. Some people may already know him from the British television series “The Office” but he has done so much more than just that. If you haven’t already, check out his movies and television shows like “After Life” and “The Invention of Lying”.

1.   George Carlin

George Carlin is definitely on of the best comedians that have ever lived and a lot of people, including me, would say that he was the best. He joked about whatever he wanted and didn’t care if it was considered inappropriate at that time. Because of his huge success he was pronounced as “The dean of counterculture comedians”.

“American Psycho” is a movie directed by Mary Harron. It describes a bizarre concept of how an insecure and schizophrenic man, Patrick Bateman, who has almost never ending sick illusions about him murdering anyone he sees as better than him and for his sick and twisted sexual needs can be a wealthy investment banker. Him being in such a high position while he’s clearly sick and suffering from schizophrenia is just proof that big companies, like the one that Patrick Bateman worked at, clearly don’t care about who works for them, as long as they are making money.

The movie first shows Patrick, played by Christian Bale, as a psychopathic serial killer, but at the end we find out that he is just a wimp that is sick enough to imagine all the horrific things he does, but isn’t brave enough to actually go through with them.

Not all the people who saw the movie agree that Patrick Bateman isn’t a serial killer. Some think that he did kill all the people that were shown in the movie except Paul Allen. I don’t agree with that, if he did really kill them, then why would the bodies just disappear in one night?

Overall I really loved this movie and would strongly recommend it to everybody reading this who hasn’t already seen the movie.

Steven Spielberg is one of the most talented and popular movie directors to this day. He has had numerous box-office hits and award winning movies that everyone loves. Here are my top 5 favourite Steven Spielberg’s movies:

5.   Jaws

Release date: June 20, 1975

As the poster already says it, this movie is a thrilling and terrifying motion picture that is going to keep you at the edge of the seat from the beginning till the end.

4.   Jurassic Park

Release date: June 9, 1993

Much like Jaws, Jurassic Park is a thrilling movie that has both a well told story and amazing CGI scenes with dinosaurs. If you like dinosaurs you will probably like this movie too.

3.   E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Release date: June 10, 1982

In comparison to Jaws and Jurassic Park this movie is more directed towards kids. It doesn’t have human-eating sharks or dinosaurs but an alien that was abandoned by its kind a boy who wants to help the alien.

2.   Saving Private Ryan

Release date: July 24, 1998

Saving Private Ryan has one of the best opening scenes in the history of all movies. It’s an amazing film that properly explains the hell that people go through because of war. If you are looking for new movies to watch I really recommend this one.

1.   Schindler’s List

Release date: November 30, 1993

This is one of my favourite movies of all time. The story is about Oskar Schindler, a German Nazi, who after seeing the horrors of Polish concentration camps has a change of heart and tries to help his Jewish employees. This movie has a bit heavier theme than most of Steven Spielberg’s movies, but it’s still an amazing movie that everyone has to watch at least once in their life.