Of all of the film makers, show runners, and writers that have emerged in the last ten to fifteen years, none have garnered the cult following of Joss Whedon.   Quite frankly, he deserved it.  He’s a man who built two successul franchises on a movie that received a pretty modest reception from audiences in the early nineties.  To perform that kind of feat, one has to be a visionary.  From Buffy, Whedon has gone on to gain across the board approval from his fans on whatever he touches.   People follow Whedon as blindly as I follow George Lucas.   On one hand I get that.  The guy has a great imagination…but…he makes me sad.  Why?  I think I finally realized it while watching FIREFLY and SERENITY.

From the outset, let me say that I’m not saying, “SERENITY suck.”  I’m not saying that Joss Whedon is incompetent and should find other work.   In fact, I think Whedon is super talented and very creative.  He knows how to find great casts and work with an ensemble.

In fact, I found myself rather enjoying FIREFLY as I watched the series on Netflix.  Whedon took an interesting concept, a western in space, and made it work pretty well.  It didn’t hurt that he had an exceptional cast that to work with, and I’m sure he surrounded himself with quality writers and directors.  (I haven’t really looked into the credits for each episode, but at the end of the day, the responsibility of what happens falls on the show runner…in this case Mr. Whedon.)

I really wish that FIREFLY could have lasted beyond it’s short one season, I think that the journeys we would have gotten to take with the crew of Serenity would have been a lot of fun to see.  However, as happens all to often with genre shows, FIREFLY found itself with a premature cancellation.

So it was that when I finished watching the final episode of FIREFLY I was curious to see how Whedon would follow it up and wrap up some of the mysteries and questions that the television show presented.

This brings me to my first point about SERENITY.  Whedon handled every thread and plot point from the television show very well with only one or two exceptions that I can think of.   I guess I should say spoilers abound from here on, but the movie is five years old…so…I think it’s safe.  In the pilot episode of FIREFLY, we are introduced to the concept of Reavers, a barabarous, cannibalistic group of space farers that scare the viewer based on the way people talk about them on the sow.   We don’t get to see the Reavers too much in the course of the show, but in SERENITY they become a major plot point.  It’s fitting because in watching the show, it was apparent that our wayward heroes would encounter them again.   It works.

The Alliance is an ever present threat that is comparable to the Evil Galactic Empire from Star Wars. (sans a Death Star or a Sith Lord) Mal and Zoe were soldiers in the war against the Alliance, and in watching the TV show, it always  seemed that at some point whatever Mal believed in that made him fight against the Alliance would come back to the surface at some point.  It did in SERENITY.  It works.

The movie itself does a great job of tying up relationship threads just right as well.  Kaylee and Simon finally have their moment in the sun and it’s not forced nor does it overshadow the main plot of the movie so as to be a loud distraction or give us unwarranted scenes with the two that would only serve to break up the flow of the film. Even Mal and Inara’s relationship is handled well.  Leaving us wanting more of these two and a comfortable ambiguity as to where they may be headed after the credits roll.

The movie itself is action packed and well written for the most part.  It’s a great end cap to a good series.  The stakes are higher than they ever were on the show.  The danger is more intense than it ever was.  This time, it’s not about the job, it’s about the greater good.   I am a sucker for stuff like that.  So I really enjoyed it.

Then (spoiler alert) The Shepherd died.   Shepherd Book was a character who had some mystery behind him.  He was more than a Shepherd.  (A Shepherd is a preacher in this Universe.) He had a past that we were never privy to.  And. He.  Died.   In fact, for the first part of the movie, I was confused as to his whereabouts.  We only get like five minutes with him in the movie.  While his death was not a pointless one, he could have survived when the rest of his flock perished.  I think that would have made for an interesting character down the road should Whedon ever choose to try to make a film franchise from SERENITY.  However, his death was not in vain and it was the thing needed to truly set Mal on the path that he chose.   So, while I didn’t like it, I could deal with it.

Then, (major spoiler alert) WASH DIED.  Pointless, stupid, ridiculous death that was thrown in for no other reason than a shock factor.

I need to stop here and explain.  That while Adam Baldwin gets a ton of love for his portrayal of Jayne (and I like Jayne), it was Alan Tudyk as Wash that made the show for me.   Wash is the character, who, more than anyone keeps the rest of the crew grounded.  He loves his wife unconditionally and unashamedly.  He makes the jokes that are actually poignant and funny.  Wash is a character who is a heck of a pilot and as loyal as anyone of the ship.  Beyond that, though, he is tough without being too tough.  Wash never minds showing his weakness.   So it is that if you were randomly going to kill off one half of the married couple on the ship, it should have been Zoe.  Wash would have had greater character development from that event than Zoe.

HOWEVER, after the deaths of Shepherd Book, Mr. Universe, and all of the other people who had given Serenity safe ground to run to after a job, there was no need for another death.   The death of Wash did nothing to the movie but bring it down in the end.

I need to stop and explain my love for Alan Tudyk.   The guy has an understanding of comic timing and line delivery like few others.  In most movies, when comic relief is thrown into a situation, the actor may struggle a bit with it and there is a tendency from most to take it way over the top.  Tudyk doesn’t suffer from that tendency.  He knows how to strike just the right note.  His timing is impeccable and his face can be so expressive yet feel completely natural.  I feel that he is truly an underrated actor and his presence in Transformers 3 next year only makes me happy.

Wash is the character that would have brought me back for a second SERENITY movie.  Wash is the character that held the show together for me, and for him to be killed off in such a pointless manner only accented my other problems with not only SERENITY and FIREFLY, but most of what I’ve seen from Whedon.

Whedon’s sense of humor and command of dialogue suffers from the same thing mine does.  It’s the same thing all the time.  Seriously, listen to Geek Out Loud, Starkville’s House of El, or the Big Honkin Show, and you’ll find that I have phrases and mannerisms I always tend to fall back on.   I’m kind of a one trick pony like that.

Seriously though, you can take the characters from ANGEL or BUFFY and plug them into the situations from FIREFLY and never have to change the dialogue much except to remove the old west style of speaking.

Couple that with Whedon’s overuse of killing off a main character just to get that gut reaction from his audience and you have your reasons that Whedon makes me sad.  It’s like the guy doesn’t believe in or doesn’t know how to write a happy ending.

It has happened in practically every property of his that I’ve ever watched.   The difference is, on TV you have a few extra hours to make something work in the scope of the overall story.   SERENITY only served to show that no matter what a death ended up meaning in his other work, he most likely only did it for the visceral reaction he knew it would cause the viewer.

I want to wrap this up by saying again, it’s not my intention to bash Joss Whedon.  If I had his imagination or talent, I wouldn’t be writing about his.  I would be doing what he’s doing, putting my best foot forward and trying to entertain people.   I don’t feel like I wasted sixteen hours with the crew of Serenity.  I would watch a second movie.  I would just hope that he would trust the amazing characters that he creates to live beyond the moment he wants to use them to shock his audience.

There are other traps that SERENITY fell into…destruction of the ship. (Star Trek anyone?)  River’s big moment was pretty predictable, but I loved it anyway.  I’m a sucker for stuff like that.  I’m also behind anything Summer Glau does.  She’s a great actress in her own right and I look forward to getting her play a role that isn’t a robot or a super genius/psychic that struggles with the emotions.

So overall, I walk away wishing we could spend some more time with Mal, Inara, Kaylee, Jayne, Simon, River, and Zoe.  (AND WASH!) I can’t shake this nagging feeling though that Tony Stark is gonna die for no reason in THE AVENGERS.  We shall see though…we shall see.

In my book, Superman movies were just below Star Wars in my little guy geek spectrum.   So it was that my dad took me to see what would be Christopher Reeve’s final portrayal of The Man of Steel.

Even as a chunky ten year old kid I knew something was off about this movie.  There was too much humor.  Superman always looked just the same when he came flying onto the screen.  By “looked the same,” I mean that it appeared that someone had cut out a picture of Superman flying and pasted it onto the film.  (Apparently that’s exactly what they did.)

In the years that followed, whenever I talked to friends or fans about SUPERMAN IV, it was always the same thing.  ”That’s the worst Superman movie EVER!”  ”They should have stopped with three.” “It’s sooo bad.”

The problem is I could never not watch it.  If it happened to be on TV, or if it was in a video store to rent, I loved to watch it.  When I finally got the first set of Superman movie DVDs that were released back in 2001 I would often come home on a Sunday afternoon, pop in SUPERMAN IV and watch it again and again.

For a few years, this was something I would never admit to my geekier friends except jokingly.  Why?  Because everywhere I turned, whenever Superman IV was mentioned, it was mentioned in groans and moans.

I refuse to accept that SUPERMAN IV is a movie with NO redeeming qualities, and I refuse to believe that it’s simple childhood memories that fuel my love for SUPERMAN IV.  In fact, I maintain that were it not for the poor special effects, SUPERMAN IV may not be held in such disdain.

Superman IV did have many glaring problems.  If one is going to take an honest look at the film, then that has to be an admission.   Those problems have been dealt with again and again and again.  In the end, I had to wonder, “Why do I keep subjecting myself to this movie?  If it’s so bad, why doesn’t it sit on my DVD shelf in a relatively unwatched condition?”

The answer screams back at me, “The movie has a heart of gold.”  Sure, there’s a nostalgia factor of sitting in a theater in Athens, GA watching this movie with my dad.   Sure, it’s Christopher Reeve as Superman.  Yes, the premise is a classic comic book premise.  There’s more to it than that though.  Unlike it’s predecessor, Superman IV doesn’t feel like a movie made simply to cash in on the name of Superman.  The people involved at the base level seemed to be trying to genuinely recapture some of the magic that made the first movie so special.

In 1978,  Gene Hackman was one of the names attatched to SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE on the basis of his “star power.”  By 1987, Hackman had been solidified as an actor to be taken seriously.   He wasn’t contractually obligated to return to the Superman film franchise.   He wasn’t hard up for work.  There was a reason he slipped back into the role of Lex Luthor.

In fact, as you look around the Daily Planet, you’ll find no roles recast from the original Daily Planet primaries.   Why would these people come back to a film so destined for failure.   Granted, Margot Kidder and Marc McClure didn’t have studios beating down their doors with movie offers, but it’s highly unlikely that those two or Jackie Cooper would have returned to the roles of Lois, Jimmy, and Perry if they had absolutely no desire to do so.

All of these actors had one thing in common outside of sharing the screen in the original two films.  They had only a treatment and a script to go on.   A glorious, aggressive, peace mongering, simple script wherein nothing but the heart of this movie could shine through.  They didn’t have shoddy special effects to sit and watch.  They didn’t have to wonder how Lacey would be able to breathe in space.  They didn’t have to hear the terribly dubbed voice of Jeremy.  (Or see his acting for that matter.) (That’s a little harsh, but director Sidney J. Furie should have coached the kid a little better.)  They didn’t have to see how poorly portrayed John Cryer’s Lenny would be.  (Again, a flaw of direction rather than the caliber of actor…in my opinion.)  What they had was a Superman story wherein Superman deals with the real problems of a world he calls home and is met with resistance not only from Lex Luthor, but a whole underworld conglomerate of arms dealers.  (One of which was Porkins from Star Wars no less.)  They saw Superman struggle with the idea of using his power to impose peace on a planet on the brink of self destruction.  They read about The Last Son of Krypton fighting for his life after being infected with some otherworldly virus by The Nuclear Man, and using the last bit of power from his home planet to save himself so he can save his adopted home.

While the final product lacks the edge it could have with such heavy subject matter, the heart of the film is apparent the minute we find ourselves in Smallville with Clark Kent who is selling the family farm, but rather than sell out to a big developer, he maintains the whimsy that a simple family will one day call the place he grew up home.   Through Jeremy, we have the child’s perspective on all that Superman could be for all of us.  Living in the eighties, nuclear war was much more of a real threat than it is today.  I’m not saying we went to bed every night scared that we would be vaporized in the blast that would kick off the annihilation of all life as we know it, but the Cold War seemed to be far from over.  (Even though it would come to an end in two short years.)  As a kid I often imagined how different things would be if there was a real Superman. How much safer it would be in a world where The Man of Steel watched over us.  We wouldn’t have to worry about strangers kidnapping us.  We wouldn’t have to worry about gang violence.  We may not even have to worry about war.

While the subject of Superman fixing the world’s real problems tends to be a faux pas in the pages of comic books, Christopher Reeve tackled the subject well.  He walked the fine line of what Superman COULD do versus what he WOULD do.  In the end, Superman says it best, “There will be peace when the people want it so badly that their governemts have no choice but to give it to them.”

Quite frankly, while the verisimilitude that Richard Donner preached to his cast and crew while filming the first movie isn’t present in the special effects or some of the characterization of the supporting cast, it is there as far as Superman is concerned.

Then there’s the film’s score.  What a great score.  Of course John Williams’ original music is present throughout, but Alexander Courage did a fine job of composing new music to compliment the themes that Williams already established.  If you’re a movie music fan, seek out the score to Superman IV, you won’t be disappointed.

Watching Superman and Nuclear Man fight, there are two very unfortunate things that come to light.  The first is the most glaring of the entire movie…the special effects.  After the flying sequences of the original films, these effects just don’t stand up.   The second, and less obvious to the casual viewer is that an opportunity was missed in using an established DC villain, namely Bizarro rather than a whole new character.  However, that’s a minor quibble as Mark Pillow did a fine job as Nuclear Man.  His voice was of course dubbed with that of Gene Hackman’s, and maybe the sound editors didn’t need to add all the reverb and stuff to it, but Pillow emoted the raw, nearly unintelligent monstrousness of a villain who could stand toe to toe with Superman.

It’s truly unfortunate that the flaws of this movie have been the focus of what people see over the past twenty plus years.   When I watch the movie, it reminds me of a simpler time.  When good guys were good guys and the bad guys were always trying to stop them.  I’m reminded of how cool it is to see Clark Kent step into a phone booth only to emerge as the world’s greatest hero.  I’m reminded of how much the trials of the world he loves weigh heavy on the shoulders of Krypton’s Last Son.   I’m reminded of just how much Superman serves to inspire humanity to greater things.

In all of the things we as geeks love, there is stuff to complain about, but in most of it, there’s gold to be mined.  This movie is a diamond in the rough that, with a little more money, and little more care by the higher ups, could have launched Superman back into the stratosphere cinematically.   I challenge you to sit down and watch the movie again, and rather than groaning at the things that hurt the movie, laugh.  Approach it with a light heart and maybe…just maybe…you can learn to stop worrying and love a movie that bombed.

The Pixar movies that came after equally impressed me.  From the retelling of  ”The Ant and The Grasshopper” in A BUG’S LIFE to Sully’s fur in MONSTERS INC.  to the Super Hero team movie that showed how other team up movies should be done in THE INCREDIBLES to the very adult themes in UP, Pixar has consistently surprised me with the ability to knock it out of the park everytime the studio steps up to the plate.

Right off the bat, I will tell you that, for me, TOY STORY 3 was no exception.   I would never say that Buzz and Woody are part of my childhood.  I was in college when Toy Story hit the scene.  So, there was no way that the gang from Andy’s room could have been a part of my childhood, but they were a big part of the point in my life when movies began to become something a little more than a distraction to me.  Toy Story was part of a time in my life when I began to watch movies a little more critically, when I began to pay attention to trailers a little more closely, when I began to seek out reviews from respected critics, and when I began to truly define my cinematic tastes.   So, Pixar holds a special place for me inasmuch as in the past 15 years or so, I have been able to point friends and other geeks to Pixar as THE movie studio that “gets it.”

Now, confession time.

Confession 1 – I cringed a bit when I heard that Pixar had made and was preparing to release TOY STORY 2.  When TOY STORY 2 came along, we had seen direct to video sequels for animated films and we all knew how much the quality of said films suffered at the hands of money making tyrants trying to cash in on the success of the predecessor.   Thankfully, Pixar refused to fall into that trap and made a solid sequel geared toward showing audiences young and old what it means to go after a friend who may have lost his way, showing us that even when we feel discarded there is hope and friendship out there if we’ll just look for it, and of course, that the world of Andy’s toys is a fun place to hang out.

Confession 2 – I cringed a bit when I heard that Pixar had made and was preparing to release TOY STORY 3.   Everyone knows that when it comes to animated movies, the third time is NOT the charm.  Was this just  a ploy to finally jump into this popular 3D trend?  Had Pixar finally lost it?  Were they so stretched for ideas that they had to go back to the Toy Story well yet again?

Thankfully, Pixar delivered a story that was not only original, but as heart wrenching as it is heart warming.

TOY STORY 3 breaks the mold of it’s predecessors by being a much more grown up experience.  By now, we all know the premise of the story.  Andy is getting ready to go to college and part of that process is deciding what to keep, what to throw away, and what to take with you.    We are introduced to our characters just trying to get Andy’s attention.  They’ve been in the toy box so long, and all they want is to be there for Andy…and to be played with.  Through a series of events and misunderstandings, the gang ends up in box of toys to be donated to a local day care where all is not as it seems and they find themselves once again trying to get back to Andy.

The journey is fun, but not fun filled.  This is a story for all the kids who grew up with these characters and may be headed off to college in the Fall themselves.  This is a story for anyone who’s ever had to grow up.  This is a story about letting go, but not forgetting.

Confession 3 – I’m tearing up even as I write this.

I denied it to those who saw the movie with me, but I will confess openly and freely, I cried…not choked up, not welled up…CRIED…while watching this movie.   Over the past week since seeing the movie, I get a little choked up thinking about it.

In the world of cinema, we’ve seen coming of age stories, stories about adults finding their inner child, stories about the college kid finally letting go and growing up, but there has never been a movie that shows exactly what it means to grow up and let go as well as TOY STORY 3.   Maybe it’s the kid in me that misses me being a kid, maybe it’s the adult in me that still mourns the loss of my childhood, but TOY STORY 3 found the part of me that misses truly being a kid and wrenched every last emotion out of that place.

I would never spoil the end of this movie for you.  I have seen a lot of places talk about one scene in particular that is very moving and seems like it should be in a much more “grown – up” type movie.   I’ve even seen one review that spoils the end of the movie.   I wouldn’t do that.  I would just say take the ride and enjoy it.  Let your inner kid out to play for a while.  Feel free to laugh embarassingly loud and a moment with Mr. Potatoe Head.  Feel free to cry like I did when you see how things wrap up.  If you’re a parent, feel free to take your kids and let this movie be your reminder to not make them grow up too soon.

I can’t speak to the 3D of this movie, I saw it in a regular old theater.  But this movie is not about the technical aspects of the film.   This movie is about the characters and the story.

I can’t speak highly enough of TOY STORY 3.  I haven’t had the chance to see The A-Team or The Karate Kid, or much of anything else yet, and now I’m scared to because I don’t see how any movie this Summer can top what I saw in a darkened theater last week as I let Pixar bring me, one last time, into this amazing world of toys.

If I am going to rate this movie, I give it a perfect 5 out of 5 rating.  Go see it.

I have this friend named Crevice.  Well, his real name is Matt, but I call him Crevice.  He calls me Crevice.  It’s complicated.

Crevice knew that I was going to see IRON MAN 2 at midnight last night, so he stopped by today to ask me what I thought.  His main question was, “Is it as good as the first one.”  My answer?  I don’t know.

IRON MAN 2 is a great movie.  The action is ramped up from the first movie.  The characters are all like friends that have been missed for a while.  The story is…well…it’s an Iron Man story.   The story…moves…

I liked the movie.  I really did.  But I think there are a few factors that may play into me being a bit more critical of the movie than I want to be.  Read on after the jump to see what you think.  Spoilers will be present and heavy, so you may want until you’ve seen it to read my full review.  I DO recommend that you see the movie.   Its one not to be missed…flaws and all.

To be fair, I don’t know that the movie has any flaws.   I guess I need to explain where any negativity about the movie may come from before I go on.

First, I think I’m getting too old to go see a movie at a midnight showing.   I was quite tired by the time the movie got going.  I honestly think I could have fallen asleep right there in my chair.  There was a time when I was disappointed if the theatre I frequent didn’t have a midnight showing for a new release.  I loved going to them.  I loved the atmosphere, the excitement, the struggle to hold a place in the front of the line to make sure I get my favorite seat.  Last night, I was just stressed about it all.  I was irritated at people for chattering during the previews.  It was too crowded for my tastes.  All the things I used to love…kinda irked me now.

Add to that the theatre was HOT.  I mean it was a situation where we were cozy when we first walked in, but by the middle of the movie I was uncomfortable HOT.

So, remember those factors as you read the rest of this review.

IRON MAN 2 is great.  You know the players.  Gwyneth Paltrow returns as Pepper Potts and does just as good as she did in the first film.  Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark.   Even John Favreau  gives a good, fun performance as Happy Hogan.   The original cast is great.

Then there are the new additions.

First, there’s Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman/Natasha Romanoff (aka The Black Widow).  While Johansson looks a little younger than I would expect Black Widow to look, she turns in a perfect performance as a high level spy posing as an assistant that rivals Pepper Potts in her ability to remain unflappable in the face of Tony Stark’s excessive lifestyle.   When she goes full on Black Widow, it is a sight to behold.  She is not someone to be trifled with, young or not.

Don Cheadle takes over the reins of Rhodey from Terrence Howard.  As anyone would expect, Cheadle does a great job.  He’s an outstanding actor.  Honestly, this role was the one I was the most worried about.   It’s always jarring when an actor steps into a role that was originally played by someone else, especially when Howard brought such a likeability to the character.   However, Cheadle turns in a performance with the right amount of light-heartedness, gravity, and toughness to the role.  It’s to be expected though.  Cheadle is quite an accomplished actor.

Not necessarily a new addition, but a role that wasn’t explored at all in the first film is Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury.  This becomes the first sticking point to me.  I LOVE Samuel L. Jackson.  I love his look as Nick Fury.  However,  there was just something with Jackson’s portrayal of Fury that felt off to me.  It was too much of what we’ve seen from Jackson before.  He was Sam Jackson…and Sam Jackson’s bad…but he just carried himself differently than I would expect Nck Fury to.

Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko (aka Whiplash) was scary.  A physicist that can kill you with his bare hands?  Seriously.  I never gave much consideration to the character of Whiplash.  In fact, the only comic I remember seeing HER (yes there was a female character called Whiplash in  the comics) was a Spider-Man comic in which he fought a group called the Femme Fatales.   There was also a male Whiplash, but I always considered both the male and female versions of the characters pretty throw away characters.  In fact, I don’t know that Whiplash or Backlash (same character different names) have had all that many appearances in the comics.   However, kudos to the writers of  IRON MAN 2 and Mickey Rourke for bringing this character out and making him scary and a worthy opponent to Tony Stark.  In fact, Whiplash becomes one of the more compelling villains that I’ve seen in a super hero movie to date.   He is a classic Marvel “I had a bad day and I intend to make people pay for it” type bad guy.

The story of  IRON MAN 2 is a great follow up to what we’ve already seen.  Essentially, Tony Stark has used Iron Man to bring a security to The United States that hasn’t been seen in years.  While I’m not sure how I feel about this aspect of the character, it certainly fits in with the Tony Stark we’ve been given throughout Civil War and it’s fallout in the Marvel comics.

Not only has Stark been doing great things as Iron Man, he is secretly dying because of Iron Man.  The element he uses to power his mini arc-reactor is poisoning his blood stream and slowly killing him.  So we are introduced to a Stark who is living like every day is his last.  He’s drinking it up, living it up, and eventually it all catches up to him.  It’s through this riotous living that Rhodey obtains the armor that is equipped with the weaponry of War Machine by Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer.

Rockwell, turns in a good performance as an industrialist who tries to be everything Tony Stark is, but seems to always fall just short of the mark.  This leads him to team up with Vanko to try and adapt Stark’s technology and turn it against him.  This is the classic Super Villain team up with a twist.  We don’t necessarily have two super villains in this movie, but we have the villain and his financier.

From the trailers, I could never quite tell how this movie was going to play out, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it.  After Whiplash first reveals himself to Tony and is arrested, you may think the rest of the movie is one big Hammer versus Stark kind of thing.  You would be wrong.   Thankfully, the trailers do NOT give away some of the best action beats or too much of the story.

I was pleasantly surprised at Whiplash’s evolution through the film, as well as Tony Stark’s.   Each character moved forward in their development appropriately, and the film felt like the natural next step.

The only issues I had with IRON MAN 2 had to do with pacing and editing.  When things are moving, they are moving, but when it’s time for dialogue and exposition things seemed to get very boggy.  There wasn’t the snappiness to the scenes that the first movie had.  I’m not sure if this is due to the nature of the scripting process of the first movie or the editing in this film, but there were moments where it felt like the movie slowed down too much, but wasn’t trying to.

A perfect example of this is Tony’s senate hearing.  What seems to be a great “gotcha” moment for Tony in the hearing in the trailers is actually a lot longer and Tony has a little less control than it would seem in the trailers.  The scene, while important, could have been edited to be a bit sharper.   This was true of many of the dialogue  scenes.

The other issue I had is just how much everything revolved around Stark’s technology.  We’ve already had the “dark reflection” of Iron Man in Obadiah Stane’s Iron Monger from the first film.  It felt like a bit of a retreading to use the tech all over again as the central point of conflict.

That said, what a great movie that I can’t wait to see again.  I don’t know if it’s better than the first, but it certainly is a great second outing.  I look forward to seeing it one afternoon in a well air conditioned theater with less people attending, and in a few months on Blu-Ray from the comfort of my own home.  If for no other reason that the awesome climactic battle.

IF NOTHING ELSE, Favreau and company nailed what the end of a super hero movie should be.  There was no action beat earlier in the movie that outdid the final “battle.”    That’s as it should be.  Too many movies focus on big visuals and spectacular fights early in the movie only to have a bit of  a disappointing ultimate climax.  Not IRON MAN 2.  From the appearance of War Machine to the take over by Vanko to Vanko’s Whiplash taking on Iron Man and War Machine, and then the explosion…OH MY LANTA!!!! Good Stuff.  Better than the first movie?  I have to go see it again.

Overall, I give the movie a solid 4 out of 5…which very well could change once I get to see it in a way that appeals to the old fogey in me.

Some of the best football coaches in the history of the game are masters at underplaying their team’s ability.  They do this so as to not have everyone in their conference gunning for their boys.  It’s usually a pretty sound strategy.   Fly under the radar.  Stun everyone with your on field ability.  Don’t overhype.

It was said again and again and again that AVATAR would be the game changer as it pertains to cinema.   James Cameron said repeatedly that he had to wait for technology to catch up with his ideas.  Everyone waited with bated breath for the next STAR WARS.  Then the movie was released…

The problem with reviewing a movie like AVATAR is the hype that surrounded it.  One can’t separate one’s self from all of the bold statements made by James Cameron and the studio.   I, for one, tried to go into this movie with as much separation from the hype for what has been touted as THE game changer in cinema, and just get ready to see a movie.  As much as I tried though, the thought was always tickling the back of my brain, “This doesn’t quite live up to the hype.”

As has been said ad nauseam, the story is not new.  It’s been used and used again.  Why? Because it’s a story that resonates with us all. Entering into a situation with preconceived notions that are shaken and shattered, and ultimately finding a cause worth fighting and dying for.   However, just because the story isn’t new doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be used.  As I said, it resonates with the viewer.  It works.

However, if one is claiming to change cinema as we know it, one can’t use such a familiar story in such a familiar way.

Then, there’s the technology.  I find it odd and somewhat hypocritical that the same critics who attack George Lucas for letting story suffer in the name of the technology he wants to use in his films are the same ones lauding this technology as the greatest thing ever.  Why? Because you put on some glasses and the images separated a bit?

That’s overly-snarky.  The truth is, I wasn’t too blown away with the CGI used in this movie.   It was CGI.   I think I tend to accept it more readily than some, but at the same time, the environments looked way too CGI.  A lot of attention was put on the making the digital characters work, and I have to give the team at WETA credit there.   Some enhancements to the way motion capture is done was used to get a full range of emotion from a face more we’ve ever seen.  The eyes were alien enough that they didn’t suffer from the “dead” look associated with many CGI characters out there today.

However, game changing?  I honestly can’t say that it was.  We’ve seen fully realized digital characters before, and in some instances just as good.  Let’s compare WETA with WETA and point to the character of Gollum.  He was realized as a fully digital character using motion capture technology to get all of the movements down, and there are very few people who would argue that he didn’t work.   When you look at “the other” big effects company (ILM), this is something they’ve been doing for ten years.  Whether you love him or hate him, Jar Jar Binks was realized as a digital character interacting with real people and while we’ve all heard the arguments against Jar Jar, one I’ve never heard was how he didn’t hold up interacting with other actors.   Then there’s Yoda.  There are moments in REVENGE OF THE SITH when I would swear to you that there is an actual little green guy right there on screen.   ILM also did the work on the first HULK.   Again, like the movie or hate it…there are moments where the Green Goliath looked like there was actually a gigantic man with green skin standing there.   Heck, even the Transformers looked awesome on screen.

The design of the movie was pretty enough.  The colors were bright, and the world was alien enough, but the designs of the world just didn’t set completely right with me.  Adding an extra set of legs and a few antenna like growths to earthbound animals serve only to make the universe that has been set up feel a little too bound to the rules of our world biologically.  The creatures all felt too familiar.

(I hate to keep coming back to this.) When a movie is hyped as being the movie that will change how movies are made, it gets compared to movies that DID change the face of cinema.  In the instance of Avatar, it may have expanded what has been done, but I would be hard pressed to say that it has “changed” anything.

Having said ALL of that.  I really liked this movie.  I truly did.  My biggest problem with the movie was simply Sam Worthington slipping out of his American accent a little to0 much.

The story, though predictable, worked for me.  It’s a simple three acts.  In act one we are introduced to the characters and the situation.  In act two, the protagonist grows from his presuppositions about the world around him to become a part of it and suffers for it.  In Act three, we get the resolution to the conflicts set up in acts one and two.  In this case,  I am a sucker for the oppressed rise up to defeat the oppressive type stories.  Jake Sully’s speech to the Na’Vi was one that got me excited for the fight to come. AND WHAT A FIGHT! (more to come on that)

The sense of fun and adventure for which I go to a movie like this were there.  If you can’t enjoy seeing a dude tame a wild flying dinosaur, then you have lost touch with the kid that fuels the geek inside of you.

I liked all of the characters (cookie cutter though they may be), and the conflicts and their resolutions worked.

And quite frankly, the ending battle scene was fantastic.  Ground battles, air battles, explosions, last minute rescues, and a final showdown all worked together to make a great climactic battle scene.

WETA continues to establish itself as a top dog in the movie making industry.  James Cameron can still make a movie, and as of now the film has grossed over one billion dollars worldwide.  So from a money making standpoint, the hype paid off.  People had to go see this thing.  I don’t know if the audience that filled theaters for AVATAR would so readily fill the theaters for a sequel, but I’d be there.   If for no other reason to run with Na’Vi again, to climb floating mountains, and to try to learn to “see.”

When this movie is released on Blu Ray, I’ll buy it.  I’ll watch it again and again.  It’s that good.  It’s just not the cinema shattering second coming that we were told it was.

If you like sci fi and fantasy and haven’t seen AVATAR yet, get to the theater and see it.  It’s definitely worth the price of admission and then some.  However, hold on to your Lord of the Rings boxed set, keep Star Wars on it’s pedestal, and have a great time with AVATAR.