Weekend Movie - Legend of the Guardians

I had absolutely no desire to see Legend of the Guardians because it just looked bad, but my grandma really wanted to see it and I'm a nice grand daughter so I took her to see the movie on Saturday night. I heard the CG and animation was amazing, but the story wasn't so great. That review was completely spot on. There were so many holes in the story line, my grandma and I could barely follow it. At one point, there was a plot change and we kind of looked at each other and thought "when the hell did that happen?" If we can't follow the story, how the hell are the kids supposed to follow it?

Just like any other kids movie, the plot is good versus evil and the good overcoming the evil and living happily ever after. As I said, the CG was kind of amazing. I was so distracted by the owls. They were pretty amazing looking, although their beaks were kind of creepy and I couldn't stop looking at them, but otherwise the animation was pretty awesome. I saw it in 3D because because that was the only way my grandma wanted to see it. There were only a few 3D moments where something would pop out of the screen, but for the most part it didn't seem 3D. It was kind of a waste of money in that respect. So if you have kids, don't torture yourself with this movie. The kids will love it, but you'll want to die a little. Wait for a Pixar movie instead.

James Cameron Saves the World

Avatar 2? Let’s bet on this. I bet there’s going to be at least 3 Avatar movies each talking about a new part of the environment that needs saving from the mean white people. The first movie made so much money that they will more than likely be making quite a few. Avatar was not only the highest grossing movie when it was in theatres, but it also sold the most DVD’s ever. It’s rumored that the movie will even be re-released in theatres to make even more money. Oy vey. It wasn’t even that great. Yeah, it had amazing CG and what not, but it got a little too political for me.

Avatar 2 is supposed to focus on the ocean. I wasn’t kidding about an Avatar 2 coming out. Since the first movie took 10 years to make, Avatar 2 may not come out for a while. I just hope they don’t pump it out quickly and make it sloppy so they can make money. I hope they take their time and do it right. Maybe it will be the next Lord of the Rings where a new movie comes out each year.

Off With Their Heads

I saw Alice in Wonderland this past weekend and I have to say that all the hype surrounding it lead to disappointment. Of course, when you see a million trailers for a movie it’s more than likely going to be bad, but no one expects a bad movie from Tim Burton. I was very sad to see that he in fact didn’t make a great movie. Yeah the movie had a huge opening and made a billion dollars, but the movie was kind of blah. I was waiting and waiting for something super exciting to happen and it never did. I was really hoping for an awesome, insane movie. All I got was the insane. Johnny Depp did his thing, but he wasn’t as great as he has been. At one point he sounded like Jack Sparrow and that’s never like him to cause people to think of another character he’s played. He always makes each role super unique.

The CG and visual effects were amazing, but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted a good story too. Maybe we forget that the original story by Lewis Carol was kind of boring and Tim Burton did what he could with it? I don’t know. All I know is that I was disappointed.

I saw the movie in 3D even though I’m usually very against that, but I figured why not. I have to say that the 3D didn’t really make a difference. It didn’t even seem like the movie was in 3D. I heard the movie was filmed in 2D and adapted to 3D and that never makes for good 3D effects. It was a sad day for me in Wonderland.

CG Magic

So last night I joined the herd and saw Avatar in 3D at the Arclight Cinerama Dome. Those glasses are some serious business. I felt like we were on an actual mission to space. The glasses were pretty heavy on my face so after a while I got a headache, but otherwise the 3D experience wasn’t too bad. It’s like reading subtitles. After a while you don’t even realize you’re doing it anymore. I used to be very against 3D movies, but not so much anymore.

The movie wasn’t what I expected at all, but I liked it. I’m not sure what I expected, but this was not it. I’m sure everyone has seen it by now so I probably won’t be ruining it if I talk about the plot. Basically, people are transported into avatar bodies where they can breathe different air and do things humans can’t normally do. You know, the usual. The movie was very political. It was all save the world, hate Bush. If at first you weren’t sure if it was political, they let you know by saying things like, “let’s fight terror with terror” and “it looks like they are doing some shock and awe mission.” How much more political can you get and not even that, how much more Bush hating can you get? I didn’t mind and neither did the people around me. I heard a lot of giggling during those lines. Way to go Bush! No we have a movie showing how much you sucked. It was a fight between those who want to save the planet and humans and those who don’t care and want it all destroyed. The Bush administration in a nut shell.

The CG in this movie was freaking stunning. I am such a hater of people who try and don’t succeed when it comes to CG, but this movie definitely succeeded. Next time I see poorly done CG I am going to proclaim they have no excuse because Avatar was able to do it flawlessly. I look at movies like the recent Indiana Jones for example where the camera pans up to show a chase scene and the CG is just obvious and terrible. This one has none of that. There was no inkling whatsoever to show that this was CG with live action. It all pretty much looked like it was live action. Very well done. If you have no other reason to see this movie, see it for its CG beauty.