I totally paused!

Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, & Sigourney Weaver

Oh Avatar, how you have captured the eyes and hearts of the viewing public.  I’ll admit, I saw a preview for you and thought “oooh, shiny!”  I also thought at first that you were created by Guillermo Del Toro, why you gotta look like Pan’s Labyrinth?  Truth be told, I have mixed feelings about this movie.  It was beautiful, and that in itself is part of the problem.

As I have mentioned before, I am not the biggest fan of 3D.  I get that it’s this revolutionary technology, and can really open the possibilities of our movie going experiences.  Obviously, I saw Avatar and it’s amazing visually.  But as a viewer that seems physically unable to adapt to 3D, I hate that to experience the beauty of a movie like this, you are forced to see it in 3D.  Short of getting new eyes, I have yet to find a way to avoid the monster headache that accompanies the viewing of a movie in 3D.

Anyway, my headache and Avatar are only tied by the output format, so I won’t hold it against the movie.  But I feel like I need to give it two different reviews – one for plot and one for appearance.  Appearance wise, gorgeous.  This is what I want the world to look like for reals.  If freckles really glowed in the dark, I would be out at the dermatologist asking for a lovely array of them.  And you know I want an adorable neonish path to light up when I walk!

The plot, or rather the themes in the movie, are where I really have a problem.  It’s a pretty typical, over done, “civilized” versus “savages”, omg there’s a pretty girl story line.  And really, I don’t have issues with that.  But when you’re James Cameron putting years into a movie, supposedly working on a script for over a decade, I think you could maybe have a less generic plot.  And possibly get rid of some theme’s in our society that are kind of offensive.

I’ll start by saying I don’t think James Cameron is responsible in the slightest for these themes.  But I do think that people in positions of semi-power have an obligation to try and change the overall societal view by not continuing the misconceptions.

First, we have the Na’vi, the indigenous people of Pandora who are humanoid and living on an Earth-like planet.  They wear little clothing and are wicked in touch with the planet with a special connection where everything is linked together through the roots of the plants.  At one point, they are specifically referred to as savages.  Oh, and their planet has some precious metal that the humans want, although it’s never stated what for.  My problem is this – why do we always have to portray another species, especially one that has something we’re after, as something we would consider so uncivilized and behind on technology?

It’s just offensive to me.  I don’t know why we can’t consider a race in touch with the earth as something equally advanced as we consider ourselves to be.  I mean, we create these people in our fictions anyway, why can’t we give them some credit?  Or are we so arrogant that we assume if we are lucky enough to achieve a higher level of space travel, all the other races we come in touch with are automatically going to be inferior to ours?

I also severely dislike the way the humans behave towards the Na’vi and the planet.  The frustrating thing about that is…we kind of are that way.  We tend to go blindly in, assume we will be able to persuade the people into giving us what we want, and just blast them to bits if they don’t.  So while I dislike the stereotype given to the Na’vi, I equally dislike the one associated with the humans, but think it’s legitimate.  And it depresses me.

Fortunately, I don’t think we’re going to encounter this kind of problem in real life for quite some time.  But I genuinely hope that we can figure out an honest, diplomatic way to do things.  And also, we should maybe not develop a need for something we can’t get on our own planet.

See this movie if: Honestly, you probably already saw it.  If you didn’t, like I said, it’s beautiful.  You should see it for the visual for sure.  But don’t expect a unique plot.

My Rating: 3.5/5 (I had a hard time deciding a rating on this one, folks)

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Sigourney Weaver was in Happily N’Ever After with Sarah Michelle Gellar
…

Starring Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, & Luke Perry

The movie that started it all…well, kind of.  Not for me.  Although I did see this movie in the theaters when it came out way back in 1992, I was not compelled by it enough to watch the show when it started airing.  So why am I choosing to rewatch a movie I only vaguely liked to begin with?

To an extent, I did want to see where Joss’s vision started.  Granted, Joss only wrote and created this, he did not direct it, so in my opinion, it’s difficult to say where the fault lies for the movie being way less than the show.  The movie is just so campy, takes a great concept and turns it into something kind of silly.

Realistically speaking, I never worried for Buffy in the movie, the vampires weren’t that scary.  Whereas in the TV series, Buffy herself dies twice, and all of your favorites are put in genuine danger.  You could go from laughing hysterically to crying in 42 minutes of television.  Plus in the movie, Pike is kind of like a human version of Spike.  Spike is way cooler, fyi.

Some of the things I did like, which you don’t notice until you’ve seen both the movie and the show, is that even back then Joss was writing the witty dialog.  Things like “Mind much?” and “My keen fashion sense” are total lines you can see in the series, mostly from Cordelia Chase.  And I do believe someone in the movie says “What’s your damage?“, which I swear Cordy says a time or two.

I don’t hate this movie, I just don’t love it like I love the TV show.  I did like that Joss changed the slayer sense a bit for the show, cuz it’s silly that Buffy gets cramps every time she’s around vampires in the movie.  It’s great that the vampires can’t fly in the show, and obviously they are a lot scarier in the show.  The show has more heart, more hotties, better plot.

Basically, while the movie is a good spring board, the genius is in the show.  I have such love for the TV show that it’s almost as though they aren’t connected for me.  And I hate to admit this, but I think Sarah Michelle Gellar is much better as Buffy than Kristy Swanson is.

See this movie if: You like a campy movie, or are curious to see the beginnings of BTVS.  This is considered a cult classic, after all!

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Duh

Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, & Danny Huston

The title tells it all – we get to see the origins of Wolverine.  While I probably would have liked to see some other origin stories first, like Professor Xavier or Magneto, I know that Wolverine is the popular one, so that’s what we got.

I liked the opening sequence of the movie, seeing the young Logan and actually getting to watch the moment when his mutation takes hold.  The war montage that follows with Logan and his brother Victor was also interesting to me.  Did these guys just like fighting?  Or did they actually feel like they should fight for their country because they couldn’t be killed?

Unfortunately, it kind of went down hill from there.  As someone unfamiliar with the X-Men world (I have never claimed to be a comic book geek, just fyi), I have no idea what the mutations of some of the other characters were.  After awhile, some of them revealed it themselves, such as Dominic Monaghan having mind powers or whatever, and Will.I.Am being able to transport himself.  But I will forever wonder what exactly was the power that Ryan Reynolds possessed?  That he’s good with weapons?  Plus why is Victor called Sabretooth?  He has claws, and yes, slightly emphasized teeth, but they aren’t his big thing!

The movie is definitely action packed, and since I wasn’t expecting anything more out of it, I was not disappointed.  In my opinion, the specifics of a movie like this aren’t really that important – you don’t see it for the plot really, you go for the action.  What I liked?  There weren’t any silly car chases or extended gun fights.  Since bullets are useless against Wolverine, and I like hand to hand combat better, this suited me fine.

I think perhaps my favorite thing was finally seeing why Logan has no memory of his early life.  I like that despite not being able to remember anything prior to the day he destroyed Weapon XI, he still has an innate sense of humanity and justice – very different from Victor.  Although in reading about this, apparently it’s a total fabrication of his origin and memory loss, so I’m glad at this point I’m not a comic book geek.

We also kind of got to see the origin of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and I’m amused that they’re rivals in the other movies given that Logan saved his life.  But Scott couldn’t see, so I guess he didn’t know…and who’s paying attention to potential plot holes either, like how Sabretooth from the earlier movies never said anything about being Logan’s brother.  I’m wondering if this stuff with Scott is their way of avoiding doing an origin movie about him.  Not that I think they intended to anyway.

See this movie if: You’re a fan of the previous X-Men movies, or are looking for an actiony type thing to watch.  On the whole, because I knew what I was going to get when I went into it, you could say I liked the movie fine.  It’s not ever going to make my favorites list, but it was a fun rental.  And there wasn’t anything terribly bad in it, so you can totally have your age appropriate kids watch it.

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Dominic Monaghan was on Lost with Daniel Dae Kim
Daniel Dae Kim was on Angel with a bunch of people from BTVS: Angel, Cordelia, Wesley!

Starring Daniel Craig & Judi Dench

I think the first thing I have to say about this movie is “huh?”  Maybe it didn’t make sense because I’m tired, or because it was just dumb, but it felt really pointless.  And not even pointless in the sense that I felt like I wasted time, pointless like it’s on the verge of me seeming stupid because I was bored and maybe a little confused.

At the end, Bond says to M “you were right about Vesper”, in reference to a conversation they had at the beginning of the movie.  I actually forgot what M had even said about Vesper to be right about.  But, this does not mean I will be watching the movie again, cuz it felt really long and again, boring.

Among other things, I felt like there was way too much action, and the action that happened was so fast you couldn’t even follow it.  I mean, you know that James Bond isn’t going to die so you’re not too worried anyway, but there were several fights in which I was thinking “I can’t even tell who is who because it’s so fast.”  And in case you were wondering, yes, I had my contacts in!

I was also surprised at the lack of sex in this movie.  I mean, is Bond just still pining over Vesper so he doesn’t have it in him to try and charm his way into the pants skirts of every woman on screen?  Honestly, the “Bond Girl” in this movie was prettier than Vesper, in my opinion, so I dunno why he really made no attempt on her.  Yes, there was the one naked moment with some redhead who didn’t even get a first name, but that’s it.  I’m not a “must have sex in every movie” kind of gal, but I kind of expect it in a Bond movie.  Wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, just surprised that they didn’t use the typical opportunity to do so.  But I bet the largely male audience wasn’t happy!

I felt like Casino Royale had way too much poker and I wasn’t a huge fan of that movie either, but I would say this one was worse.  Granted, I haven’t seen a whole lot of James Bond movies anyway, they just aren’t my thing, but if we’re going to compare Daniel Craig Bond movies so far, the first one was better.

See this movie if: Since I wasn’t a fan, I don’t necessarily have it in me to recommend this movie to anyone.  My guess is that big Bond fans or action fans in general have probably already seen it.  And I guess if you see it on HBO or something, it’s probably not too bad, I just don’t recommend spending your rental money on it.

My Rating: 2/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Daniel Craig was in Defiance with Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber was in Scream 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar
SMG played Buffy Summers

Starring Christian Bale & Heath Ledger

I was gonna list all the people starring in this movie, then I remembered there are a ton of them so I decided against it.

As you can possibly see, I haven’t actually restored all the content here yet.  I debated about not posting anything new until that’s done, but I’m slower than I had anticipated, so I decided to post new stuff.  Although I will freely admit I do not have any “new” content right now, in the sense that I’m in the middle of two books and haven’t watched any new TV lately.  In fact, my TV is currently inaccessible, so I can’t watch anything anyway.  So instead, I remembered that I never gave a full review to The Dark Knight due to the timing when I saw it, so I bring you my review now.

I loved this movie, and still do, otherwise why would I have seen it a couple dozen times this month as it’s been on HBO.  I’m a huge fan of Batman in general, he’s my favorite super hero (the Slayer aside, of course),  so I am naturally prone to watching and liking movies about him.  And Christian Bale is super hot, so that doesn’t hurt either.

The first thing that struck me about this movie is that I so wish they had cast Maggie Gyllenhaal from the start.  I think she did a much better job as Rachel, and I think Maggie is more versatile than Katie Holmes.  I just found her more charming, more likeable, and that made it a lot harder to watch her die.

Speaking of her death, I knew it was going to happen as soon as they said only one of either her or Harvey would live.  This is because, as a Batman fan, I watched all the other Batman movies…you know, the ones that got progressively worse as time went on.  So I knew that Harvey Dent went on to be Two Face, and that if someone was going to die it wouldn’t be him.

I kind of like that Christopher Nolan is making decisions based on the assumption that people don’t know anything about Batman in general.  Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made a scenario where you might think Harvey Dent would die, and I like that.  I also really loved the makeup job on Two Face, much scarier than the Tommy Lee Jones version in the other franchise.

I know there are a lot of people loyal to the Jack Nicholsen Joker, and while he did a fine job, I think there is absolutely no comparison to the Heath Ledger version.  I truly felt that Heath was unrecognizable, and genuinely had a fantastic performance.  And since I’ve never been super into him, I feel like I say that without any bias from his death.

As is the case with Batman Begins, I love the dark, honest portrayal of Gotham and Batman in general.  It’s a scary, dangerous place, and is presented as such in these movies.  I can’t wait to see what they do with any subsequent movies they make!

My Rating: 4.5/5

See this movie if: You like Batman, comic books, or action movies.  Although it’s a little long, it’s worth it.

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Morgan Freeman was in Million Dollar Baby with Hillary Swank
Hillary Swank was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie by Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon created the TV show after the movie

Starring Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto

As a not follower of Star Trek, this is probably going to seem like a pretty uneducated post.  I’ve watched a bit of TNG, and I’ve seen every Star Trek movie from the first one that the TNG cast was in, but I still don’t really know much about the show.

However, I have a hard time believing a crew that young would end up manning the flagship of Starfleet.  I understand the circumstances in which they ended up doing it, but did they seriously not have an established crew ready for the Enterprise?  And then once the crisis is over, they just give the ship to this young, brand new crew?

The movie certainly started off with a bang of action and special effects.  And if I think about the plot too much, I find myself kind of confused.  Which is what makes me stop thinking about the plot, because I have to remind myself that Star Trek (in my limited experience), doesn’t generally explain itself, it just does stuff.  Although I will say I’m sorry they didn’t say the issue was a rift in the space time continueum

It was an entertaining movie, but I don’t know if I’d say it’s worth seeing in the theatre.  On the one hand, you may need a big screen for the special effects.  On the other, I am not a huge fan of sci fi so I dunno if my recommendation is very convincing.

See this movie if: You like Star Trek…actually, you probably already saw it.  Or if you’re bored during the day, it’s a good matinee movie.  And like I said, entertaining, so it’s at least interesting.

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Zoe Saldana was on the over way too early show Six Degrees (which I think was canceled just as it was getting interesting, fyi) with Shiri Appleby
Shiri Appleby was on Roswell with Jason Behr
Jason Behr was on one episode of BTVS in season 2

Starring Angelina Jolie & James McAvoy

I got the impression from the previews that this was an action assassination killer type movie, and it was, but it also wasn’t exactly what I expected either.  And to be honest, I’m not even sure what I expected, but I think this movie was distinctly different from what I thought it would be.

I can’t really say if it was good or bad that this wasn’t what I expected, it was just different.  I did like James McAvoy in it – he promised me it would at least be mediocre and he delivered!  His entire storyline, and I guess the plot of the whole movie, was a bit convoluted.  In some ways, I guess it moved too fast or maybe too much was cut out, like it was just missing some explanations.

Perhaps it’s just my romanticized view of what goes into becoming an assassin, but I don’t know that I felt like the reasons Wesley ended up being recruited for necessarily lived up to my expectations.  But really, why would anyone be recruited to be an assassin be brought in for anything less than devious reasons?  So from that perspective, it was right on key.

I also liked Angelina Jolie’s character, just a hardened assassin who does what needs to be done without letting feelings get in the way.  Sometimes I wish I was able to just shut things off like that, it’d be very interesting to be all business all the time.

The effects were pretty cool and toooooootally make me want to bend bullets like that!  There’s a lot of action and fun car/people chases, so it’ll definitely keep you entertained the whole movie.

See this movie if: You like action movies, or are looking for a good escape.  The movie isn’t going to make you think, but who needs that all the time!

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Terrance Stamp is in Smallville with James Marsters
James Marsters played Spike on BTVS

Starring Ed Norton & Liv Tyler

For a superhero/comic book movie, this wasn’t bad.  And seriously, for someone who doesn’t really like these kinds of movies, I am finding I’m generally giving these decent reviews.

I really liked that the origin story took place during the opening credits, versus spending a lot of time in the movie explaining it.  Which is weird cuz I’m not even opposed to origin stories, in fact I think I love them because I am always interested in getting more information, but this way was kind of new and I liked that about it.

Despite my often dislike of Liv Tyler, she didn’t even bug me that much in this movie.  She wasn’t anything spectacular, but was tolerable and did an okay job.  I do wish a little that there had been more information about the history between Betty and Bruce, because her departure from the existing boyfriend in the movie felt a little abrupt.

I also liked that they seemed to leave several outs for more movies – not finishing the story with The Abomination, Tony Stark showing up at the end, and whatever happened with the scientist and his brain thing.  Since I know nothing about the actual story of The Incredible Hulk, these are all mysteries for me as far as what is to happen next.

I did feel like the story showing the development of The Abomination was a bit short, but that was a small thing since the movie in general was pretty good.  Not The Dark Knight good, but still good.

I don’t remember much about the Hulk movie from a few years back, so I should probably see it again, but this Hulk seemed a lot smarter than the other one.  I enjoyed that, cuz I kind of hate the big dumb Hulk thing, I like some thought behind my heroes.  Plus isn’t the Hulk a weird hero anyway?  Seems a bit odd to me.

See this movie if: You’re looking for an easy yet entertaining action film.  It was fun, basically mindless couple of hours.  Also if you are a Hulk fan you should see it, but you probably already did.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Ed Norton was in The Painted Veil with Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber was in Scream 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar (I bet y’all forgot that Cotton Weary was in all 3 Scream movies)
Sarah Michelle Gellar was Buffy Summers

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges

I purchased this movie for the boyfriend the day it came out on DVD, and we just now got around to watching it.  He’d already seen it, so it wasn’t a huge priority, but was mildly excited for me to see it.

I really like the idea of the whole Iron Man thing.  Just a smart dude, albeit some rich asshole, but someone who actually has skills.  My favorite superhero has always been Batman (well, minus the vampire slayer, duh) because Batman is just some guy who makes shit and kicks some ass.  I way prefer that over abilities like Superman or Spiderman.

I really liked that at the end, Tony Stark just flat out says “I am Iron Man”.  Granted, I’m not very into comic books and genuinely haven’t read any that doesn’t have something to do with Buffy, but it seems pretty rare for a superhero to admit outright that they are the person.  So I was greatly amused and pleased by this.

Also, I totally loved Robert Downey Jr., as usual.  Can this man do wrong?  Yeah, I am ignoring the whole drug habit thing in this comment.

So, with all that, I still felt like the movie had some flaws.  First, it was a little too actiony and not enough plot for me.  I also felt like the switch from good to bad in Jeff Bridges was super quick.  I say never trust your mentor in this situation anyway, but it still didn’t seem like it flowed quite right.

On the whole, I liked The Dark Knight better, but this wasn’t a bad movie and was fun to watch.  I didn’t feel like I needed to know anything at all about the comic books or characters to get the movie, which I like cuz I prefer to read instead of look at comic books when it comes down to it.

But, can I just ask, wtf is up with this double letter names?  Pepper Potts, Lana Lang, Lois Lane, Vicky Vale…can these poor ladies please get more?  Maybe this has some significance I don’t know about since again, I don’t read comic books, but I feel somehow like these characters are being cheated!  Or maybe I’ll name my next City of Heroes character something clever I can’t think of but has two names starting with the same letter.

See this movie if: Obvs if you like Iron Man, which you’ve probably seen it already so ignore me.  Otherwise, see it if you enjoy some fun superhero movie and want to see some stuff blowing up.  I mean, I’m not an action girl and I liked it, so it’s probably worth your time.

My Rating: 3.5/5 – yeah I liked it better than more serious movies I’ve seen recently, shut up!

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Gwyneth Paltrow was in View From the Top with Marc Blucas
Marc Blucas was Riley Finn on BTVS

I saw it.  Normally I would talk about what I think about the movie, but I don’t think that can really happen without spoiling things.  And since there are probably people who haven’t seen it yet, I won’t do that.  I will wait until I see it on DVD in 6 months or whatever and then talk about it.

But it rocked!  I loved it!  I would actually be willing to see it in the theatre again, which I rarely do.  I think the last movie I saw in the theatre was either 300 or Hot Fuzz.

I will, however, talk about the trailers.  First one was for the new James Bond movie.  Trailer looked fine, and I figure I will be subjected to Bond anyway, so I might as well get myself thinking I’ll like it okay.

Then there was a brief, basically teaser for Watchmen. Now, I know nothing about the graphic novel, but I saw Billy Crudup and thought “aww, gotta see that!”  But then they played a Billy Corgan song during the trailer.  No idea if his music is featured in the movie, but a good way to win me is to play his music.

Also a Twilight trailer.  I now have questions about why that vampire was out in daylight, so I will probably bump that book up on my reading list to see if my questions are answered.  The “bad” vampire looked like he was channeling his Interview With The Vampire Brad Pitt.

Liked the trailer for the Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe flick too.  Added it to my ever growing Netflix list.

Anyway, expect a review for The Dark Knight in a few months.