Avatar Review

Avatar Review

Alright last night I finally went and saw the new James Cameron movie Avatar, I'm sure you have heard of it pretty much everyone is raving about it in one way or another. It is without a doubt a must see movie and one that has to be seen on the big screen as well. Sadly however in this movie you are going to see it for the effects and not the storyline.

I want to start by talking about the effects because that is one of the big things about this movie. James Cameron I think has effectively changed the way movies will be made for a lot of years to come. In a lot of ways he took the CGI technology and successfully did what George Lucas tried and failed to do with Star Wars 1 thru 3. In some of the earliest scenes we see people being woken up zero gravity and it was the most realistic scene of its style I've ever seen. All through out the movie are breath taking stunning scene, that make you just stare and try to take it all in.

One thing I have to touch on when it comes the CGI is the Mech-suits. I've always loved the idea of mecha and in so many films I've seen them done so poorly so many times. This time out I was in awe. These suits walked, fought, and were controlled in a way that made sense and felt realistic.

Now on to the storyline which while very interesting was drawn out over the course of three hours. Cameron gets things started right at the planet then kicks off the idea of Avatars with a really amazing scene. Then the next hour or so is spent with the main character learning the ways of the Aliens. This hour is filled a number of scenes that visually amazing and pleasing to the eye do little to advance the story. In a lot of ways they brought me out of the story and made me think of a kid playing with a new toy. There were long scenes of things flying about or dashing through the forest undergrowth. It was a pretty distraction, but a distraction none the less.

The basic idea of the movie is that the aliens are living over something the humans want and of course they are going to do anything they can to drive them out. So of course they try to convince them to move through the Avatar Project which fails. They then send in the troops and attack the Home Tree, this action of course puts the aliens up in arms and they fight back. The problem with this main plot point is summer up rather nicely in the line from another James Cameron movie.

Ripley: I say we take off, and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I'm fairly critical of the movie as a whole because I was expecting so much more. In the end it really delivered on the effects and like I said it will hopefully change the way films are made going food. If you like great visual special effects then this is a movie to see and see often. But at the same don't go expecting to much out of the storyline.

District Nine - Movie Review

The last movie review I posted was well recieved so I thought I would do another one. This evening myself and 20 of my closest friends came and saw a special sneak peek of the New move District Nine. It was about as from last weeks review as one can get. I want to be very careful with this review because the movie has a number of twists and turns that I really don't want to spoil for anyone.

I walked in to the movie expecting a Sci-Fi action/adventure type of film. In fact I used those exact words to describe to several people who hadn't heard anything about it before called them offering a free ticket. Yes it had elements of that type of film it had a whole lot more as well. In many ways it pulled what could best be described as a Roddenyberry. It tooks series real life issues like racism and oppression and dressed it up in a Science Fiction story and made it entertaining and enlighting.

This movie is not for everyone, it is graphic in the extreme and doesn't hold back on anything. The human body falling apart as it transforms can be and often is a gross and disgusting thing. Which is exactly what they show it to be. So like I said not for everyone, if you have a weak stomach or suffer from motion sickness you will want to give this one a miss or at least see it at home where you can pause it as you need to.

The whole movie takes a bit of a page from Cloverfield and is shot from the point of view of a camera crew that is following the main character. It also includes footage from security cameras, and it is all spliced together. This type of footage makes for an interesting story it can make it a little harder to follow.

Finally I want to touch on two more points before I finish up. First is the level of the special effects. While this is a Science Fiction movie they didn't require big budget special effects. The ones it did have looked amazing. The aliens walking about the massive ship hanging high in the background. The strange Alien weapons all of which looked great and had really good effects for when they were shot. But the highlight of the effects came towards the end of the movie with the believable alien mecha that walked and fought its way through District Nine. The final point was brought up by a long time friend of my who is a member of the military. The scenes with the army where accurate. He normally picks apart movies with soliders in them for inaccuracies but in this one the only complaint he had was that the fins of the an RPG (Rocket propelled Grenade) Didn't deploy like they should have.

This a must see movie not because of its gore, its great special effects, and even its compelling story line. It is a must see movie because of how powerful its social commentry is.

The pictures in the blog where used both in the movie and where also part of a viral Marketing campaign.

Julie / Julia

So I just got home from a special showing of the new movie Julie / Julia. It was one of the most amazing movie, or two movies I have ever seen. You easily could have taken either of the story paths and turned it in to its own story.

The basic premise of the story is that a woman name Julie has given up on her dreams of being a writer and now works in a call center where she deals with victims of 9/11 and the people who want to talk about what they are doing with the space. It is a job which for the most part she hates. No simliarities to me there, I haven't given up my dreams of writing. All of her friends have successful careers, one of which even blogs about it. With encouragement from her husband she starts her own blog. Her plan to cook every recipie in Julia Child's Famous cookbook and to blog about the experience.

Through out the story they show clips from Julia's childs own experience in publishing and the struggle she faced in getting to both take cooking lessons and than later to book a published author of a cookbook. Meryl Streep plays a wonderful Julia Child who towers over the rest of the cast.

If you like cooking go see this movie.

If you blog, then go see this movie.

If you enjoy a heartfelt movie based on a couple of true stories,
then go see this movie.

If you like action/adventure with gun fire and explosions
well GI JOE comes out on Friday.

As I watched the movie and saw the apparent daily blogs and posts about what she was working on and how she felt going through the experience. Me lately I've been having a hard time just keeping up with QotW and not to mention my commitment to Carpe Arcanum. I kind of left the movie feeling a little dirty because of it, maybe lacking in some way. it was kind of a big kick in the ass to get writing and focus on it as much as possible. Certainly something I want to pick up a copy of so when I am feeling down on writing I can watch it again.

Passchendaele Movie Premier

Good evening one and all

I just came home from the most amazing movie premier. Now am lucky and I get to go to a fair decent number of movie premiers, a lot more then your average person. It helps to have a really good friend who promotes movies for the studios.

Set during the height of the First World War, Passchendaele tells the story of Sergeant Michael Dunne (Paul Gross), a soldier who is brutally wounded in France and returns to Calgary emotionally and physically scarred. While in the military hospital in Calgary, he meets Sarah (Caroline Dhavernas), a mysterious and attractive nurse with whom he develops a passionate love. When Sarah's younger asthmatic brother David (Joe Dinicol) signs up to fight in Europe, Michael feels compelled to return to Europe to protect him. Michael and David, like thousands of Canadians, are sent to fight in the third battle of Passchendaele, a battle against impossible odds, commonly known as "Passchendaele". It is a story of passion, courage and dedication, showing the heroism of those that fought in battle, and of the ones that loved them.

So here is the trailer


And more importantly here are the pictures of Paul Gross and Caroline Dhavernas

The two of them as they walked in

Paul Gross being interviewed by ET Canada


The pair of them

After the movie there was a Q&A Session but it was to dark for any good pictures. But here is another one of them signing a few autographs as people were leaving.

It really was a great movie and very enjoyable I would recommend it to anyone. After the end of the movie it was very touching during the Q&A session to here how moving it was for some of the veterens who had come out to see the movie. In fact as Paul was leaving the theater one of them back him to pins for the black devils squad which seen in the movie.

Oh the guy in the centre of the picture looking back from the concession counter. That is the mayor of Winnipeg waiting in line for his own pop corn. Way to go Sam Katz its good to be one of the average people.

Star Wars

My eldest daughter showed this to me this morning and I just had to share it.

GI Joe Poster

I don't know if I should be getting excited about this or not. Growing up I was a huge fan of the Toys, the Cartoons and everything about it. I just can't help be get this feeling that they are going to horribly rape my childhood for the sake of a few million dollars.




It looks cool and the subtitle of the movie is nice as well. 'Raise of Cobra' overs a good amount of excitment, and hope that it will be something of an orgin story that could lead to other movies. The one saving thing it does have going for it is Transformers did a decent enough job.

An Open letter

Richard Dawkins wrote and posted an open letter in response to Expelled. I'd encourage everyone to step over and give it a read.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2488,An-Open-Letter-to-David-J,Richard-Dawkins

Hell Boy 2 - Golden Armies

I think it is safe to say that this says it all for me, so just hit play...

Top 100 Movies from IMDB

ok So here is a list of the Top 100 movies from IMDB. I'll be bolding the ones I've seen. Then at the end I'll suggest a few that I feel are missing

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. Schindler's List (1993)
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
8. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
9. Casablanca (1942)
10. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
11. Star Wars (1977)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
13. 12 Angry Men (1957)
14. Rear Window (1954)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
16. Cidade de Deus (2002)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Am so excited about the new one.
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
19. C'era una volta il West (1968)
20. The Usual Suspects (1995)
21. Psycho (1960)
22. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
23. Fight Club (1999)
24. Citizen Kane (1941)
25. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
26. North by Northwest (1959)
27. Memento (2000)
28. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
29. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
30. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
31. The Matrix (1999) - Shame about what happened to the last two movies.
32. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
33. There Will Be Blood (2007)
34. Se7en (1995)
35. Apocalypse Now (1979)
36. Taxi Driver (1976)
37. American Beauty (1999) - A very good story
38. Léon (1994)
39. Vertigo (1958)
40. Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
41. American History X (1998)
42. The Departed (2006)
43. No Country for Old Men (2007)
44. Paths of Glory (1957)
45. M (1931)
46. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
47. Chinatown (1974)
48. The Third Man (1949)
49. Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
50. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - I've heard this was crap
51. A Clockwork Orange (1971) - I saw most of it but in the end I just turned it off
52. Alien (1979)
53. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
54. Laberinto del fauno, El (2006)
55. The Shining (1980)
56. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
57. The Pianist (2002)
58. Double Indemnity (1944)
59. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
60. Forrest Gump (1994)
61. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
62. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - A good film
63. L.A. Confidential (1997)
64. Das Boot (1981)
65. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
66. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
67. Untergang, Der (2004)
68. Aliens (1986)
69. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
70. Raging Bull (1980)
71. Metropolis (1927)
72. Rashômon (1950)
73. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
74. Modern Times (1936)
75. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
76. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
77. Sin City (2005)
78. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - RIP Arthur C Clark
79. Rebecca (1940)
80. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
81. All About Eve (1950)
82. Some Like It Hot (1959)
83. City Lights (1931)
84. Amadeus (1984)
85. On the Waterfront (1954)
86. Vita è bella, La (1997)
87. The Great Escape (1963)
88. Touch of Evil (1958)
89. The Prestige (2006) - I much prefer the Illusionist, but this is a fun film too
90. The Elephant Man (1980)
91. Jaws (1975) - This movie gave me nightmares
92. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
93. The Sting (1973) - I prefer the Untouchables for personal reasons
94. Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)
95. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
96. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
97. The Apartment (1960)
98. Braveheart (1995)
99. The Great Dictator (1940)
100. Blade Runner (1982) - How can this only be 100, it's one of the best sci-fi films ever made.

Two movies off the top of my head that I would add are Oscar (I love the story it is based one) and of course the Illusionist.

Deathly Hallows = 2 films

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Split into Two Films
There were rumors
of this happening a few months ago, but now it's official. The adaptation of the
seventh (and thus-far final) book in the Harry Potter series will be split into
two separate films with release dates six months apart. The LATimes reports that they will be called, intuitively, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Part 2. The release dates are set for November 2010 and May 2011,
respectively.
The Times also reports that Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood
Prince director David Yates will finish up the series by directing both parts of
the final adaptation. Steve Kloves will write the screenplay, as he did for all
of the other films except Order of the Phoenix.
The rest of the Times'
article is mostly full of quotes from actors and executives who emphatically
deny that the reason for the split was primarily financial. "I swear to you it
was born out of purely creative reasons," producer David Heyman said. "Unlike
every other book, you cannot remove elements of this book. You can remove scenes
of Ron playing quidditch from the fifth book, and you can remove Hermione and
S.P.E.W. [Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare] and those subplots . . .
but with the seventh, that can't be done."
This may be true. The seventh book
is so chock full of conflicts and resolutions that it'd take one very long movie
to satisfactorily wrap it all up. But also, numbers don't lie. Two movies means
twice the money. What half-competent producer would turn that down?
-David
Morgan

So I came across the above article and thought I would share it. Am not so sure it is needed really, perhaps if they cut out all the time Harry and Hermione spend whining in the tent they could make it a short film.

Still looking forward to it, still going to shell out the bucks to see both movies