coldfusionJedi

I just got back from seeing Avatar, the latest film from James Cameron. I won't call this a review - just a smattering of thoughts - but I'd love to hear what others thought. Let's keep it spoiler free though. Overall, I thought it was a good film, a strong film, but not quite great. It tried real hard, but in the end, the story was lacking enough for me to keep it from being great.

Technologically, the film is perfect. Seriously - this film has set the bar for special effects, and probably will be the film by which others are judged. The Na'vi looked realistic enough for to be 100% believable. You didn't have any of the "Dead on the Inside" type feeling you get from other movies with computer generated characters (I'm looking at you, Polar Express).

The 3D was also well done. You had none of the "in your eye" type shots to remind you of the 3D, and in fact, except for a few scenes, I pretty much forgot that there was any 3D at all. There was one scene with insects though that - I swear - almost made me raise my hand to bat them away. This is how 3D should be done.

So from a special effects angle, the movie gets an A+. Shoot, higher than that. I really think it was perfect in that regards. It's the story that... I don't know. It just didn't rock my world. It wasn't a bad story. Not at all. In fact, when I realized that the movie had lasted over two hours I was truly surprised. The movie never dragged or got boring. Some of the mysticism did get a bit corny at times, but I could live with that. No - what I didn't like was how... simple the story was. It seems like something we've seen many times before. Big bad corporation, evil military forces, face off against a technologically inferior but more spiritually aware native force. It just felt... easy. Too simple. I mean, there was one offhand remark by Jake (the main character) where he mentions that there is no more green on Earth, that it is dead. If the corporation were mining something that Earthlings desperately needed to survive as a race, well, at least we'd have some complexity, some deepness to the story.

I did enjoy the story. Really. And I can see buying it (I bet it will be stellar in Blu-Ray), but I wish that some of the subtlety and innovation that was brought to the special effects had been put to work to the story as well.

Ok, so that's my non-review. One last note. I love ship and vehicle design in Sci-Fi movies. The first shot of the film - the long range ship that beings Jake to Pandora, was incredible. It had a classic 60s feel to the design. Very unique.

Oh, and one last last note. Did folks catch the anti-Bush/anti-Iraq war one-liner in there? Ugh. While I may agree with the politics, it had the subtlety of a brick to the side of that head.

As always, I will divide this review into two sections. The top portion will be spoiler free. Everything after the SPOILERS! mark will be, well, full of spoilers, and I'd assume the comments will be as well.

Going in to this film, I was worried. I had heard many good things about this adaption, but frankly, I wasn't convinced they could convey the proper tone for the book. Sure, Harry Potter 1 was all magic, smiles, and laughter, but things have progressively gotten darker and moodier. For me, Goblet of Fire, almost stands out as the Empire Strikes Back of the series. It's the turning point where the laughs kinda die off and the body count begins. What I love most about the series is that it goes from light-hearted magical fair to a much more serious, emotional, and frankly, painful story. To Rowling's credit, she never turned the book "adult." There isn't sex, gratuitous violence, or other cop outs. Rowling moves the series expertly along as the characters age and the stakes rise.

So back to my worry. The books convey this pain, this fear, so well, and I wasn't sure the movie could pull it off - especially the pivotal ending. Happily - they did it. Obviously a lot was cut out. But I think the movie did a fair job of striking a balance between length and representing the book. This movie is sad. Overwhelmingly so. And I'm happy they kept it like that. There is no "Hollywood" cop out here.

If you are a fan of the series, and maybe felt a little let down by the last movie, definitely see this one. It's worth seeing on a big screen. You may not want to bring your youngest. I brought all my kids, and while there wasn't anything objectionable (even with all the teenage hormones), the movie may drag a bit for them. Again, it's more dark, more serious, than the previous ones.

SPOILERS!

To me, there are 3 critical parts of the entire series. The death of what's his name at the end of Goblet of Fire, the death of Dumbledore, and the revelation of Snape at the end of B7. I thought Snape's history in Order of the Phoenix wasn't handled well. But they handled his character great here. Ditto Malfoy. The movie did a great job conveying how tortured he felt.

The scene with the bridge in the beginning was incredible. It was a great way to demonstrate how the Muggle world was being impacted as well.

I do wish they had spent a bit more time on Voldemort's past. They didn't do a bad job - that young kid was perfect (remind anyone of Damien or the Omen or whatever that old movie was?) and I wish they had maybe cut a bit more of the teenage hormone stuff and spent more on him.

Before I get into my thoughts about the Star Trek reboot, let me be clear. Any and all spoilers will be marked as such, and will be at the end of the blog entry. So if you just want to know what I thought, you can read the blog entry up until the warning block and turn away. As for comments, I say anything goes.

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It's almost Halloween and this year I'm trying my best to enjoy it as much as possible. Halloween seems to be slowly fading away as everything seems to be pushing towards Christmas insanely early. Sure Halloween is more a kids thing, and maybe I shouldn't care as much now that I'm an old guy, but I really feel like getting into the mood this year. I visited a haunted house earlier in the week. Our house is decorated (my wife found some awesome and unique decorations this year) and I can't wait to go out trick or treating with my young ones.

Forgive the rambling. I brought all this up because I wanted to talk about movies. Scary movies. Growing up I was a big horror fan, but in the last ten years or so I've found myself really turned off by gore. I don't know why exactly. When I watched Hostel, I found myself disgusted and had to turn away multiple times. Maybe it has something to do with my kids. Most horror films involve young kids and I can't seem to watch a modern horror film without thinking that those could be my kids up there. Or maybe I'm just a wuss!

While I don't care for horror films, I'm really getting into the more subtle, suspenseful films. I can remember watching The Adominable Snowman when I was a young kid. (Staring Peter Cushing, the future Grand Moff Tarkin.) What fascinated me about this film was that while it was obviously a monster film, they never showed you the monster! You got glimpses here and there, but in general there wasn't ever a "money shot".

A few years later I saw Alien. Easily one of the best sci fi films ever made, the monster spends more time in the shadows and comes off far scarier for it. I remember the first time I saw a complete shot of the alien in some magazine and I wished I had not seen it. My imagination had made it far larger and scarier in my mind.

Some other examples:

• Blair Witch Project: Ok, so this is a love it or hate it type movie, and it got way too much marketing, but this film scared the living crap of me.
• The Village: Really the beginning of Night's descent into crap-hood, and featuring what my wife calls the Giant Killer Badger - the early scenes by the woods were very well done. When one of the kids goes to the edge of the woods, and turns his back, I can literally feel my legs tensing in some subconscious attempt to get him to get the heck away.
• El Orfanto (The Orphanage) - A well done ghost story with a grand total of one shot of gore, this one was simply incredible. My wife really enjoyed it as well.
• Communion - Supposedly a true story of alien contact, any film with Christopher Walken is worth watching in my opinion. It's been years since I've seen this, but I remember being royally creeped out multiple times. One scene in particular has the main character simply sitting down in a room - and across the way an alien sticks his head out - slowly.

So that's all I can think of right now. Any other recommendations? Think high creep/low blood.

Yesterday I took my three kids to see the new Clone Wars movie. I knew it was coming to TV eventually, but I couldn't pass up the chance to see more Star Wars on the big screen. My boys are pretty big Star Wars fans themselves (gee, I wonder where they get that from) and my daughter, well, she loves her daddy so that was enough for her. The title of this blog entry is a bit of a joke. I am not one of those Star Wars fan who hate Lucas or thinks he is raping the franchise. I do think some parts of the prequels suck. But at the same time - I don't see Jar Jar being any more worse than the Ewoks. (Although we do get to see an Ewok die though...) I read quite a few negative reviews of the movie, but I went with an open mind and figured - at worse - my boys would absolutely love it.

Turns out the movie really doesn't suck! I had been extremely pleased, surprised even, by the first Clone Wars series that came out a year or so ago. Some of the scenes in that series were easily as cool as any of the stuff in the both the prequel and classic series. (Especially the giant foot ship!) In my mind, this new series is even better. The pacing is a lot more intense, and I felt that the story comes off better then the first series. (To be honest though, seeing everything at once does tend to reinforce the storyline more than seeing a series by watching a few minutes at a time.) I found it kind of cool to see the Jedi bending over backwards to help Jabba. It was also nice to get a bit more detail about the war in general. I think this movie opens the door to a lot more material in the period.

The animation style is... well interesting. It's definitely different from the first series, and it's a bit artsy, but I thought it was ok. The only character design I didn't care for was Dooku. I just couldn't take my eyes off his super deformed nose. On the flip side, Ventress was awesome. Easily as cool as Darth Maul, she is a welcome addition to the Universe and I hope we can see more of her.

If there was one thing I really didn't care for - it was the Mardi Gras Hutt. I don't remember his real name, but if you see the movie you will know what I'm talking about. His part in the story - fine. But his voice, design, etc, just annoyed the heck out of me.

I've been meaning to post a few quick reviews and as I've got nothing to do until I board my plane, I thought I'd take the time and share some.

The Incredible Hulk - I saw this last night with some friends at CFUNITED. While not as good as Iron Man, it was pretty darn good. Yes - the CGI is very fake looking. There is no way you are going to make a 1-ton green monster look real. But - Edward Norton did a great job, the story was well done, and I loved the nods to the old show. Oh - and I won't ruin the spoiler, but the entire movie was made cooler by one line uttered by the Hulk. We should also give credit to the movie company behind Iron Man for letting their actor appear in another company's movie. Both may be Marvel properties, but still, that was pretty cool.

Sex and City - Ok, so this is trash, but I enjoyed the series when it was on TV. The movie was way too long, but if you liked the series, then this simply adds a few more episodes to the run. I'd probably just rent it from Netflix or Blockbuster though.

Kung Fu Panda - Jack Black is the king. This is one of the best kid movies I've seen in a while. I thought the animation style was done well.

The Happening - Absolute, 100%, trash. I've given up on Night. Completely. I've seen better acting in high school. I'd rather push rusty, dull, smelly nails through my eyes, backwards, than watch this film again.

The Invasion - An older one - but I just saw it. Meh. Nicole Kidman is nice to look at, but outside of that, this is just one more remake.

As it's 2AM and I've gotten back from seeing Iron Man, I'll keep this short and sweet. The movie was absolutely wonderful. I don't profess to be an Iron Man comic book expert, but from what I do know of the history, Robert Downey Jr. nailed him perfectly. The "playboy turned hero" thing was done very well and the CGI for Iron Man himself was great. Definitely worth seeing. I have to say - after all the good comic book movies lately I'm considering going back to my local comic book shop and opening up an account again. Back when I was a kid I used to read Star Wars and X-Men, a bit of of New X-men, but that was it. I got into Sandman and other Veritgo lines in college, but when Sandman ended, I kind of gave up. I picked up a (ahem) "appropriated digital" copy of the Ultimates, and I'm really beginning to dig Marvel again.

Ugh. I'll keep it short and sweet. You would be better off seeing Brittany Spears recite Shakespeare than see Semi-Pro. It was so bad - I kid you not - my wife and I turned to each other and we walked out 40 minutes in. I've never walked out of a film, but this was just so amazingly bad we figured we had no other choice. Semi-Pro has now surpassed Highlander 2 as my worst cinema experience.

Amazing. Simply amazing. I'm going to keep this super short and sweet. Why? Going into the film, I had read next to nothing about it. I knew it was from Lost creator JJ Abrams. I knew it was a "monster" film. But that was it. I avoided any spoilers and I'm very happy I did so.

Cloverfied is a monster film - but much like Lost isn't just a sci fi show, Cloverfield is much, much more. I definitely recommend going out and seeing it - and again - avoid any spoilers.

Two unrelated notes. In front of the film they played the trailer for the new Star Trek film. I had had my doubts about it based on what I've read online, but I'm now totally psyched about it. It is also from J.J. and I think he can do a great job with the material. Also - in the theater itself was a sign for The Happening, Shyamalan's new film. Supposedly it involves a natural catastrophe of some sort. Frankly, there is no possible way it could suck more than Lady in the Water, so hopefully this movie will be an improvement.

This week I watched two interesting movies, both of which are associated with the Independent Film Channel. The first was This Movie Is Not Yet Rated, a rather scathing look at the MPAA (Movie Picture Association of America) and how ratings are doled out to films. I always knew the organization was a bit weird, but I had no idea how secretive they really were. The movie covered some things most intelligent folks already know - that sex is much more dangerous (in their mind) than violence, so it's ok to shoot the woman in the head, but showing her naked is something else entirely. Now as a parent, I do like having an idea what is in a film, but honestly, I can tell most of the time from the trailers what is appropriate and what isn't. What I didn't agree with is that the MPAA has led to censorship. While films do end up getting cut to get ratings, I think there is a difference between a company trying to maximize profit (by going for an R instead of NC-17) compared to a government cracking down on speech it doesn't like. I think there are plenty of countries in this world - right now - who would love to have our "censorship".

The second film I watched was CSA (Confederate States of America), this is billed as a "mockumentary" about a world where the Confederates won the Civil War. I'm a huge alt-history fan so when I first heard of this film I was pretty intrigued. While the film can be considered alt-history, it's main point was to look at racism as it exists today. One of the most jarring parts of the film are the "advertisements" (the film pretends to be a documentary being shown on television, so it has regular commercial break) - especially when you learn the real world truth behind the ads. Taking it strictly as an alt-history show though I found it enjoyable as the documentary approach was much different than how typical novels read.

Oh yeah - and I watched 300 in HD-DVD as well. I had seen it at the movies so I already knew it rocked - but god dang what a cool movie. I need to pick up the comic sometime.