2009 Was...

An awesome year for science fiction, and pretty much crap for every other aspect of society. So lets focus on the positive.

I know I already reviewed Star Trek

But every time I watch it I love it more, I find what little that did annoy me previously doesn't really anymore. To the die-hards, I'm sorry but I'm jumping spaceship. I can understand why you're upset, but I don't identify with that mentality anymore. Why does it bother people so much that they killed off Spock's mom?

Number 9

District 9 was freaking incredible! Personally I'm glad that the plug was pulled on the Halo movie and the filmmakers made this instead. It was a perfect example of film making, a gradual building of tension from a slow crawl to a final act so intense, that at one point I actually jumped out of my seat and cheered! (I was at home, I wouldn't do that in a theatre.) The special effects were top notch and despite the aliens being very inhuman they were intensely sympathetic. In addition the film's mood and tone keeps you guessing about all of the character's motivations. This helped increase the realism, as at no point was I convinced what the final outcome would be. An outcome that (spoiler alert!) like Total Recall, though rewarding in some aspects leaves you wondering what will happen next. See it, you'll thank me.

You have definitely seen this before... it just hasn't looked this good!

Avatar was incredible, a well crafted, well paced popcorn crunching crowd pleaser if ever I've seen one. 168 minutes and I was never bored, not once. To its detractors I will admonish this: Yes it's predictable, yes it's derivative. yes it's fairly preachy. But in this case I don't feel as though any of those qualities really harmed the film. You've definitely seen this before, it was Dances With Wolves meets The Matrix. But those were two movies that most people liked as I recall. As far as a technical achievement, it has not raised the bar for digital effects, but simply annihilated it. The next five or six movies to come out that involve CGI are going to look trite by comparison. The emotional expression of the digital characters is nearly perfect, and the entire setting is candy for both the eyes and the brain. The mega battle at the end... totally epic! That my friends is the one thing I look for most in any sci-fi actioner, and is why I liked Return of the Jedi more than The Empire Strikes Back. Every time I sit down for a movie I'm hoping to be blown away with a sense of wonder and excitement that matched the way I felt when I was six years old an saw Jedi for the first time. It's happened twice since then... The Matrix, and Avatar. I'm sorry if that upsets the movie snobs out there, but there is no high on earth that compares to that. And I am also certain I'm not the only one who feels that way.



Here's hoping things only get better, and by that I mean everything...
-TMA