Weekend Movie: Avatar

Jurassic Park meets Star Wars? Not exactly but something like that. If you enjoyed Jurassic Park though, then you'll enjoy this more.

I was reluctant to go see this movie based on the blue people and the sci-fi vibe, but it has so many Oscar nominations (9) I couldn't avoid it any longer.
The story had everything in it including tragedy, a warmonger, an unlikely hero, a love story, the underlying "care for our earth" tone and yes plenty of science fiction or fantasy built in. Most of all it has amazing special effects. The lush green landscape of Pandora is a feast for the eyes and the costumes or whatever they use to produce the blue people was very detailed down to accessories they all adorned. You can tell a lot of time and effort went into this film.

It's a little over three hours long which was also a bit of a deterrent in my book, but admittedly, I enjoyed every minute of it. I can think of a redundant war scene that could have been cut if I were the Director, but I'm not so we'll just leave that to the pros. I have to give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Happy movie watching.

Weekend Movie: Edge of Darkness

This movie is one of the few that doesn't give much away in the preview or ads you see, so there are lots of surprises that I enjoyed. There are several very sinister characters in the movie. Mel Gibson plays a good "desperate man" searching for the killer (think Law Abiding Citizen with Gerard Butler.) He's a Boston Detective so he has lots of friends in high places and lots of enemies that he has to consider. He REALLY doesn't seem to have anything to loose as he tramples over everyone and breaks more than a few rules.

Some great aspects to this movie:
1) touching flashbacks of his daughter in her youth.
2) BIG questions right from the get go to peak your interest.
3) twists.
4) it gives new meaning to "got milk"
All in all this was an enjoyable movie. Was Mel's accent perfect at all times? I'm not sure, but it sounded authentic to this Arizonan. :) Mel hasn't acted in a new movie for several years now, but he still knows how to stay in character. I thought he did a great job in his comeback film.


I'll give it 5 stars.