avatar review

i guess you could say that i rarely go to the theater these days. we use to go a lot. now that baby is in the picture a lot has been largely reduced. do i miss the sticky floors, squeaky seats, obnoxious kids sitting behind us, smell of greasy day old popcorn? not at all. but i do miss seeing great movies on a big screen. so we finally buckled up and went to avatar. avatar in 3d that is. i don't think you should see this movie any other way. it was amazing.

usually i go through and say what i liked about the movie and then what i didn't like. but to be honest there was only one thing i didn't like about this movie. that i didn't see it sooner.

so let's just get down to the things that stood out...

i love it when a new world is created (lord of the rings, harry potter, narnia etc). sometimes ideas seem to be repeated a lot (dragons, magic, etc). this was totally out of left field. something we'd never seen before. it was really neat to be introduced literally to a whole new world. and it was a pretty cool one too.

the animation was fantastic. looking into the faces of the avatars and the na'vi wasn't some cheesy representation of digital effects. it's amazing how far they've come. impressive.

neytiri (the girl na'vi) was my favorite character. you could probably make a good argument that i feel this way because i am a girl. and i'll even help you out. if i lived on pandora and was a na'vi, i'd want to be just like neytiri. smart, adventurous, brave, strong, passionate, loving. i love her, she's awesome.

it was interesting how the avatars went brain dead if their human wasn't in the machine. that gave a cool element to the idea of going into this world. reminded me of the matrix, but way cooler in my opinion. the avatars were actual physical beings ~ in the matrix they were digital.

pandora was amazing (besides the viperwolves). i loved how everything went neon at night. i loved the floating mountains. i loved the flying lizards. i loved that they connected with the animals (physically and mentally). i just love pandora.

i hear that cameron's caught the 3d bug. he's coming out with an extended version of avatar in 3d. can you get anymore extended than 3 hours? AND he's decided to come out with a 3d version of titanic. but seriously, who wants to watch fifteen hundred people die painfully and horribly in 3d? i'm not sure i do.

so in ending my totally lop-sided review of avatar, my only comment is ~ i'll have to go see the hurt locker. it's got to be a good movie if it beat out avatar for best picture, right? we'll see...

the new moon review

well i finally saw new moon. after the horrible excuse for a movie called twilight, i wasn't too excited to see the second installment...that is until i saw the teaser. i was hooked. they dumped the blonde director lady, actually had cgi that didn't make you want to vomit, and best of all jacob cut his hair.

well...not until half way through the movie that is. the wig had to go. seriously, it was hideous.

i thought bella (or kristen stewart) looked absolutely gorgeous through out the movie. the subtle, earthy-tone make up was spot on, even if her acting wasn't.

um, edward. i'm not sure how i feel about the movie edward. the book edward stole my heart, but movie edward still has some work to do. perhaps he'll step it up in eclipse. he looked vampirish, but then again did he have to be so pale? yikes. this guy has NEVER seen the sun. and there's something about his squinty eyes that bugs...maybe if he didn't try so hard to be tormented in a painful and awkward way, i wouldn't complain.

jacob. it's funny how i didn't really like the book jacob. clarification = i liked his character, but i didn't like him for bella. but in this movie, it was all about jacob. every time they flashed a close up of those sad don't leave me bella wolf eyes, my heart sank because i knew bella would never love him. taylor stepped it up, acting was better (but not quite perfect) than the first...not to mention the abs (and they were perfect).

the wolfs. AWESOME. thank heavens they got a professional animation team with this movie because that could have been a total disaster. the wolfs rocked it. seriously they were the best part of the movie for me.

the mike scene. i loved mike at the movies, puking and making everything awkward. a great part of the book and movie.

the volturi. pretty cool in an evil ~ majorly creepy, way too red eyed way. i loved that dakota fanning was jane and i didn't even care. because in my mind i do care, but on screen i didn't. my favorite volturi part = the painting transforming into a flashback. so cool.

my biggest complaint ~ bella's ear-plugging why did edward leave me nightmare screeching. probably the most annoying sound i've ever heard.

and finally victoria. so glad they got a new actress for this role. even though she didn't say much, she didn't have to. she was EXACTLY the way i pictured her...that dark auburn flowing hair matched with classic beauty. perfect.

overall i thought it was a 100% total turn around from twilight. i'm considering buying new moon and forgetting they ever made twilight. either that or calling up the director of new moon and pleading with him that he redo the first one...just imagine how awesome that could have been...bummer.

x-men origins wolverine review

first off let me say that i'm a huge x-men/wolverine fan so this movie was highly anticipated. i heard bad things about it before we went, and have heard even worse things about it now that i've seen it...but i will stick to my guns and say what i feel and not what others are saying. I LOVED IT! i thought it was great. wolverine is more of a stud in my mind, if that's even possible. i liked learning about his past (his father, brother, fighting in all the wars, falling in love, being a lumberjack, etc.) i thought it stayed in tune with the previous x-men movies which is a must being a huge fan of them.

hugh jackman totally buffed out for this movie and it paid off. he was sportin' some serious muscle in this show. nice. haha - ok this review is suppose to be about the movie right?

although there were some cgi issues in a few scenes, the special effects were amazing. the fight scenes (there were plenty of them) were great. one thing i got kinda creeped out about was sabertooth, he was a bit too evil for me at times. and i had a hard time connecting this actor to the actor who plays sabertooth in the original. i kept asking neil, "is that suppose to be the same guy? nah!" he just assured me, "yes, he just grows a major long beard." didn't buy into it. another character issue i had was stryker. he looked nothing like the original. i guess you can't get everything perfect. (reminds me of the rachael dawes issue in the batman movies, it's a bummer).

was totally sad when agent zero sniped off the cute old couple in the barn. how rude! but got some sweet revenge when wolverine blew the crap out of his helicopter. that was cool.

i liked the introduction of new characters. my favorite is definitely GAMBIT!

besides being irresistibly HOT, he has some pretty cool powers. i saw online that the writers are currently in the process of creating the next x-men movie called "first class" or the first class at xavier's school. we'll get to see more of storm and cyclops and hopefully jean grey. but they also said they may do the next x-men origins on either deathpool or gambit. my vote is obvious. gambit would be awesome.

and deathpool. wow. the first scene with him going crazy with his swords is so awesome. i'd go see the movie again just for that scene. loved it. ryan reynolds isn't your typical superhero (then again neither was robert downey jr.) but he did a pretty good job as deathpool in my opinion. definitely buffed out right along there with hugh jackman. and later on when deathpool has his transformation, it took me a minute to realize it was him.

so i thought it was a sweet movie. will definitely buy this the day it comes out, and would even splurge to go see it again on the big screen. don't buy into all the mumbo-jumbo you read and hear about, it rocked in my book.

the twilight review

so i left the newborn with the daddy and had a girls night out with the mom, sister and sister in law. we left at 8:50 for the 9:00 show and had prime seats. we were pumped with popcorn, soda, sour patch kids, dibs, cell phones on vibrate... as the lights went down we all screamed "edward!" and chuckled like school girls. can it get any better than this?

let me start by saying that as a low budget film, it was satisfying. could it have been more satisfying had it had great effects and a make-up artist who knew what she was doing, yes of course, but still - i was content with what i got.

of course investing your heart and soul into all these characters through out the four books, naturally a thorough dissection of characters will inevitably come about. having said that i will give credit to the casting director, she did a great job on 95% of the characters. loved and yes this is in a particular order:
• edward. i will say that no one on this earth will ever be the perfect edward i imagined in my mind through out the books, but rob did a good job. although at times the angle of the camera made his nose look like he just got slammed with a 2x4. beside this, he was the perfect intensity i imagined edward having, and yes he was hot.
• bella. she was good in a layed back, i'm pretty but i don't realize it way.
• carlisle. HOT. if he was 10 years younger and didn't bleach his hair, he is getting very close to my edward.
• jasper. he always had this "holy crap" look on his face, but i loved it. if you read the books and know what he was going through, you get it.
• charlie. great casting. funny and perfect for bella's father.
• laurent. good acting.
• james. perfect bad boy. hot and yet a bit disturbing. great acting.
• mike and eric. good playing off of each other. wish they had more of it in there although i understand why they didn't.

besides the characters themselves there were some great scenes...
• the we're cooking for bella scene in the cullen kitchen.
• loved the awkwardness between bella and charlie. just like in the book.
• i liked the part were bella puts the pieces together and edward takes her into the woods. "say it!"
• liked the save bella in the school parking lot scene and how edward tries to play it off.
• the ballet studio scene definitely the best. check out alice ripping james' head off. wow.
• dancing in the gazebo scene. great song, great scene.

there is more that i liked about the movie, but i don't want to get out of hand here.

i believe that the problems i have with the movie, besides casting, are a result of the low budget issue. here's hoping they get their act together for movie #2 and spend some of the millions they surely made off of this one.

there are some casting issues i have...
• jacob. i just didn't picture jacob looking so odd. i hope the actor really grows up before the second movie like the character does in the book. he kinda bugged, and that's too bad cause jacob is such a lovable character.
• rosalie. she wasn't what i imagined. enough said.
• alice. needed to be shorter and more spunky.
• victoria. wish she would've had auburn hair and more of a classical beauty. (yes i'm being very picky).

i had issues with some of my favorite scenes from the book. they didn't come to life like i had hoped...
• sparkly edward in the meadow scene. totally ruined. what was that all about?
• save bella from the creepy guys in port angeles scene. edward's chivalrous entrance and rescue didn't do the book justice.
• the baseball game scene. didn't pull it off for me. was lacking something and i can't put my finger on it.

and so there ya have it. i'll probably buy the movie when it comes out, sure, will i spend another $10 to see it in the theater? probably not, i'd rather just read the book again.

the dark knight review

yes neil and i contributed to the single day box office record of $66.4 million on opening day. we both loved batman begins and were waiting to see this even before heath ledger died. so i popped some kettle corn and we bagged some gas station goodies and stashed it all in my not so little purse and we were set. a perfect date night. so how was the movie?


• christian bale. can bruce wayne get any hotter than this? besides being simply gorgeous, he totally makes you believe that he is the real bruce wayne. (will the real bruce wayne please stand up? that would be christian bale.) i watched the making of the movie and they said that bale stayed in character even when he wasn't on the screen. he insisted that his chair read "bruce wayne" and not christian bale. i guess the guy's is a little obsessive, but hey, it paid off. neil really likes michael keaton as batman/bruce wayne, i agree he was good, but bale was great.
• heath ledger. no, i'm not on the he died so let's all praise him bandwagon (no disrespect intended). i think ledger was great in a few other movies (the patriot, a knight's tale, the four feathers) but he really out did himself in the dark knight. he put a freaky yet playful edge to the joker that really brought his inner demons alive. yeah yeah jack nicholson was a good joker, but again, ledger was great.
• i liked the soft humor with alfred. we all love alfred, don't we?
• the added drama with harvey dent was good. the whole struggle with the real hero of gotham. added a different vulnerablitiy to batman.
• for some reason i just loved the fact that the creepy guy from lost, who shows up everywhere, even shows up as the gotham city mayor. he added a certain creepy edge to the mayor, i didn't trust him primarily because he is the creepy guy from lost. but it did show me that he isn't just wearing eyeliner to get into the lost character. the guy seriously wears this stuff all the time.
• LOVED the batman motorcycle. especially when it rebounded and did a flip-a-roo type thing off the building wall. nice.
• i liked the "you're not the only one who loves her" triangle with batman/bruce, rachel, and harvey. reminded me of x-men (wolverine, jean, and cyclops - can i just say right here that i LOVED the x-men series?).
• lots of good action packed scenes.
• kept in harmony with batman begins.


• disregarding the fact that i liked the action packed scenes, holy cow, there were a lot of them. can i say maybe too much?
• like batman returns, this series has a certain dark side to it. it was especially evident in the dark knight. (to me the previous batmans were more fun, these are more dark and serious).
• along the "darkness" line, the clown masks really, truly, freaked the crap right out of me. did not like the clown masks.
• didn't like the break away from katie holmes. not a huge fan of hers, but what, is she too good now to play rachel dawes cause she's married to tom cruise? i don't know the circumstances, but i was disappointed in their new choice of maggie gyllenhaal. she just isn't fun to watch for me. acting, ok she did pretty good, but not someone i picture with the studly bruce wayne.
• i thought this movie was never going to end. i knew ahead of time it was 2.5 hours, but wow, it felt more like 4. there were a few good places i thought they should've ended the movie, but kind of reminiscent of the modern superman remake, it just kept going and going...my butt was literally sore.

despite my list of not so great, i enjoyed the movie. i wouldn't go see it again in the theater (my butt would not be happy), but i'm sure neil will want to add it to our superhero collection of dvd's.

jumper review

good

• the idea of teleporting is awesome. (i hear the book is nothing like the movie, but i'm interested in reading it now).
• hayden christiansen is just plain hot.
• some of the places they went were very interesting to me such as rome, egypt etc.
• the special effects when teleporting are amazing. (weta rocks)
• and hayden christiansen is hot, oh i guess i already mentioned that.
• they young hayden really looked like a young hayden (don't you hate it when they don't? i sure do).

bad

• there were a lot of things you wanted answered that weren't. i hear they originally planned on doing a trilogy, like the books. if they do, they have a lot of things to explain.
• samuel jackson looks like an albino and it's very annoying.
• hayden, as hot as he may be, at times has a monotone voice that is distracting.
• while the plot was exciting and action packed, there was something about it that bothered me. i think it was the fact that all this stuff was happening and you weren't sure why. who are these bad guys anyway, what's their big problem with teleporters, how did they find all this technology to capture the teleporters, why is samuel l. jackson's hair bleach blonde, and what warrants one to be a teleporter, we know it's not inherited... i needed to know these things.

good action, a one time see. might be a good renter on a lonely night.

indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull review

even though harrison ford is getting old, yeah we've all heard the deal, that's usually what happens with time, he's still got it. i liked a lot of things about this movie...

good

• it's indiana jones, and hey he's a stud. (so glad ford took the earing out for the movie)
• as an older indiana jones, he does really good at letting you see glimpses of the young indiana jones, whom we all love and adore.
• i just love shia labeouf - he's adorable and he's a great actor. he stole my heart in transformers, and didn't let me down in this one.
• because i'm border line obsessed with archaeology, i loved that aspect to this movie. you know the question, "what would you be if you could be anything in the world?" well i'd be an archaeologist. so naturally these movies appeal to me in a great way. and just so you all know there really is a legend of 13 crystal skulls, only a few of which are found. (the most popular of which at some mayan ruins - dang it i wish i would have found it!)
• just a great action flick, as you would expect.
• perfect comedy. the chemistry between ford and labeouf = perfect.
• the last scene in the church is classic. it ended the indiana jones saga perfectly. clue: it has to do with the hat.

bad

• i don't remember them playing the popular indiana jones music. maybe i missed it.
• there was an odd sci-fi twist at the end. thought that was a bit much, but hey it's a movie and out there to entertain us, right?
• indiana jones or not, there's no way your hat is staying on through all that! they must have glued it to his head.

so go see it, i'm sure you either have or want to. it's worth the money to see on the big screen.

also i wanted to do a spotlight. i am SO excited for this movie and if it's rated R, i just might go against the grain and see it anyway...hehe