Was this blog my fate?

The Adjustment Bureau

Thompson: You can't outrun your fate, David.
David Norris: I... just disagree with you about what my fate is. I know what I feel for her and it's not gonna change. All I have are the choices that I make, and I choose her. Come what may. (clip)

500 Days of Summer

“If Tom had learned anything... it was that you can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that's all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence... Tom had finally learned, there are no miracles. There's no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be. He knew, he was sure of it now.” (clip, play at 1:46)

With the exciting life that I live and I know you’re all very jealous, I got to spend the entire Saturday evening with… my parents. So instead of going to see Midnight in Paris (with Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson) we decided to stay in, be bums and rent the Adjustment Bureau. It is certainly a movie I wanted to see, not to mention my love for Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, so I had high expectations. The movie as good, I’d say a solid 2 stars if not 2.5, very entertaining and a very continuous plot, which I liked.

What I found most interesting to the movie and the coincidence it had on another movie I watched the next day was the discussion of fate. When I think of fate, I would categorize it in the religious dictionary. I would not consider myself a very religious person but in fact fate does not necessarily have to be discussed in the religious factor. Although there were certainly some religious messages the Adjustment Bureau, it did make me think whether I believe in fate. After the movie talked a little about it with my mom but then just headed to bed without another thought about it.

Until the next night where I found myself even more pathetically home alone (my parents had a double date, which means they had more friends than me that night) and had no real plans to watch anything so just started flipping through the channels. I ended up watching the ends of all three Lord of the Rings (Fellowship was on Starz, Two Towers on TNT west coast and Return of the King on TNT), parts of Oceans 11, the end of Twilight: New Moon (I know, guilty pleasure) and the whole of Twilight: Eclipse (I swear nothing else was on) but not before I watched all of 500 Days of Summer. 500 Days is currently playing like six times a day on the premium channels (which is why I love being home). For a while now I’ve just caught parts of the movie I fell in love with two summers ago but I finally got to watch from beginning to end for the first time in a long time.

The reason for the discussion of fate is because 500 Days also addresses if it is true and by the end of the movie Tom (Joesph Gordon-Levitt) is unsure if he believes in fate (but by his actions he actually does). TIME OUT. If you haven’t seen this movie, stop reading my blog, go watch it now, and come back cause it’s an amazing movie. If you’re too lazy to do that or don’t have access to the movie go look up the synopsis and then come back, also do this with the Adjustment Bureau. I’ll wait.

Now that we are all on the same page, I thought it was kinda funny that I ended up watching these movies in the same weekend because they are actually quite similar. Do we have free will? Do we actually have a path that we are on, waiting to find the right person, the right job, and the right life? As I was trying to come up with what I believed in I decided it was too difficult for me to argue about this in my head.

So while I was watching 500 Days in the comfort of my living room I had also been Gchatting my friend in Colorado (Shout out to Bayci) and decided to confide her in my theories and asked for hers. In the end with her opinions in mind I think fate is a tricky thing. The Adjustment Bureau believes that we all have fate and have a right to decide what that is. I agree on that as far as, yes we all should be able to decide what happens in our life but I don’t think it has anything to do with a God planning it for us. I think we make our plans and decide whether we like them and want to pursue them. David believes it is fate that keeps him running into Elise. In what 500 Days of Summer shows is that you can think you have a fate, like you are suppose to be with someone but then have your world turned upside down. Only to eventually believe that something else is fate, because the next girl you like is named Autumn. So the quote above is actually what Tom believes, before what happens with Autumn. That quote, actually, may in fact lie what I truly believe.

I’m not sure if I can stretch either of the things in these movies to fate, especially because they are movies. I think things may just happen to be coincidence. When I start thinking of fate it freaks me out. Does that mean I’m meant to be somewhere, at a specific time, doing a specific thing to find my true love. I'm not sure if that's true, but in life if that just so happens then hey, I’m not complaining.

Before my brain explodes at indecision here are a few side notes for you movie fans.

1. The Hobbit! The Hobbit! The Hobbit! It is going strong, my friends, into production as they released three photos a couple weeks ago and my excitement grows in small increments. Since LOTR is my all-time favorite movie (yes all three are just one condensed movie for me), I am super duper excited about the prequel Peter Jackson wrote and is producing and directing. Who’s ready to see some harry feet! (see the pictures here)

2. Speaking of Harry, it is coming very close to that time of the year folks. The end. The finale. The destruction. Today marks the last day of double digits. That’s right just 10 days left until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II comes out (meaning Friday, July 15 will be a movie day, duh, instead of a TV day. Which means Monday, July 18 I will discuss the Emmy nominations).

3. A) Congrats to Transformers 3 on winning the box office in its opening weekend making $97.4 million. B) Happy Independence Day (now go watch that awful movie).

With that I say… Live long and prosper.