Beware, gentle reader. I talk about the movie here so if you don't want to have the plotline ruined, go see the movie then come back and share your thoughts.

So I rushed out and saw Avatar last night. I caught the very first showing at our local theater and was a little surprised that it wasn't sold out considering the attention leading up to opening night! That said, we got our tickets, were gouged at the candy counter and found our ideal seats for what we hoped would be THE movie of the year. I won't say we came away disappointed but it left some to be desired. Read on..

Avatar - The Good:

To be sure, James Cameron is a brilliant film maker. The movie was visually stunning which is what I was looking forward to. The hype for me was al about the visual and here, JC - (hmmm, that feels wrong), James Cameron did not disappoint.  For the most part, you really feel the size and scope of the planet of Pandora where the whole movie takes place. The film jumps back and forth between live action and animation so seamlessly. From the humans home base and machinery to the magical planet of Pandora and its in, you just can't be sure at times whether you are seeing amazing costumes or amazing animation! I never cease to be amazed at what the film industry is able to convince me of through stunning CGI.

That is not to say that there some flaws but that would be nitpicking. Avatar gets full marks for imagery. Giovanni Ribisi', while mostly a two dimensional character with limited screen exposure, did what he did best - I've always had a soft spot for him. Sigourney Weaver reminded me of what a solid performer she is. No matter what type of film she is in, she always stands out.  Zoe Saldana played Neytiri of the Na'vi. It is always revealing when an actor is forced to perform without actually being seen. Saldana has shown herself to be a pretty good actor here - I was actually surprised! Watch for more of her I'm sure.

Avatar - The Bad:

The plot.  Big bad company run by white stereotypes oppresses native tree dwellers. Weak, weak weak. I kind of expected the cliche of 'Big Bad Corporation' vs 'The Environment' be it earthly or alien. These types of movies usually can't do both imagery and originality well at the same time so I was prepared to forgive some of that. What I didn't expect was the frustration I felt at the theme of the movie. The whole premise of  'white guilt' was so glaringly overdone here that I was nauseous.  From the handicapped white marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) finding redemption by coming to the aid of and eventually leading the oppressed indigenous peoples, to the social worker (Weaver) bringing 'Education' to the natives (like they needed it), to Neytiri (Saldana) who, like most of the Na'vi, emoted a mostly black character in every sense - from how she expressed anger to how she expressed grief, I felt smothered by the concept of the great white evil hell bent on the mindless destruction of Pandora and its <insert white-oppressed race here> people for their own selfish needs.

This was such a lazy, unbalanced portrayal of good vs evil that it sullied (see what I did there?) the overall beauty of the movie. I find it sad that Cameron took such an unthinking approach to the plot.

One blogger referenced in a very good blog at i09 commented;

"By the end of the film you're left wondering why the film needed the Jake Sully character at all. The film could have done just as well by focusing on an actual Na'vi native who comes into contact with crazy humans who have no respect for the environment. I can just see the explanation: "Well, we need someone (an avatar) for the audience to connect with. A normal guy will work better than these tall blue people." However, this is the type of thinking that molds all leads as white male characters (blank slates for the audience to project themselves upon) unless your name is Will Smith."

This I think will be the topic of many an online diatribe. Maybe that is what Cameron had in mind. Or maybe the plot was an afterthought.  This was easily the weakest part of Avatar and managed to offend whites, blacks and natives, ironically, equally.

Avatar - The Indifferent

Frankly, I made no connection with many of the characters. I whole-heartedly agree with the questionable need for Sam Worthington's character and his performance was really quite forgettable.  The human technology was cool but under-developed as was many of the supporting performances.

Overall, the movie was good fun and certainly should get some awards for the epic scale that the visuals created.  I may try and see it in IMAX just for the experience. There is very much a 'wow' factor throughout. Just be prepared to work very hard to tune out the plot!

I think it would make a great read and will probably buy the book too.

What did you think?

See larger image James Cameron's Avatar: The Na'vi Quest (Paperback) By Nicole Pitesa List Price: $4.99 USD New From: $1.55 In Stock Used From: $1.47 In Stock Released November 24, 2009.

Tags: 20th fox, action, adventure, Avatar, avatar movie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, neytiri, Sam Worthington, sci fi, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana

Just in case you're still on the fence about how 'real' the movie is, Jim Vejvoda at IGN.com has reported that  Alaskan newspaper The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner admits that Universal Pictures has paid $22,500 to the Alaska Press Cub and a Calista Scholarship Fund to settle claims that the studio "created a number of Web sites purporting to be 'news archives'" in their viral marketing campaign for their new alien abduction thriller The Fourth Kind.

OK, so Universal has admitted that it created phony news articles and claimed Alaskan journalists had written them, and also used real news stories without permission.  Universal fabricated news articles and passed them off as being real articles from the Nome Nugget, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and the Anchorage Chronicle among other publications.

"Universal agrees to the permanent disabling and removal of, and represents and warrants that it has already permanently disabled access to and removed from the Internet, all news articles," the paper quotes the settlement as saying.

Bwah hahaha!!  Busted!  We're still confirming rumors about ET suing for slander... stay tuned

See larger image The Fourth Kind (Audio CD) List Price: $17.98 USD New From: $10.97 In Stock Used From: $8.99 In Stock Released November 23, 2009.

Tags: ET, lawsuit, mila jovovich, The Fourth Kind

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is a made-for-DVD BSG movie written by Jane Espenson and directed by Edward James Olmos (aka Admiral William Adama).

The movie, if it even qualifies as that, begins nine months and two weeks after the attack on the colonies, then within two minutes jumps back ten months to two weeks before the attack. That's the first jump in a series of jumps that speed the film forward through various scenes that take place over the course of the next ten months, scenes which chronicle the aftermath  of the attack from the perspective of the Cylons as they struggle to handle something they didn't anticipate: human survivors.

In the lead up to its release, here's two key things Olmos had to say about it:

“The Plan is … literally, at the beginning of every single episode you see that the Cylons are created by man, there are many of them, and some of them don’t know that they are Cylons. And they have a plan. Well, this is the plan. This is what caused this to happen.”

and

”When Battlestar fans see The Plan, they’re all going to have to go back and watch the entire series again.”

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of The Plan is that it proves both of those statements utterly wrong which, when added to his now legendary outburst on Attack of the Show claiming that BSG had influenced the UN to amend its non-existent 1947 charter, well, that's three strikes and you're out.

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Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the third highest grossing film of 2009 worldwide ($832M), and the top grossing film of 2009 at the domestic U.S.box office ($402M).

Paramount Home Entertainment released it on DVD and Blu-ray on October 20 and within a week it became the top selling release of the year (7.5M units sold).

Those are some pretty amazing statistics considering Rotten Tomatoes has it rated at 19% and more than 71,000 voters average it out at 6.2 on the IMDB.

Critics, reviewers and bloggers alike seem to be, for the most part, in agreement that the film sucks arse. For all of these reasons, and because I personally thought Transformers was a turd in disguise, I refused to head to the theater to see the film. I even thought I'd give it a miss on DVD until I contracted Swine Flu and in a moment of sick misery thought, "ah, what the hell, I'm in the mood for a shit film."

But the truth is, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. In fact, I kind of enjoyed the overall experience of watching it.

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Tags: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Director Robert B. Weide's film How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is living proof that you should not base your viewing habits on the result of the opinions of others.

I took a look at this film after reading some pretty flattering reviews on Amazon and after seeing the film almost hit a 7/10 rating on the IMDB where roughly 13,000 people scored it higher than 7.

I'm going to come right out and say it: there's something seriously wrong with your brain if you like this movie.

Yes, the film did give me the odd chuckle, but overall this was one of the worst film's I've ever seen and I say that without exaggeration. It seemed like the first half of the film was Simon Pegg dancing like a complete retard whilst the last half of the film depicted Megan Fox and Kirsten Dunst somehow falling for Pegg's ugly, annoying, and unlikeable character.

I'm fairly confident that the "how to lose friends" part of the title refers to the notion that if you gather up your friends to go see this movie they may not want to remain your friend.  They'll certainly not trust your movie going judgment in the future, if ever again.

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Tags: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

It was billed by many people as the scariest movie ever made, so I found myself compelled to go see Paranormal Activity.

Let me first say the film is very good.  It keeps your attention and, with a purported budget of $11K (or, depending on where you read it, $15K), the director did a masterful job. Why Steven Spielberg would have considered remaking it with a bigger budget is really quite non-sensical.  The film is good just as it is.

Yet despite the hype, Paranormal Activity just isn't scary.

The twitterverse is filled with tweets from thousands of people all claiming it was super scary and the scariest film they've seen. So clearly many people found the film scary. I'm not saying those people are wrong, because the truth is how scary we deem a movie to be is very much dependent upon our mood at the time, our personal nature, and the timing of when we see the film.  In the case of Paranormal Activity, it is also very heavily dependent upon the reaction of the audience as a whole (many reviewers claim the film is a must see in the theater film for this reason).

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Tags: Paranormal Activity