Avatar & Dear John

So I finally hunkered down in my movie theatre chair this past Saturday morning for an 11 am showing of Avatar (and let me tell you, it was BUSY for an 11 am Saturday showing)... Had put on my SNAZZY real 3-d glasses as soon as I got them, yes I was that kid walking through the movie theatre with my glasses on, and prepared my butt for a solid 3 hours of sitting.

And isn't it interesting to see a sci-fi movie with your father on your right who's seen it once before and your good friend sitting on your left who doesn't usually do sci-fi flicks... If you're like me... I wonder constantly what they're thinking... are they sleeping behind those glasses? Are they bored? Are they loving it?

So anyway... I was VERY impressed with the graphics. I mean, when people talk about how crisp and detailed they are... those descriptions don't even do them justice! Seriously, I would go again just to stare at the skin of the Navi... the details of the forest... everything! Even the way they did Sam Worthington's legs with CGI... very real.

The story line was not as bad as I was expecting. I prepped myself for the worst, so I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't totally awful. Sure, Cameron's script isn't worthy of a best screenplay nom (in my opinion)... that's why he didn't get one. If you're a sci-fi fan or even just an avid book reader/movie watcher, you know his story isn't original. It's like a combination of Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves and a little Pocahontas mixed in... nothing we haven't seen before in a script.

And the critics are right, the parts of Titanic that pulled on our heartstrings and got us so emotionally involved just aren't here in this latest Cameron flick. It certainly is a film of our time for the technical aspects and I did enjoy Zoe and Sam's performances... they did what they could with the script. Not overly amazing, but they did a good job with what they were given. I could stand to stare at Sam for another 3 hours... ; ) Maybe he could read the phone book to me with his sweet Aussie accent (yes, I know he was born in England... but grew up in Australia).

But before I saw Avatar; I saw Dear John on Friday evening with friends. Dear John certainly makes Avatar oscar worthy. The script was turned into this lifeless story... given the book isn't much better, but this script just picked up and changed all the wrong parts of Sparks' novel.

The best part of Dear John was Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum's chemistry with each other. Their chemistry was sooo good in fact, it made you question why they broke up about 2/3rds of the way through the film. They just looked like they had so much fun making the film together and I honestly question whether their real life significant others would be jealous of the on-screen chemistry. HOT HOT HOT.



So friends, what have you seen lately?