where: EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX in Fairfield, CA
when: Friday, December 18th, 2009
show: 9:00 a.m.
costs: $15.50 Ticket + $4.50 small Diet ( w/ Cherry flavor ) Coke + $0.00 free small Popcorn ( w/ Butter ) + $0.00 free 2-piece Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ( that Sean, a co-worker, gave me ) = $20.00
auditorium: 12, with the I-Max 3-D screen
seat: 4th row, 9th column
2nd time:
where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Saturday, December 19th, 2009
show: 11:30 a.m. Extra Dollar Off First Show Matinee
costs: $9.25 Ticket + $4.25 junior Popcorn ( w/ Butter ) + $3.75 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $1.00 Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough ( bought at a Dollar Tree Store and smuggled-in ) = $18.25
auditorium: 7, with the Real-D 3-D screen
seat: 3rd row, 10th column
synopsis: A paraplegic former Marine, Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ) is sent to Pandora to replace his dead identical twin brother in a field research and experiment to know and eventually exploit ( read: abuse ) the four-fingered and four-toed Na'vis, the planet's indigenous giant humanoids.
prediction: This movie will win an Oscar for Visual Effects.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Awakening from cryogenic sleep; 2.) Dead twin; 3.) "Meals on Wheels"; 4.) Safety brief; 5.) Hybrid Avatars; 6.) First video log; 7.) Unobtainium; 8.) Link; 9.) Run; 10.) Intel-recon; 11.) Stand-off; 12.) Chase; 13.) Lost and alone; 14.) Night life; 15.) "Jellyfish"; 16.) Na'vis; 17.) Native ways; 18.) Village location; 19.) The bond; 20.) Floating mountains; 21.) Spinners; 22.) Borrowed energy; 23.) First flight; 24.) Last shadow; 25.) Final stage ceremony; 26.) Mated for life; 27.) Bulldozers; 28.) Demon in false body; 29.) Ikran birds; 30.) Global network; 31.) Military decision; 32.) Failed diplomacy; 33.) Dereliction of duty; 34.) Hometree; 35.) The prisoners; 36.) Prison break; 37.) Mobile link-up; 38.) Turuk; 39.) Need some samples; 40.) Pre-emptive strike; 41.) Home advantage; 42.) Flux vortex; 43.) Stampede; 44.) One on one; 45.) Last video log; and 46.) New life.
audience reaction: The audience liked it although, surprisingly, this movie didn't get a "Hands Clapper" ending.
2nd audience reaction: This Vallejo crowd was more appreciative and gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.
recommendation: This is by far the best C.G.I. "Eye Candy" movie that I've seen. The motion-capture technology used in this one is "top-of-the-line"! You know how when you look down the edge of a cliff your knees weaken and you get a tingly feeling in your testicles ( if you're a guy, that is! )? Well, the 3-D effect in this one is THAT good! And the facial expressions are mostly human-like. Go see this movie.
spoiler alert! Can't they come up with a better name than, "Unobtainium"? I have my own suggestions: "Elusivebium" or "Covetedium"; or the simply mundane, "Factor X". How about just calling it, "Pandorium" since it's found on the planet Pandora? They still wear eyeglasses? Mr. Scarface, Col. Quaritch ( Steven Lang ), probably didn't know that cortisone shots can drastically reduce the size of his scars--don't they have plastic surgeons in the future? This movie is set in the future approximately 145 years from now but the humans' war weaponry, machinery and technology are reminiscent of those in common use during the Vietnam War era. Any war historian will tell you that advancements in war weaponry, machinery and technology will always supercede military strategy and size. And, yet, you have the indigenous primitive Na'vis pitting themselves, with their bows and arrows, against an advanced human force in what would only be a decidedly one-sided battle. In real life, the humans would return with an all-out force! Remember what happened after General Custer's Last Stand or Magellan's Massacre? And the humans in this movie are desperate for a new world to conquer and inhabit. Today's US armed forces have these as part of their arsenal: radar, sonar, sonic canons, heat cannons, napalm, infra-red, night vision, enemy-spotting triangulators, satellite imaging, mobile communications, precision bombs, carpet bombs, cluster bombs, thermo-nuclear weapons, drones, robots, heat seekers, biological weapons, chemical weapons, grenade launchers, artillery cannons, missiles, battle tanks, fully-automatic weapons with high-capacity rounds, etc. The US armed forces 145 years from now would be even deadlier and be far more superior forces to contend with! So, the "hired guns" on Pandora would also have this kind of arsenal at their ready disposal. And if all else fails, the humans can always give the unsuspecting Na'vi Small Pox-contaminated blankets--hey, it worked on the Native Americans, so don't laugh. There's also the Make Love in War option, i.e. give them the Flu, AIDS, Syphilis, Crabs ( l.o.l. ) and a bunch more from the "dirty laundry" weapons stockpile! And what's with the obsolete wheelchair? Scientists right now are already working on ways to make paraplegics walk again, and they're getting closer to their goal. And there's already a "mobility-assist, mechanical exoskeleton" ( M.A.M.E., for short. Ironic, isn't it? ) right now that scientists are fine-tuning which looks similar to the "forklift" that Sigourney Weaver's character used to fight an alien in one of the ALIENS Trilogy--she's in this movie, as Grace-- and it never crossed anyone's mind to have Mr. Wheelchair Guy strapped into one! Ha, ha, ha. The Na'vis charged into battle with a leader who was narcoleptic! How stupid was that? I'd have reservations about this, Turuk rider or not, if I were a Na'vi warrior. Those floating mountains must have weighed a gazillion pounds each, so what was there to keep the Na'vis from floating in space, too? It actually takes thousands of years for rainwater to percolate through the soil and rock bed before enough quantity is stored in an aquifer of considerable size to create springs and waterfalls; the floating mountains don't have enough cubic area to substantiate such a natural effect ( another thing I learned in Geology class ). The creatures that spin around as they fly--only to get dizzy-- are an evolutionary aberration doomed to extinction! Why don't the Na'vis "plug-in" their tails when mating for a more heightened sexual experience? Cine-Man should teach them Sex-Ed! I see jungle, I see fern ( as well as other earth flora ) ...? W.T.F.?! Why don't they have armor-piercing rounds to take care of the "hammer-head rhinos" and big "cats"? The female pilot, Trudy Chacon ( Michelle Rodriguez ), didn't use the element of surprise to fire rockets at her huge target but, instead, just used her machine guns even though her gunship was neither grounded nor disarmed. And why wasn't Trudy, herself, jailed, in the first place, for not following orders? Why do the female hybrid Avatars wear shirts? ( After all, if they REALLY want to blend in .... ) In some scenes, it seemed like the female Na'vis have pasties on. Bummer! Last, but certainly not least, the female Na'vis all have nice, firm breasts even though all field studies of aborigines in which the females are topless show conclusively that the older the females get, the saggier their breasts become ( Even though I studied Cultural Anthropology in college, I don't have to be a field anthropologist to know this fact. After all, I can always peruse the pages of National Geographic magazines--strictly for purely academic reasons, of course! [ Ahem ] ).
Update: Monday, December 21st, 2009 btwn 10:12 p.m. & 10:44 p.m. I purposely didn't mention anything about cigarettes and the use of words ( bitch, crap, etc. ) and terms ( punk-ass, etc. ) which are in common use in our present day and age because people have been smoking tobacco for hundreds of years ( maybe longer ) and we have been using derogatory words and expletives for Lord-only-knows-how-long! As for the climactic battle, I was biased in giving it a one-sided assessment based on the humans' level of technology. But the Na'vis could have easily established aerial superiority without even resorting to the use of bows and arrows, and could have kept the Na'vis' and Ikrans' casualty rates low, simply by raining down rocks, boulders, and branches on the gunships' vulnerable and exposed propeller blades and jet intakes. ( The Talibans used the same simple yet effective tactic against Russian military vehicle convoys. )
fyi: The word, Bitch, as used in a denigrating sense, has been around for hundreds of years; and the acronym, F.U.C.K., as used in an expletive sense, has been in used since before WW I.
The meaning of the word, Sully is: To make dirty; to damage someone's reputation. Was Jake, the protagonist, given this surname intentionally? I couldn't help but wonder.
Someone named David Ison, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a bad car accident, used meditation and sound technology to enable himself to walk again. Go to www.nightingale.com and look-up the meditation CD set called, The Musical Body.
In Sanskrit, an Avatar is a physical manifestation of a Deity but not exactly in the Christian sense. And there are video games in which you use an "avatar."
In the world of meditation, you can also use an "avatar" in a simulated encounter with evil entities--not for the faint of heart--this is about as close to reality as you can ever hope to get! When you use a certain kind of Sound Meditation, it searches your mind for your innermost fears and after a period of meditation ( 30 to 45 days, on average ), it puts you up for battle with that which you fear the most. The idea is to mentally overcome your fears, unfounded or otherwise. I had my simulated encounter in less than three weeks! I will not go into the specifics, if only so that I can tell whether or not somebody telling me of his/her encounter is actually telling me the truth. And if you're as smart as I, you'll discover that this simulation actually comes with a "back door" so that you can slip out of a simulated encounter and have a real one, instead. If you want to try this simulated adventure, Google this website: Higher Balance Institute and call their 1-800 number to ask about "Dreamscape." I noticed that they have two "Dreamscape" CDs now ( I had mine a few years ago when there was only one "Dreamscape" meditation CD ) so my guess would be that it's the one called "Dreamscape: The Leap". It's not gonna hurt to ask them which is which. But don't tell them that I found a "back door" because no one is suppose to find it. When you grow tired of the simulations, try finding the "back door" for some real "fun"--just be careful what you wish for because encounters can get very fast, multi-directional and intense!
word of advice: "History repeats itself."
"Might is not always right."
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
tidbits: I met this beautiful girl once who was so tall that whenever I would look straight at her, her nipples would look straight back at me! I can just imagine what would be staring back at me if I were to stare at a beautiful 10-foot tall Na'vi girl--and heaven forbid that I have a close encounter with a Na'vi male for fear that we won't exactly be seeing "eye"-to-eyes. Ha, ha, ha.
I half-expected Disney's Pocahontas to jump out of the jungle bush, in the thick of battle, and start singing, "Colors Of The Wind."
I decided to see this at the Solano Mall in Fairfield because I had to go to the Macy's a few doors down to buy someone a present--some hot chick cornered me and "twisted my arm" into buying her a Christmas present! Who does she think I am, Santa Claus? Well ... if I don't stop eating at all-you-can-eat buffets all the time, I just might end up looking like Santa! I guess I've already decided on a resolution for the New Year.
I walked around the mall on both levels to test my left heel again. This time, it didn't hurt as much.
P.S. I took home the I-Max 3-D glasses as a souvenir.
2nd tidbits: After the movie, I went to the Rite Aid Drugstore off on Springs Road here in Vallejo to see if they sell replacement straps for watches since the ones I saw at the mall yesterday were more expensive than my old watch's original at-cost price. They have an in-store watch repair shop and, thankfully, had cheap watch straps on display. So I bought one and the clerk replaced it for me, free of charge, although I asked to borrow his tool set so that I could do it myself. The straps are not exactly what I had in mind--I needed the "Iron-Man Triathlon" straps which are now hard to find--but they will have to do until I can find the ones that I always get as replacement straps for my "bang-around" everyday watch.
And then I went up to the pharmacy counter and asked the pharmacist if it is safe to take prescription-strength Naproxen along with my Cold medicine. He said it should be okay as long as my Cold medicine doesn't contain any NSAID. Good! Maybe, now, I can finally get rid of my heel pain.
Finally, I went to Selecta Filipino Buffet Restaurant to have some Filipino food. It ain't Chinese Buffet this time so it's a start. And the radio was turned off this time. Thank God. Please refer back to my blog on THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG to know what I'm talking about.
