Movie Review: Cars 2

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The animation continues to flow from Pixar. Cars 2 is their 12th animated feature. When the movie started they flashed a title card showing that they were celebrating their 25th anniversary. One lady in front of me said "No, that can't be" and another said "Must be...look it's right there" as she pointed to the screen. It started with Luxo Jr. in 1986 so, it would be 25 years. Funny that it started with a Jr and the current movie is a two!

Cars is not considered one of Pixar's best films, in fact many rank it towards the bottom of the list, if not the bottom. While not gathering the most critical acclaim, it has been very popular for Pixar and its parent company Disney because of the money they have made from the merchandising bonanza that the characters have been. Approximately $10 billion has been made in sales and the movie only came out in 2006. Hence one of the driving forces for the sequel. Maybe this is one that should have gone directly to blu-ray.


Before the main event like all Pixar films, we were treated to a short. The Toy Story ohana showed up for a Hawaiian Vacation. Taking place at their new residence, the toys are excited for a break because their new owner, Bonnie, is going with her family to Hawaii.

When Ken and Barbie didn't successfully manage to sneak into Bonnie's luggage, the whole gang including new characters like Buttercup and Mr Prinklepants manages to treat Ken and Barbie to a Hawaiian vacation right there in the bedroom. Speaking of Mr Prinklepants, when I reviewed Toy Story 3 last year I mentioned about a Mr Prinklepants plush. It took the Disney store a while, but they finally got a plush and he now sits on my desk shelf overlooking me as I write and work on my computer. For the short, as a resident of Hawaii I found the jokes and stereotypes very funny. They only thing I think they missed was dropping a plug for the new Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa as the destination for Bonnie and her family which opens later this summer.

Into the meat and potatoes; Cars 2 reunites us with the gang in Radiator Springs. Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) is just waiting for Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) to come back from the Piston Cup circuit. The producers pay a little homage to Doc Hudson who was voiced by Paul Newman and passed away back in 2008. McQueen is ready to stay put until Mater unwittingly gets him entwined in a global race series to prove the worthiness of an alternative fuel. So Lightning plans to take Mater with him on the road to the countries of Japan, Italy and Great Britain for the World Grand Prix.

This is where the usual tight stories of Pixar started to unravel a bit. The movie instead of focusing on relationships got caught up in a spy story focusing on Mater. In Tokyo, blunder and mistake after lack of exposure to life outside of Radiator Springs results in a wrong place at the wrong time confusion with Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) of British Intelligence thinking Mater is actually an American Spy. So much for "British Intelligence."

So you have the master villain, the evil scientist, the big henchmen,the grandiose plan, the suave spy, the novice spy and the clueless just being himself bystander. All the components are there for a great story, but they fall short for a feature Pixar story. After the total emotional sequences from Toy Story 3 in its rites of passage ending, Carl and Ellie's love story at the beginning of Up and the connection between the robots of Wall-E and Eve on a scorched Earth in Wall-E, there weren't any highly emotional moments that would make a man suddenly develop allergies...if you know what I mean. Pixar is known for drawing out the emotion and it just wasn't there for this go around.

The animation was top notch as always, although at times it was over stimulating to the senses. I could appreciate all the details for the locations. The bright neon signs in Tokyo, the Odaiba Ferris Wheel, the rainbow bridge, all icons of the location. One of the really fun parts of the Cars universe is how they took items that are found in our real world in real cities and modified them to exist in theirs. Cars going through airport security, finding a capsule hotel and using a Japanese style bathroom are a few examples of the anthromorphization of the mobile pieces of metal be it ship, crane, plane, train or automobile. But I found myself overwhelmed by all these details and trying to pay attention for any easter eggs that may have been placed with the nooks and crannies of the movie knowing that there were over 60 hidden in Toy Story 3.

The visuals are complex, the story is a bit weak for a feature release; this is probably the first Pixar release that will only hit a single and not go beyond a double. The short ran for five minutes and 113 minutes for the main feature. There is no easter egg at the end of the movie but the credits are fun to watch. Kids will love the movie for the action of the spy genre and humor of Mater. Adults will go ho hum without the strong emotional hook. I have a feeling that Pixar in order to boost the numbers for the film will do like they did with A Bug's Life and release another version of the film in a few weeks that will contain bonus scenes, maybe scrapbook photos of our heroes in the different locations. Oh, the movie is rated G for general audiences.

The Movie Monkey
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Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

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This is the weekend of the sequels. Early weekend releases The Hangover Part II and Kung Fu Panda 2 join last weekends Pirates of the Caribbean 4. The three movies will be battling it out to determine who will be the king of the long Memorial Day weekend box office. Two of the movies are available in 3D and one of them, Hangover, will rely solely on the ticket revenue from a 2D version.

With a special contest code from M&Ms that awarded me a $3 discount on a ticket I had my ticket money plunked down for the 2D version of Kung Fu Panda 2 instead of using the discount to pay the surcharge for the 3D version.

A little shy of three years ago we met Po (Jack Black) as he went from an overweight, lazy, slacker panda to become the Dragon Warrior and join the elite kung fu fighters of the Furious Five: Tigress, Mantis, Viper, Monkey and Crane (Angelia Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan and David Cross) under the tutelage of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).

Now, the very existence of kung fu is threatened by Lord Shen (Gary Oldman) a pea fowl who has an axe to grind. Well, actually he has a cannon to shoot since he has learned how to use gun powder not for a beautiful display of fireworks but as a weapon for mass destruction and the conquering of China. What stands in way of Lord Shen's desires? According to the Soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh) something that is black and white. Might that be a panda? AND...could that panda be Po?

The battle lines have been drawn and we know that Po and Lord Shen will face off against each other. Po's skills have improved, but if it wasn't for the assistance of the Furious Five, he would have been toast a long time ago. His aligning with the Five is just what he needs to be an effective team player until he discovers a secret which shakes him to his core and rocks his chi. His father, Mr Ping, the goose that makes a delicious noodle soup and one mean, hot, steamed bun is horror of all horrors, not his real father. Insert dramatic duh dah dum....music here. Apparently Mr Ping never had the birds and bees talk with Po for Po to figure out that he didn't come from an egg.

The revelation of adoption and its aftermath is the weakest part of the movie. In movies and TV too many times the characters are shown to loose all self worth and wonder who they are when they discover that their biological parents, usually the mother, felt that someone else could do a better job raising them. Po looses confidence and starts playing mind games with himself questioning the love and care that his father, the goose, Mr Ping has given him since he took Po in as his own. That self doubt interferes with his ability to fight Lord Shen.

Fortunately, the rest of the movie makes up for this short coming. The relationship between Po and Tigress has deepened; Master Shifu giving his masterly advice to Po; Po's working though the necessary barriers to once again triumph good over evil all work in the character development department.

The story really moves along due to the overall story development and the methods used to tell it. When the story opens we are given the back story of Lord Shen. It is told using flat animated, 2D paper cutouts almost shadow puppet in form. As Po has flashbacks those images are again a flat 2D stylized animation form. At the end of the 90 minutes the credits are multi-layer 2D renderings that are well worth sitting through to enjoy. I'm sure in the 3D version they did more with this section. Sandwiched in between are the traditional computer renderings using shadow and highlights to give the 2D figures the look of 3D. The colors were bright and vibrant and the textures were highly detailed. From the fine lines in Lord Shen's feathers to the applique embroidery and stitches in vests and robes to the growth rings in a ram's or water buffalo's horns the nuances add to the graphical details giving further life to the characters.

One last special detail mention is for the fireworks. These fireworks sparkled and shimmered at a particle level like I haven't seen before. Tie that in with the smoke clouds and trails and you sit in your seat and ooooooh and aaaaaah during those scenes.

There is no easter egg at the end but as already mentioned, the credits are worth sitting through for the visuals of this movie rated PG for sequences of martial arts action and mild violence.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Rio

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Samba....samba...samba lessons, see samba dancing....samba dancing. Oh sorry, didn't see you sitting there. I'm flipping through the yellow pages looking for places where I can learn to do the samba. After watching Rio, I'm very tempted to learn how to shake my own tail feathers just like an animated small blue macaw in Rio de Janeiro rain forest. He too was overcome by the infectious beat of the bossa nova and shook his tail feathers. In fact he shook them so much the new born or would that be new hatchling fell out of his tree only to be captured by exotic bird poachers and shipped to a frozen Moose Lake, Minnesota. The shivering youngling is befriended by a young Linda. So there is the set up for our movie. They start off strong with song, sounds, music, rhythms, syncopation, motions and colors spellbind the viewers. I saw the movie in 2D but it was very obvious how they were using the 3D in the opening sequence.

Oh wait...I forgot. Before Rio started, we had a visit from your friendly neighborhood Scrat. The sabre-toothed squirrel has been part of each of the Ice Age movies. Blue Sky Studios produced both the Ice Age series as well as Rio. In this go around Scrat will not only go to the ends of the earth to save his beloved acorn, but he will go to the middle of it as well! You can't but help laugh when the Scrat is up on the screen!

Time passes and about 15 years later we meet up with a grown up Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Linda (Leslie Mann). He's become a domesticate house pet without a care who never learned to fly. He didn't have to. His world is all upset when he ends up traveling back to Rio de Janeiro in order to meet up the last female blue macaw. Boy meets girl in order to save a species from extinction. But, they say things happen in cycles. He is once again kidnapped along with his new "friend" Jewel (Anne Hathaway). Can Blu overcome his domestication and fly the coop in order to rescue Jewel and return to his home in the rain forest or Moose Lake?

The movie is very catchy with the music and the animation. Where it fails is with the story line within the 96 minutes running time. There are somethings that just overwhelm the story. Instead of one side kick, there end up being three, well actually four but two come as a set. The first is Rafael, a rain forest toucan (George Lopez) who acts as the guide to help Blu realize that flying is in his DNA. Then are the two urban birds, Nico and Pedro (Jamie Foxx and the Black Eyed Peas will.i.am) who provide musical interludes and date and love making advice. Lastly is the bull dog Luiz (Tracy Morgan) who's biggest dream seems to be to dress up like Carmen Miranda and dance in the carnival parade while trying to keep drool off of his outfit. For you kids who don't know, Carmen Miranda appeared in the 1943 movie The Gang's All Here which then made the fruit headdress popular and a stock item when describing a samba beat or talking about Chiquita bananas. Director Carlos Saldanha tried to pack a lot of action into the time allotment and didn't allow enough slower times between skirmishes.

3D computer animation has come a long way with the detail and textures that is now capable of being rendered especially when it comes to hair, fur and feathers. What I found interesting is in many places the lack textures. The animal characters were highly meticulously designed. But at times there were items like clothes or walls or cloth that were left with lots of color and parts, but not the surface gains and qualities.

The writers did leave out a heavy environmental message. They didn't rant about the raizing of the rain forest or poaching of animals into extinction. But they did make jokes of men (and dogs) dressing up for carnival earning the movie a PG rating for mild off color (not referring the the vibrant reds, blues, greens and yellows found in a color wheel and the birds feathers) humor. Also when you think about it, they are trying to get a male and female blue macaw together in order to perpetuate the species. The one line that I thought would have been used but didn't is when under the standard "boy looses girl" segment of the plot she or he in anger blurts out the "I wouldn't go with you if you were the last person" or in this case "bird on the face of the earth!" and they go storming away from each other yelling "FINE!" So it wasn't totally predictable!

With the humor, colors, animals, love story, music and the travelogue to Rio de Janeiro and Carnival, there is something everyone could find to enjoy in Rio.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Sucker Punch

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If you got out to the web and look up the definition of sucker punch you'll find the following, "A sucker punch is a blow made without warning, allowing no time for preparation or defense on the part of the recipient. It is usually delivered from close range or from behind." Zach Snyder who gave us 300 and The Watchman gives us this green screen computer animated fable called Sucker Punch. The question is whether a sucker punch was pulled on the characters in the story or on us.

The story stars Baby Doll (Emily Browning), a girl who has long blonde hair and doe eye just like Amanda Seyfried who was also considered for the role. Baby Doll has lost her sister and mother and in a twist from a typical Disney story she has an an evil wicked step father. He commits her to the Lennox House for the mentally insane in Brattleboro, Vermont as shown in two lingering shots of the signage. Why showing these signs was so important, your guess is as good as mine. Once inside she is to receive a lobotomy so he can get his hands on the family wealth.

Of course the incarceration is illegal. Dad has paid off one of the staff, Blue (Oscar Isaac) for the committal. In a special type of therapy given by Dr Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino with a really bad Russian accent) the patients are given theater therapy. The patients will act and dance out on a stage to try to get to the root of their problem.

When Baby Doll dances, it mesmerizes everyone. Actually when Baby Doll dances she creates an alternate reality for herself where she meets a wise man (Scott Glenn) who guides her in a plan to get four known and one unknown item in order to escape before she is to be lobotomized. Each time she dances she goes into a new world and with fellow patients Sweet Pea, her sister Rocket, Blondie and Amber (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung). Battling in a Japanese temple or against futuristic robots, a dragon or steam punk soldiers the girls attempt to get the objects that will unlock their future.

There is no question that the visuals are incredible on such a large scale. The term visually stunning was pointed out on my Facebook page as being "waaaaay overused description" in reference to this film. But they were. And I can understand where if you saw the 3D version of the film the effects could have been used positively. For the guys, having the ladies running around kicking butt in midriff bearing outfits and thigh high socks was an added bonus. Ladies, you get a few moments of Jon Hamm screen time.

The sound track was pumping and thumping with versions of Sweet Dreams are Made of This originally from the Eurythmics and a mashup up of Queen's I Want it All and We Will Rock You. If you stay to the end of the movie, all 109 minutes you'll receive a music video of Love is the Drug as performed by Carla and Oscar.

So you have a good sound track and great visuals. But the story was lacking. When the plot sucker punch was delivered I asked myself, did they really have to do that? I won't say what it was but the base premise really angered me. Since we're talking about lobotomies in this movie, it was rated PG-13 for thematic material involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language. Personally, I think with a bit more clean up of the plot it could have been a much better movie. In the mean time I'll head off to the doctor and have him make sure that my kidney is ok from the blow that Sucker Punch delivered.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Rango

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Gore Verbinski is back with Johnny Depp. They worked together on the three live action Pirates of the Caribbean movies and now they team together for the computer animated Rango. Depp provides the voice for the main character, a chameleon. Verbinski wears multiple hats including director, producer, writer AND voice talent. From the pirate genre to the western. Dusty main street, high noon show down and the rolling blowing tumble weed going across the screen set the stereotypical western scene after a slight detour from reality. The whole 107 minute movie was a nice little departure from reality!

As Rango, Depp with the voice and the animated actions reminded me of the Don Knotts movies, specifically The Ghost and Mr Chicken although not quite as high strung. A chameleon who wants to be more than he is, just as Luther Heggs wanted to be more than he was. Chameleons by nature want to blend into their surroundings and here he is wearing a bright red aloha shirt with a vibrant yellow hibiscus print. The result, he sticks out like a sore thumb!

Right from the start, the visuals are detailed and eye popping. The little pits and bumps of chameleon skin, smooth plastic, water fluidity, desert dirt and cacti pins are rendered with great details. Our story tellers are a mariachi band of owls playing the trumpet, accordion, guitar and violin. The visuals of the birds, the instruments, their colors and the outfits make the cuts to their narration a joy to watch.

Once our protagonist heads into the desert town of Dirt, yah, that's right the name is Dirt, not a euphemism meaning unclean, broken down and not worth much the eclectic collection of towns folk spy through their building doors and windows the stranger that has rolled into town. As we meet rabbits, moles, horny toads, gila monsters, desert spiny lizards, hawks, bats, tortoises, rattle snakes and coyotes, we see details of both the animal and the detail that make them unique like eye colors, hair textures, skin lesions and clothes that bring the character to life and give them personalities.

When the stranger arrives in town he bellies up to the saloon bar. Through a series of unintended actions and some pretty bold stories that get rid of the bad guys who have been pestering the simple town folk of Dirt, our now hero is asked his name. He declares it is Rango and becomes the new sheriff in town. But something is unclean in Dirt and it's more than just the main street. Can the new law man clean up the town when the water supply is drying up?

There weren't many people in the theater with me, maybe twenty for a noon time matinee showing but that didn't stop the space from being filled with laughter. All throughout there were some good laughs generated both by visual jokes and funny dialogue. The movie is rated PG for rude humor, language, action and smoking. There were a couple of small children in the theater and the scene with Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) for them was a little too intense causing them to cry. Here's a giant snake with giant fangs dripping with venom moving quickly shooting with a Gatling gun of sorts on his tail, you can understand why they might have gotten slightly frightened.

The one point of the movie that I did catch as an error, sort of was Rango's eyes. His head was basically a Jackson Chameleon's head set on a skinny neck. Their eyes are orbital eyes meaning that they work independently of each other. One eye can be looking forward and the other backward or one up and the other down. His eyes were too human. They would both look in the same direction at the same time, which after owning a Jackson, having the eyes work together felt wrong. But, given the scope of the entire movie, that was a minor point.

I plan to go back and see it again using my free movie coupon. It was fun to watch and listen too and filled with a lot of visual detail which I'm sure I missed more than I caught.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Toy Story 3

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Back in 1995 when Pixar released Toy Story, it changed the game for movie goers. To see what sort of images the computer could generate and get us to accept this world of toys in Andy's room could actually exist hadn't been done before. More importantly was the story. They got us to believe that Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) and the rest of the toys were real and to care what happened to them. Four year later along comes Toy Story 2 giving further refinement to the characters that we know and love. We are introduced to new ones like Jessie the yodeling cowgirl (Joan Cusack) and Bullseye. Then they were put on a shelf for eleven years. But now they are taken down, dusted off and back better than ever. The wait was worth it! It's great to be reunited with old friends.

My home theater is showing the movie in IMAX 3D, Real 3D and 2D. I was in the third show of the day, the first showing in 2D and the theater was packed. It's like schools and summer programs had made a field trip out of seeing this movie and packed the room. I couldn't get my regular seat about three quarters of the way up and in an end seat. I had to sit in the first row of the risers in a handicap seat knowing that if a wheel chair guest came in I might have to move to the front row and stare up at the screen. This movie will probably break some records this weekend.

Just as time had passed between movies in the real world about the same amount of time has passed in the world of Andy's room. He's now grown up and heading off to college. He has to clean out his room. What do you do with the toys that you loved as a child? Take them with you, throw them away, donate them or store them? The toys ponder their fate while reflecting what happened to some of their old pals that didn't make it up to this point. Inadvertently the toys end up being donated to a day care center.

Here our heroes plus Mr and Mrs Potato Head, Slinky dog, Barbie, Hamm, the three eyed aliens and Rex (Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Blake Clark, Jodi Benson, John Ratzenberger, Jeff Pidgeon, and Wallace Shawn) come to cross roads. In Toy Story 2 the relationship between Jesse and her owner Emily translated through the beautiful song When She Loved Me. Many of the same feelings were once again being expressed but not exclusively by Jessie. Their fears are put to rest by a new character Lots-0-Huggin Bear (Ned Beatty) or Lotso for short, a pink fluffy teddy type bear that smells like strawberries who acts as representative for the toys who call Sunny Side Daycare their home. Other new toys introduced are Mr Pricklepants, Dolly, Buttercup, Sparks and Bookworm just to name a few. I'll have to drop by my local Disney Store and see if Mr Pricklepants comes in a plush. I find the idea of a lederhosen wearing hedgehog pretty funny and even funnier when he reveals that he wants to be a Shakespearean actor!

Their orientation is given by Ken (Michael Keaton) who for the first time discovers Barbie. The reaction and banter between the two is inspired creativity. They could probably have a spin off with just these two. Ken shows the newbies to the Caterpillar room where after recess the kids come in and the toys get played with....and HARD! Buzz makes an appeal to Lotso to move to the Butterfly room where there are children more age appropriate for the gang. Turns out Sunny Side isn't so sunny after all. Andy's toys decide to make a break for it, to get out from under the storm clouds of Sunny Side but to return to what?

Overall the tone of the movie is much darker than we've seen in any previous Toy Story movie. Although the movie has a G rating, there are themes here which are very grown up. The last twenty minutes of the movie you will need tissues. Friendship and loyalty versus responsibility and duty. Where is my place? Should I rust out or get worn out? Do I stick with what I know or venture into the unknown? All great questions that are presented to us through the eyes of a toy or a group of toys. Ultimately, the movie's conclusion is very satisfying as we watch the closing credits. The guys and ladies over at Pixar have not only given us great visuals to enjoy but a story worthy of watching.

Speaking of visuals, Pixar is known for putting easter eggs into their films. The little nods to inside jokes, running gags, past or even future films abound in this movie. The big one that I noticed was the Pizza Planet truck. The letters Y-O stuck out like a sore thumb. One blogger over at Slash Film counted about 60 hidden gems. Many are not as blatant as the truck but interesting on their own. Check out the blog post at: http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/06/18/toy-story-3-easter-eggs/ for the details.

Usually I give you the running length of the movie, but I forgot to look at the time. I've seen a couple of times reported on web sites, but don't know if that includes the short that is shown in front of the movie. It's entitled Day and Night and is very different than any of the previously released shorts like Boundin', Knick Knack or Partly Cloudy. It's a very ingenious presentation! I'm assuming that the short was about 8 minutes and the main feature about 90 minutes. In any case, it's time well spent.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.

Movie Review: Avatar in IMAX 3D

So I finally did it, I broke down and paid the $15.00 to see Avatar in IMAX 3D. On the back side, Regal Theaters isn't going to get any soda money out of me for a few more shows. Although Regal claims to have IMAX, it's not the huge screen like we used to have in Waikiki or the one at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I guess could be called IMAX Lite, check out the details here. I ended up missing the first show of the day and went to the second. When I arrived 30 minutes before the movie, there was a huge line ticket line and once I headed inside, there was a big line to get into the theater. About ten minutes before the show started the theater was already so crowded that groups of people were breaking up into single seats. I haven't seen a show pack out like that in a l-o-n-g time.

Directed by James Cameron, the same guy who directed the highest grossing film of all time, Titanic; this film has been reported to cost between$300 and $500 million dollars to create. If you're going to spend that kind of money, why not make it a long one, 162 minutes running time so if you split the difference it cost about two and a half million dollars per minute. In the area of gee whiz incredible looking film, this has it. For the story, the dialogue and plot run a little long. It could have been tightened up. (Side note: As I write this James Cameron is on Jimmy Kimmel and the number of $500 million was bandied about between the two, so that would mean about $3.1 million per minute to make)

A former jar head, Jake Sulley (Sam Worthington) is brought to the planet Pandora. He's part of a plan to move the Na'vi natives to another area so that his employer can get into an area to mine for rare and very lucrative mineral. The idea is to put his conscience into an avatar, a body that is composed of the DNA material of the natives and his own. The avatar project is controlled by Dr Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). Once in a body that can handle the environment, Jake can mingle with the locals. While roaming the landscape, he meets Neytiri of the Na'vi (Zoe Saldana) who teaches him about the planet. But that plan takes time and the Colonel (Stephen Lang) would just like to use firepower and might to take what they want.

The Na'vi are produced using motion capture like Robert Zemeckis did in Disney's A Christmas Carol. The result is much different since the Na'vi are humanoid but not humans. With their blue skin and extended height, it works where it didn't quite in Christmas Carol.

As you get to see Pandora, the imagery is breath taking. The types of plants, animals, and the scope of the different environs are simply amazing. The look of many of the flora and fauna remind me of vertebrae and invertebrates that you would find in the deep ocean where no light exist. They appear to have bioluminescence and at times look like the planet was splashed with those special paints and then someone turned on the black light. Ever see Michael Jackson's Billy Jean where he walks the street lights up? The Na'vi's footsteps produce the same effect on Pandora.

At times the visuals are overwhelming and that contributed to the feeling that the movie was too long. I'm not saying they were bad just that my mind spent time trying to comprehend just how massive objects and locations on Pandora really were. A couple of times I had to shut down my mind from trying to figure out "how would that be possible?" and trying to work out the physics. I had to remind myself just to accept it and Cameron did a good job not trying to get caught up in those details.

As mentioned earlier, the plot needed some help . Some times the details weren't given which was good but at other times too much was given. I really think something that would have helped out is if Cameron took a clue from Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the guys from South Park) in Team America: World Police. " When you need to put yourself to the test, and show us a passage of time We're gonna need a montage! MONTAGE!"

Cameron has also taken a page out of Hayao Miyazaki's story background as shown in Ponyo and Princess Mononoke using Gia or Mother Earth or in this case, Mother Pandora. This subject often included in a plot when the antagonist wants to take resources from the planet. They don't hit you over the head like An Inconvenient Truth, but they don't let it pass either.

Come Oscar time, I'm sure that this movie will be up for a number of awards. Just like Titanic, I feel confident in that they will take awards in the area of technology and background. Awards like sound effects editing, best editing, and best sound will probably go to Avatar. If it doesn't win best visuals, I'd be shocked. I don't think that any of the acting awards will be heaped upon the actors in this movie although they may be nominated.

When it comes time to head out to the theater, you'll have the choice of regular 2D, 3D, or IMAX 3D. I did enjoy the 3D with the depth that it added to the movie. It wasn't the 3D that comes out of the screen, but having the depth really added to the experience with the huge scopes they were trying to convey. When I came out of my show there were lines for each format waiting outside of the lobby to get in and enjoy with the IMAX 3D line being the longest. Too bad the Polynesian Cultural Center didn't show Avatar on their IMAX screen this weekend. They could have made a killing!

The show was rated PG-13 due to some of the violence of the battle scenes and fighting.