I was able to watch “Inception” at midnight, nay, I had the privilege of being able to see it at midnight, it is honestly one of the best movies I’ve seen since “The Dark Knight”, I enjoyed it so much that I’m actually willing to put it a notch above it.  From the director that brought us “Memento,” “Inception” is another great masterpiece, which plays with your mind, your concept of reality, and your basic principles.

This film challenges you to keep up with it; you sit in your seat, worrying that if you blink you might miss something. “Inception” tries to understand what it means to dream, and the ability of one to manipulate and accept that reality. This movie was completely groundbreaking, and I highly doubt anyone will try to recreate this movie for a very long time, only because there are very few directors with the ability to recreate such a phenomenal movie. Nolan directs movies within movies within movies, It has such intricate subplots that each subplot feels like another movie. This was an extremely well executed movie, even with so many plot lines and subplots, I didn’t notice any major plot holes.

The soundtrack was great, as were the special effects. I can’t say much about them, because they were exactly what they should have been secondary. It wasn’t a movie where it was all about special effects *cough*Avatar*cough*, this was a movie that stood on its acting, directing, and well written story line. People say this took Nolan 10 years to write and I believe them, I couldn’t write a story like this in 30 years. The ending of the movie was phenomenal the whole theater simultaneously let out a scream of frustration, but even if I told you the ending, it wouldn’t help you at all. This movie surpasses the ordinary film, it’s not about the ending; it’s about the journey and the story line.

If you haven’t already seen this movie do yourself a favor and watch it, it’s an instant classic and in my top 5 movie list. This movie filled me with sheer awe; I couldn’t be more pleased with it. I’ve already paid $7 to see it once, and I’ll be paying to see it again more than once, and I have every intention of purchasing it on Blu-Ray when it is released.

10/10, this movie was nothing short of phenomenal and breath taking.

Let’s really get into the review now, you already know that I found it extremely underwhelming, did I like any of it? Well; Yes I did. I found the graphics and special effects to be completely mind blowing, the way the 3D effects were employed was so natural. I think that most of this movies merit is on the special effects. In my opinion there is little to no acting merit in this movie, and there is little to no plot value.

I found the story to be extremely predictable, and fairly poorly executed. I was not surprised when I heard a critic call it “the story of many third world countries, as told by blue people.” The critic hit the nail right on the head; much of Avatar’s merit lies in the political message it delivers. The message of the movie was great, but I believe that too many people now are starting to rate movies based on their message, it could be a terrible movie with a great message, and get rave reviews, but I believe that movies should be reviewed on their merits as a movie.

So my final rating for Avatar is 5/10 stars, most of the stars are for the special effects and the 3D graphics, with a few thrown in for the sub-par story, acting, and great message. Overall this is a movie I might watch if I saw on coming on TV, I would not go out of my way to watch this movie again. I would suggest that people watch it in IMAX 3D or REAL 3D at least once to get the value of the great visuals, but I can’t see myself paying to watch it more than once.

I was able to watch District 9 at midnight the day it came out, the theater was not completely packed, yet it was not empty, I would say it was approximately 85% full. I went into this movie not expecting too much, obviously I was expecting a decent movie, but nothing amazing. Well, I have to say this movie completely blew my mind. It has to be the best science fiction movie of the year, it blows Transformers 2 out of the water. I think this movie may go down as one of the greats in the science fiction genre.

Although there was really nothing new in the movie compared to older alien movies, except for the apartheid references, more on that in a bit. The aliens were like massive bugs, just like in older alien movies, yet the aliens were not the bad guys, the directors and screen writers, did a phenomenal job making the aliens almost human, other than their strange addiction to cat food, and slight cultural differences, most of the aliens were just like normal people. This is something that I haven’t seen in yet.

The special effects were outstanding, but again, none of the actual concepts were new, but some how this movie was very compelling, the old electric beams/tesla coil type deal is pretty old, and massive ship hovering over a city deal is pretty old, but this movie in every way shape or form defies description.

The apartheid like situation of the aliens was a new twist, on alien/ science fiction movies, I would have maybe expected such a movie with something more human, maybe vampires or something (i know a stretch) but with prawns (what they call the aliens in the movie) was weird in a good kind of way. Once you get over the plot, which is very compelling and fresh, the action remains fairly stale, its been done a hundred times, but yet, this is a movie where the execution of the action scenes, really shines.

In a summer filled with mega budget mediocrities, this is a movie that really shone, it was the modestly budgeted, blockbuster, I found this movie to be extremely well written and directed, the cinematography in this movie was nothing short of amazing. I would highly suggest that everyone into science fiction movies goes and watches this movie.

Definitely worth my $7.00.

Photo Credits: Lucius Kwok via [Flickr]

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