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Another attack; Logan still might not work out; Win7 still might not work out
Well, no sooner was I going to report how well I've been doing with my new diet (lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks, even), when last night I had another attack just as bad as, and certainly lasting longer than, the one that landed me in the ER. Turns out Vicodin has almost no effect on me, so I might as well sell these useless pills for some profit.
It hit me about 8:30 pm. When the worst had passed I went to bed at 9, then woke up about three times in the next 7 hours to note the pain was still there. So I slept the whole night in a sitting position, since lying flat makes it ten times worse.
Tery's co-worker who had surgery informed her that the best I could hope was to delay the attacks. She said they'll go from one every 2-3 weeks to one a week, to the point where I'll be begging for surgery. Terrific.
I've filled out about three applications for assistance with my bills -- oh yeah, they've started pouring in. The highest so far is the ambulance ride for $1100. Plus $550 for my ER stay. $32 for lab tests and $57 for my x-ray (I can swing those). My sister the nurse says I can expect separate bills from the hospital (which I would think counts as the emergency room, but evidently not) as well as the doctor.
The good news is the people who sent those two big bills will take interest-free payments of $50 a month. My worry though is having to pay $50 to 4 or 5 people every month, depending who else crawls out of the woodwork with their hands out. That might become difficult.
So yes, help please. I don't qualify for Medicaid since I'm neither pregnant, unemployed, a veteran or making car payments -- no rewards for keeping my cost of living moderately under control. My beef is why can't I just sign up with one program as uninsured and have any assistance apply to all my bills, why so needlessly complicated? Well, I guess they aren't kidding when they say health care is in a sorry state in this country.
In light of this recent attack, I'm nervous about my plan to soldier through for a year until hopefully my employer's insurance will cover surgery. I don't know that I can stand this kind of pain once a week (or more often) for a year. And you're talking to a girl whose appendix almost ruptured because I only complained of "kind of a stomachache" to my parents for 3 days. Captain Stoic, that's me.
~*~
I still can't tell you if Logan is going to work out or not. He's extremely slowly warming up to me, and usually only if I feed him first. Only a cat has the nerve to hiss and swat at you while begging for food. I can actually pet him as long as Tery is nearby.
The problem isn't me -- the fact that the bird is still here is evidence of how much weight my opinion holds. No, unfortunately it's Francesca Sofia, who is learning how empty our promise is that she had the last word on his status.
The people who say getting two strange cats to eat together is a big step towards successful integration are full of crap. They eat together all the time. It doesn't stop the occasional fracas, which seems to depend largely on the time of day -- mostly my first hour of work in the morning, and at night when we're settling in for sleep.
We think Logan is just playing, but Kitten doesn't see it that way at all. She hunches down, ears flattened, making these hair-raising noises that sound like she's being raped and skinned alive simultaneously: truly one of the most horrible sounds you'll ever hear in your lifetime. Logan is tragically inept at interpreting this seemingly crystal clear body language.
Our sympathy has waned considerably when we realized that, in our 940-square foot condo, she pigheadedly repeatedly goes to find him instead of, I don't know, sticking to the 900+ feet of real estate where she can't see him. "AHA! I found you! And as a reminder...I STILL HATE YOU!"
The balcony, strangely, seems to be neutral ground
For now, he's keeping his bags packed just in case:
"Nobody knows the troubles I've seen...." The box isn't photoshopped in. He took to that like, well, a cat used to living in boxes
Best case scenario, we're going to end up with two diabetic cats with eating disorders: Logan because he's got a stray cat appetite, Kitten because she's stress eating.
~*~
Really quickly, why I can't use my new Windows 7 computer yet.
My employer's software doesn't work with Windows 7. So I jumped through all these hoops and installed Win 7 Professional to be able to set up a WinXP virtual mode. Which runs the software perfectly.
HOWEVER. Since my life is never simple, this isn't the end of the story. Also critical to my work is a foot pedal for controlling the dictations (which can also be done with keyboard commands, but that would be so ponderous and difficult my production rate would be halved). Despite plugging in with a USB connection, apparently the pedal is considered an HID (human interface device), which, naturally, isn't recognized by the virtual environment. HA!
So we have a really expensive Facebook-checking tool for now. On the bright side, perhaps by the time my employer becomes Win7 friendly, Microsoft will have worked out the surprising number of incompatibilities I've already encountered in my few short hours playing around.
Which begs the question: Where does Microsoft get off releasing software that doesn't recognize technology that's been working fine for years?
~*~
Now for some movie reviews (as always, cut for possible spoilers):
Where the Wild Things Are
I fell in love with this movie from the first trailer. As an avid reader and having a mother who was the town's children's librarian, this book was a staple of my childhood.
Curious to see how Spike Jonze could make an 88-minute film out of a 48-page book, but he did surprisingly well (Amazon says it's 48 pages. Really? How is that possible?). I'm not going to take credit for this observation, I'm sure I just read it somewhere else, but he has crafted a love letter to childhood.
Max (Max Records), as in the book, is quite the wild thing. He acts downright abominably to his sister and his mother (Catherine Keener) because he's feeling ignored -- they don't have time any more for his forts and flights of imagination.
After a particularly vicious fight with his mother culminating in Max biting her, he runs away and jumps in his boat, sailing for days until he reaches the island of the Wild Things. All this is more or less straight from the book.
What the book doesn't do is give the Wild Things individual personalities and quite complex relationships, which become the meat of the movie -- under Max's reign as their king, that is (a mantle he assumes to keep them from eating him).
Carol (James Gandolfini) is the strongest, and Max's alter ego. He's also sensitive and easily hurt, and harboring some very big (and apparently unreturned) feelings for KW (Lauren Ambrose, Claire from "Six Feet Under").
There's Judith (fabulous Catherine O'Hara) who is with Ira (Forest Whitaker), and Douglas (Chris Cooper, the homophobic next-door neighbor of American Beauty). There's the big imposing bull (don't know his name. He only has one line), and my favorite, Alexander (Paul Dano, the mute brother from Little Miss Sunshine).
It turns out the Wild Things have more emotional problems than an episode of "Blossom." Carol's previously stated thing for KW seems to make her intensely uncomfortable, and you have to wonder if there's some kind of stalker action going on. Judith is this side of openly hostile, and seems the least content with Max's self-proclaimed royal status -- she teeters on the brink of mutiny through the whole movie. Alexander is the quietest, the most anxious to keep peace, and the most often ignored in the clamor of the group.
What the movie captures expertly is the casual violence of childhood. Differences are resolved by tossing your opponent against the wall, the creatures (and Max) hurl their bodies down a hill without a second thought, and threats of eating people are made often and meant literally. However, the violence is done cartoonishly, never moreso than when Carol accidentally tears Douglas's arm off and it's later replaced with a stick (complete with comical stick-fingered hand).
The problems really start when it falls to Max to try to make everyone happy, be the parent so to speak. It's impossible of course, and when he fails his deception in claiming to be king is revealed. Carol, grief-stricken at the betrayal, lashes out with the fury of a child, made terrifying by his enormous size and beastly appearance. It isn't hard to see the parallel with Max's behavior with his family, and provides the impetus for him to want to go home finally.
His departure is tearful, his arrival home low-key and anticlimactic, just like in the book.
The movie features the creature work of Jim Henson's Workshop, with CGI facial animation so seamless I couldn't see it. Max Records has the face of a boyish angel, but the truly rambunctious streak of a wild thing. The script has the vaguely nonsensical quality of a fairy tale, and evokes the aching sadness of the last summer of childhood before the first awareness of responsibility sets in.
4 out of 5 stars. Oh, and I totally want an adult-sized Max wolf suit.
Avatar
I'll admit, when I saw the first trailer for this I thought it looked like the stupidest idea for a movie ever. I smugly believed this impression to be justified when I read in EW that the rare mineral the humans were searching for was called "unobtainium." Really, James Cameron? Are you having a laugh?
But the word of mouth became difficult to ignore. And the Oscar buzz. And, well, it's playing in IMAX 3D and I'll see just about anything in IMAX 3D (except the Michael Jackson concert movie This is it).
I planned to go this past Monday. Mondays are the best time to see a movie while everyone is at work.
Imagine my surprise when I got to the theater to find a line out the door? That's right. SOLD OUT on a Monday morning. I had to squeeze in next to this old couple at the back of the theater. Is everyone unemployed? Or just taking a personal day? That's some killer word of mouth. I missed the first five minutes of the movie waiting in that line.
Which didn't stop me from getting sucked in immediately. If you haven't heard the plot yet, Earth's only chance of survival is a source of energy called "unobtainium," the largest supply of which happens to be sitting underneath the tree home of the Na'vi, the blue people you've seen everywhere by now, on the planet Pandora. The Army is there to take it by force, but plan A is diplomacy in the form of "avatars," creatures that are a combination of human and Na'vi DNA piloted remotely from tanning beds.
Paraplegic Jake Sully joins the avatar program in the place of his dead twin brother (this all happened before I sat down, I gathered it from dialogue). He's not especially welcome there because he lacks the years of orientation and training his brother underwent to qualify. But having matching DNA means he's a natural stand-in for his brother's avatar.
He's separated from the avatar director (Sigourney Weaver, combining her roles as Ripley and Dian Fossey) almost immediately, spending the night in the wild and coming close to being eaten by a pack of leathery looking wild dogs. He's saved by the Na'vi woman Neytiri (Zoe "Uhura" Saldana). She takes him back to the tribe where, with minimal convincing, it's decided she'll teach him their ways.
This is the first of many complaints I've read about the movie: Jake seems to do everything so effortlessly. He's in the right place at the right time, and he literally overnight ends up being taken in by the tribe, a position Sigourney and her team can only dream of after months of trying to build trust. And it doesn't stop there: The next day he tries riding one of the horse-like creatures -- no problem. Slightly more challenging but only for the sake of some action, he bonds with one of the dragon-like things (who only allow one rider their entire lives) -- what else you got?
So when they come across the bigger, angrier red dragon thing that no one can ride, who Neytiri says only five of her kind have ridden ever in their history, I immediately said to myself, "Well, of course he's going to ride it eventually, mark my words." And I was right. This was one of my (tiny) complaints; the plot seemed to unfold like a video game, with our hero picking up bigger and better weapons (and overcoming progressively bigger challenges) at every level.
Let me explain the bonds. Bonds are formed between beast and rider through a clump of tendrils buried in the end of the Na'vi's Crystal Gayle-length ponytails (did I date myself too much with that reference?) -- they plug it in to a matching cluster in the "horse's" (or dragon's) mane.
Predictably, he falls in love with Neytiri and she with him. They make love (off-screen), but there's no indication that they plug their ponytails into each other's, which struck me as strange.
Ah well, a tiny detail. As easily as he masters all the beasts of the planet, he also becomes the Na'vi's self-appointed general. Because the first 90 minutes of the movie are spent making Jake (and the audience) fall in love with Pandora and the Na'vi, so when the impatient Army comes a'calling for their unobtainium we know why he switches sides.
And fall in love with it I did. The Na'vi are very thinly veiled Native Americans, with the same reverence for nature and the lives of all creatures, and the vast interconnectedness of everything -- a spirituality that is all but extinct in our world. Cameron does such a good job of drawing you into Pandora heart and soul that when the Army stomps in and knocks down the great tree that is their home (in agonizing slow motion) it is truly heartbreaking, and I wept behind my 3D glasses.
But look at me, telling the whole movie. I'll just say that the end is wholly predictable. There are no surprises whatsoever plotwise. Nothing truly profound is said, at least nothing we haven't heard before. But I absolutely loved it nevertheless.
It's probably the most beautiful movie I've ever seen, the scenery and the Na'vi. The new motion capture technique that everyone says is going to change the face of movie-making is really quite startling -- the nuances it gave to the animations were incredible. I completely forgot I was watching CGI and immersed myself into the story within about ten minutes.
The music was inspiring, and say what you will about Cameron's clunky dialogue, the man still knows how to write action scenes that steal your breath away and make you want to jump up and cheer.
I left the theater the minute the credits started to roll, because this is a slam dunk Blu-ray purchase.
Naturally I spent today reading what others thought on RottenTomatoes.com. Overwhelmingly favorable, but a few critics just couldn't get past the derivative plot ("Dances with Wolves in space") or the "environmentalist tree-hugging" message. They pooh-poohed the groundbreaking technology used, said it was overrated and that the movie wouldn't stand up to repeat viewings. I was made uncomfortable by the movie's defenders calling it the Star Wars of our time. That's what they said about The Fifth Element and that seemed to sort of fizzle out.
Of course let's not forget the blatantly obvious similarities to Iraq, or Vietnam, or the pilgrims on the Mayflower, or any other situation in our history when people with superior military force bulldozed over the weaker indigenous population.
I loved the movie because it was escapism at its purest (plus I hated Dances with Wolves and think it can only be improved upon, mainly by using anyone besides Kevin Costner) -- when I left the theater, I felt a wave of sadness that I had to go back to stupid old Earth. I wanted to live on Pandora, and better yet be a 10-foot tall, feline, graceful, fierce Na'vi. Experiencing that feeling is what movies were invented for, if you ask me.
4.5 out of 5 stars
It hit me about 8:30 pm. When the worst had passed I went to bed at 9, then woke up about three times in the next 7 hours to note the pain was still there. So I slept the whole night in a sitting position, since lying flat makes it ten times worse.
Tery's co-worker who had surgery informed her that the best I could hope was to delay the attacks. She said they'll go from one every 2-3 weeks to one a week, to the point where I'll be begging for surgery. Terrific.
I've filled out about three applications for assistance with my bills -- oh yeah, they've started pouring in. The highest so far is the ambulance ride for $1100. Plus $550 for my ER stay. $32 for lab tests and $57 for my x-ray (I can swing those). My sister the nurse says I can expect separate bills from the hospital (which I would think counts as the emergency room, but evidently not) as well as the doctor.
The good news is the people who sent those two big bills will take interest-free payments of $50 a month. My worry though is having to pay $50 to 4 or 5 people every month, depending who else crawls out of the woodwork with their hands out. That might become difficult.
So yes, help please. I don't qualify for Medicaid since I'm neither pregnant, unemployed, a veteran or making car payments -- no rewards for keeping my cost of living moderately under control. My beef is why can't I just sign up with one program as uninsured and have any assistance apply to all my bills, why so needlessly complicated? Well, I guess they aren't kidding when they say health care is in a sorry state in this country.
In light of this recent attack, I'm nervous about my plan to soldier through for a year until hopefully my employer's insurance will cover surgery. I don't know that I can stand this kind of pain once a week (or more often) for a year. And you're talking to a girl whose appendix almost ruptured because I only complained of "kind of a stomachache" to my parents for 3 days. Captain Stoic, that's me.
~*~
I still can't tell you if Logan is going to work out or not. He's extremely slowly warming up to me, and usually only if I feed him first. Only a cat has the nerve to hiss and swat at you while begging for food. I can actually pet him as long as Tery is nearby.
The problem isn't me -- the fact that the bird is still here is evidence of how much weight my opinion holds. No, unfortunately it's Francesca Sofia, who is learning how empty our promise is that she had the last word on his status.
The people who say getting two strange cats to eat together is a big step towards successful integration are full of crap. They eat together all the time. It doesn't stop the occasional fracas, which seems to depend largely on the time of day -- mostly my first hour of work in the morning, and at night when we're settling in for sleep.
We think Logan is just playing, but Kitten doesn't see it that way at all. She hunches down, ears flattened, making these hair-raising noises that sound like she's being raped and skinned alive simultaneously: truly one of the most horrible sounds you'll ever hear in your lifetime. Logan is tragically inept at interpreting this seemingly crystal clear body language.
Our sympathy has waned considerably when we realized that, in our 940-square foot condo, she pigheadedly repeatedly goes to find him instead of, I don't know, sticking to the 900+ feet of real estate where she can't see him. "AHA! I found you! And as a reminder...I STILL HATE YOU!"
The balcony, strangely, seems to be neutral ground
For now, he's keeping his bags packed just in case:
"Nobody knows the troubles I've seen...." The box isn't photoshopped in. He took to that like, well, a cat used to living in boxes
Best case scenario, we're going to end up with two diabetic cats with eating disorders: Logan because he's got a stray cat appetite, Kitten because she's stress eating.
~*~
Really quickly, why I can't use my new Windows 7 computer yet.
My employer's software doesn't work with Windows 7. So I jumped through all these hoops and installed Win 7 Professional to be able to set up a WinXP virtual mode. Which runs the software perfectly.
HOWEVER. Since my life is never simple, this isn't the end of the story. Also critical to my work is a foot pedal for controlling the dictations (which can also be done with keyboard commands, but that would be so ponderous and difficult my production rate would be halved). Despite plugging in with a USB connection, apparently the pedal is considered an HID (human interface device), which, naturally, isn't recognized by the virtual environment. HA!
So we have a really expensive Facebook-checking tool for now. On the bright side, perhaps by the time my employer becomes Win7 friendly, Microsoft will have worked out the surprising number of incompatibilities I've already encountered in my few short hours playing around.
Which begs the question: Where does Microsoft get off releasing software that doesn't recognize technology that's been working fine for years?
~*~
Now for some movie reviews (as always, cut for possible spoilers):
Where the Wild Things Are
I fell in love with this movie from the first trailer. As an avid reader and having a mother who was the town's children's librarian, this book was a staple of my childhood.
Curious to see how Spike Jonze could make an 88-minute film out of a 48-page book, but he did surprisingly well (Amazon says it's 48 pages. Really? How is that possible?). I'm not going to take credit for this observation, I'm sure I just read it somewhere else, but he has crafted a love letter to childhood.
Max (Max Records), as in the book, is quite the wild thing. He acts downright abominably to his sister and his mother (Catherine Keener) because he's feeling ignored -- they don't have time any more for his forts and flights of imagination.
After a particularly vicious fight with his mother culminating in Max biting her, he runs away and jumps in his boat, sailing for days until he reaches the island of the Wild Things. All this is more or less straight from the book.
What the book doesn't do is give the Wild Things individual personalities and quite complex relationships, which become the meat of the movie -- under Max's reign as their king, that is (a mantle he assumes to keep them from eating him).
Carol (James Gandolfini) is the strongest, and Max's alter ego. He's also sensitive and easily hurt, and harboring some very big (and apparently unreturned) feelings for KW (Lauren Ambrose, Claire from "Six Feet Under").
There's Judith (fabulous Catherine O'Hara) who is with Ira (Forest Whitaker), and Douglas (Chris Cooper, the homophobic next-door neighbor of American Beauty). There's the big imposing bull (don't know his name. He only has one line), and my favorite, Alexander (Paul Dano, the mute brother from Little Miss Sunshine).
It turns out the Wild Things have more emotional problems than an episode of "Blossom." Carol's previously stated thing for KW seems to make her intensely uncomfortable, and you have to wonder if there's some kind of stalker action going on. Judith is this side of openly hostile, and seems the least content with Max's self-proclaimed royal status -- she teeters on the brink of mutiny through the whole movie. Alexander is the quietest, the most anxious to keep peace, and the most often ignored in the clamor of the group.
What the movie captures expertly is the casual violence of childhood. Differences are resolved by tossing your opponent against the wall, the creatures (and Max) hurl their bodies down a hill without a second thought, and threats of eating people are made often and meant literally. However, the violence is done cartoonishly, never moreso than when Carol accidentally tears Douglas's arm off and it's later replaced with a stick (complete with comical stick-fingered hand).
The problems really start when it falls to Max to try to make everyone happy, be the parent so to speak. It's impossible of course, and when he fails his deception in claiming to be king is revealed. Carol, grief-stricken at the betrayal, lashes out with the fury of a child, made terrifying by his enormous size and beastly appearance. It isn't hard to see the parallel with Max's behavior with his family, and provides the impetus for him to want to go home finally.
His departure is tearful, his arrival home low-key and anticlimactic, just like in the book.
The movie features the creature work of Jim Henson's Workshop, with CGI facial animation so seamless I couldn't see it. Max Records has the face of a boyish angel, but the truly rambunctious streak of a wild thing. The script has the vaguely nonsensical quality of a fairy tale, and evokes the aching sadness of the last summer of childhood before the first awareness of responsibility sets in.
4 out of 5 stars. Oh, and I totally want an adult-sized Max wolf suit.
Avatar
I'll admit, when I saw the first trailer for this I thought it looked like the stupidest idea for a movie ever. I smugly believed this impression to be justified when I read in EW that the rare mineral the humans were searching for was called "unobtainium." Really, James Cameron? Are you having a laugh?
But the word of mouth became difficult to ignore. And the Oscar buzz. And, well, it's playing in IMAX 3D and I'll see just about anything in IMAX 3D (except the Michael Jackson concert movie This is it).
I planned to go this past Monday. Mondays are the best time to see a movie while everyone is at work.
Imagine my surprise when I got to the theater to find a line out the door? That's right. SOLD OUT on a Monday morning. I had to squeeze in next to this old couple at the back of the theater. Is everyone unemployed? Or just taking a personal day? That's some killer word of mouth. I missed the first five minutes of the movie waiting in that line.
Which didn't stop me from getting sucked in immediately. If you haven't heard the plot yet, Earth's only chance of survival is a source of energy called "unobtainium," the largest supply of which happens to be sitting underneath the tree home of the Na'vi, the blue people you've seen everywhere by now, on the planet Pandora. The Army is there to take it by force, but plan A is diplomacy in the form of "avatars," creatures that are a combination of human and Na'vi DNA piloted remotely from tanning beds.
Paraplegic Jake Sully joins the avatar program in the place of his dead twin brother (this all happened before I sat down, I gathered it from dialogue). He's not especially welcome there because he lacks the years of orientation and training his brother underwent to qualify. But having matching DNA means he's a natural stand-in for his brother's avatar.
He's separated from the avatar director (Sigourney Weaver, combining her roles as Ripley and Dian Fossey) almost immediately, spending the night in the wild and coming close to being eaten by a pack of leathery looking wild dogs. He's saved by the Na'vi woman Neytiri (Zoe "Uhura" Saldana). She takes him back to the tribe where, with minimal convincing, it's decided she'll teach him their ways.
This is the first of many complaints I've read about the movie: Jake seems to do everything so effortlessly. He's in the right place at the right time, and he literally overnight ends up being taken in by the tribe, a position Sigourney and her team can only dream of after months of trying to build trust. And it doesn't stop there: The next day he tries riding one of the horse-like creatures -- no problem. Slightly more challenging but only for the sake of some action, he bonds with one of the dragon-like things (who only allow one rider their entire lives) -- what else you got?
So when they come across the bigger, angrier red dragon thing that no one can ride, who Neytiri says only five of her kind have ridden ever in their history, I immediately said to myself, "Well, of course he's going to ride it eventually, mark my words." And I was right. This was one of my (tiny) complaints; the plot seemed to unfold like a video game, with our hero picking up bigger and better weapons (and overcoming progressively bigger challenges) at every level.
Let me explain the bonds. Bonds are formed between beast and rider through a clump of tendrils buried in the end of the Na'vi's Crystal Gayle-length ponytails (did I date myself too much with that reference?) -- they plug it in to a matching cluster in the "horse's" (or dragon's) mane.
Predictably, he falls in love with Neytiri and she with him. They make love (off-screen), but there's no indication that they plug their ponytails into each other's, which struck me as strange.
Ah well, a tiny detail. As easily as he masters all the beasts of the planet, he also becomes the Na'vi's self-appointed general. Because the first 90 minutes of the movie are spent making Jake (and the audience) fall in love with Pandora and the Na'vi, so when the impatient Army comes a'calling for their unobtainium we know why he switches sides.
And fall in love with it I did. The Na'vi are very thinly veiled Native Americans, with the same reverence for nature and the lives of all creatures, and the vast interconnectedness of everything -- a spirituality that is all but extinct in our world. Cameron does such a good job of drawing you into Pandora heart and soul that when the Army stomps in and knocks down the great tree that is their home (in agonizing slow motion) it is truly heartbreaking, and I wept behind my 3D glasses.
But look at me, telling the whole movie. I'll just say that the end is wholly predictable. There are no surprises whatsoever plotwise. Nothing truly profound is said, at least nothing we haven't heard before. But I absolutely loved it nevertheless.
It's probably the most beautiful movie I've ever seen, the scenery and the Na'vi. The new motion capture technique that everyone says is going to change the face of movie-making is really quite startling -- the nuances it gave to the animations were incredible. I completely forgot I was watching CGI and immersed myself into the story within about ten minutes.
The music was inspiring, and say what you will about Cameron's clunky dialogue, the man still knows how to write action scenes that steal your breath away and make you want to jump up and cheer.
I left the theater the minute the credits started to roll, because this is a slam dunk Blu-ray purchase.
Naturally I spent today reading what others thought on RottenTomatoes.com. Overwhelmingly favorable, but a few critics just couldn't get past the derivative plot ("Dances with Wolves in space") or the "environmentalist tree-hugging" message. They pooh-poohed the groundbreaking technology used, said it was overrated and that the movie wouldn't stand up to repeat viewings. I was made uncomfortable by the movie's defenders calling it the Star Wars of our time. That's what they said about The Fifth Element and that seemed to sort of fizzle out.
Of course let's not forget the blatantly obvious similarities to Iraq, or Vietnam, or the pilgrims on the Mayflower, or any other situation in our history when people with superior military force bulldozed over the weaker indigenous population.
I loved the movie because it was escapism at its purest (plus I hated Dances with Wolves and think it can only be improved upon, mainly by using anyone besides Kevin Costner) -- when I left the theater, I felt a wave of sadness that I had to go back to stupid old Earth. I wanted to live on Pandora, and better yet be a 10-foot tall, feline, graceful, fierce Na'vi. Experiencing that feeling is what movies were invented for, if you ask me.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Pages
Typically, Roxana is completely uninterested in it. Might have to start her with In The Night Kitchen instead (which I always preferred more).
Re: Pages
Halloo Bear
(Anonymous) 2010-01-13 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)Maybe I can knit you a Max onesy?
Re: Halloo Bear
Really? Well, if I got just one more person to line Jim Cameron's pockets at the box office, my work here is done! (no, seriously, it is a really good movie, if you don't mind massively overdone archetypes and predictable endings)
no subject
And lock the cats out on the balcony until they forget they hate each other.
My immediate reaction upon seeing the previews was "No way, nuh-uh, never. Not gonna happen". I've held firm on that opinion despite all of the great reviews I've seen because I can't stand video-game plots (love that description!) and preachy hippie morals-of-the-story. However, if it really is as pretty as you say, I might have to check it out just for that. I do have two questions: 1.) Watching the previews, it occurs to me to wonder howtf the love story can possibly have a happy conclusion. He can't stay within his avatar forever, right? 2.) One complaint I've heard is that there was no reason whatsoever for the movie to be shown in 3D. True/false?
no subject
It would be kind of interesting to watch the evolution of their relationship if not for the yowling and screeching that sound so nightmarish. We just want a pair of cats like we see on LOLcats that sleep with their arms wrapped around each other.
Well, as you read, I felt exactly the same way. The truth is I read or heard a glowing review from someone who I respect a great deal (though not enough to remember who they are exactly), and that's what really turned me around.
1) I can answer that if you want to be spoiled. Or you can trust me that it was handled in a fairly believable and satisfactory way -- at least I didn't walk out of the theater feeling like it was a gyp of an ending or a cop-out, and believe me, I'm the first one to make a fuss when an ending seems that way to me.
2) Funny you should mention that. I listened to a podcast on some geek site where they spent a solid hour praising the movie. It helped solidify some of the reasons why I loved it that I couldn't really put into words so soon after being dazzled by it. They pointed out that it isn't 3D where things are flying at your face all the time (in fact, I don't remember anything flying out of the screen). It's 3D as more of a depth perception. 3D in reverse: you can see deeper into the screen rather than the action coming out at you. They said it was the closest thing they'd seen in a theater that felt like looking through a window. But they really hated the dorky glasses.
They also backed me up on the unoriginal storyline: They said if you figure out how it ends by 15 minutes in, that just means you aren't an idiot. However, it was still well told and keeps you interested regardless.
no subject
You're not going to get that LOLcats picture. I have a time-proven theory that all cats are homosexual. Or, at least, male cats only cuddle with male cats and female only with female. Picture evidence to come.
I've made a date to see the movie next weekend with work friends, because my default going-to-the-movies friend is angry with me.
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I believe your theory, as it also seems to apply to ferrets. Male ferrets (even strange ones) play together affectionately and sleep together without batting an eye. Introduce a female to the mix and you've got trouble (females oddly seem more aggressive and make the males cry).
Really?? This made my day. Unless of course you hate it. Again, let me express the wish that I could be your default movie friend. It would be awesome.
One movie you should avoid at all costs is "Legion." Details to follow.
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I saw Avatar yesterday! Quick reactions:
-Wow, so well-made! There wasn't a single moment where I caught myself thinking, 'I'm bored, there's just nothing to look at here'.
-The dubious science didn't bother me at all, though I did find myself trying to rationalize the floating mountains. Maybe they were made of, er, 'unobtainium', and that's quite magnetically charged?
-Having forgotten what you said about the "bonds", I was freaked out when Jakesully first bonded with the six-legged horse thing. I thought, 'Oh no, he's committed a serious Na'vi faux pas. He's raping that six-legged horse thing with his wormy hair thing.'
-I didn't feel like the ending was a cop-out either, but omg didn't you see that coming like, the minute they landed on the planet? If my eyes hadn't been kept so busy with all of the pretty scenery, my brain might've just turned itself off for lack of anything to do.
-Dunno if this is just me but, um, I wear glasses. Can't see the screen without them. Have to wear the 3D glasses on top of them. Typically this is not a big deal with 3D, and I barely notice that I'm wearing two pairs. There was just so much going on in this movie, and the action scenes were so...spin-y, that my eyes hurt from trying to adjust.
Whut? I've been eagerly anticipating Legion. What could keep me away from it?
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The dubious science didn't bother me at all, though I did find myself trying to rationalize the floating mountains. Maybe they were made of, er, 'unobtainium', and that's quite magnetically charged? Wow, you put way more thought into this than I did. That works for me.
Having forgotten what you said about the "bonds", I was freaked out when Jakesully first bonded with the six-legged horse thing. I thought, 'Oh no, he's committed a serious Na'vi faux pas. He's raping that six-legged horse thing with his wormy hair thing.' Yeah, it seemed like bonding to your sex mate would be the natural use for them. Maybe it's not the case because then it would make the animal bonding thing 100 times creepier.
I didn't feel like the ending was a cop-out either, but omg didn't you see that coming like, the minute they landed on the planet? If my eyes hadn't been kept so busy with all of the pretty scenery, my brain might've just turned itself off for lack of anything to do. I don't try to predict endings because I'm always disappointed when I'm right, but I saw him permanently switching to his avatar as soon as they tried it and failed with Sigourney. Sure the ending was totally predictable, but I still left the theater on cloud nine and wishing I could ride one of those dragon beasties.
Dunno if this is just me but, um, I wear glasses. Can't see the screen without them. Have to wear the 3D glasses on top of them. Typically this is not a big deal with 3D, and I barely notice that I'm wearing two pairs. There was just so much going on in this movie, and the action scenes were so...spin-y, that my eyes hurt from trying to adjust. That sucks. Guess you're not going to run out and get one of these new 3D televisions that still need glasses to use? I know what you mean. The Coraline Blu-ray came with a 3D version that's virtually unwatchable. It gave me such a huge headache, and I don't even wear glasses. I hope Avatar holds up to plain old 2D, but either way I must own it.
Is that a United States of Tara icon?
Were you just disenchanted with the real world once you left the theater? Did you look around and think, 'meh, there just aren't enough flying dragon things on this planet'?
I forgot to say this before, but my very favorite part of the movie was the last Big Brother style interview Jake did with the Army camera. He said something like "the aliens went back to their dying planet, and blah blah blah blah blah". It struck me as so real that he'd start to think of the humans that way, as by that time I felt the same way. During the fight scenes I was thinking, 'Yeah, take that evil human guys. You just don't understand our culture!'
I must own it. Well that's a shocker. ;)
Actually it's from Little Miss Sunshine
If it isn't obvious, I live in a constant state of disenchantment with the real world. Why do you think I rely so heavily on movies to help me escape?
Yeah, I bought his denying his own species wholesale by the end too. Although halfway through when he's trying to rally the Na'vi to fight with the words "our land" or "our culture" or something like that (have to watch again), I was kind of like "Really Jakesully? You've been there like 3 months and now it's 'your' people??"
:P