Victory

Win

Qik - Predator Sheep by mrdehate

At the Griffins game

Due to a misunderstanding of the price chart on my part, we've got
good tickets for the Griffins game...

Avatar

Molly and I saw Avatar a couple of weeks ago. The hype surrounding this movie has been ridiculous. And indeed, according to imdb.com Avatar is #2 in all time box office sales both in the USA and worldwide. While I'm definitely excited about anything taking over the crown from Titanic, I think we could have done better world.

I mean, it wasn't necessarily a *bad* movie. No, I did enjoy it. But at the same time, it was so lame. I saw this picture on Failblog comparing Pocahontas with Avatar, which is pretty accurate. Right from the start, you knew exactly what was going to happen. And it did. I gotta imagine the plot outline for this movie was written in about 45 seconds, tops.

So normally I can forgive a real cookie-cutter plot. But when for some reason you decide to stretch it out over nearly three hours, there's just too many times I can roll my eyes and sigh in that span of time. Not to mention, nearly three hours spent bashing on the human race and promoting tree-huggery. If it's possible for a half-cartoon to be a little too preachy, I felt like it went there.

However...the reason that this movie is going to be number one all time isn't because of its lame story or it's tree-hugging agenda - it's the 3D. No doubt. Because the 3D was hot. If there's any reason you should see Avatar in the theatre, that's it. I have heard a few people that weren't real fond of the 3D effect, but I thought it was well-done enough that you didn't really notice it by the end, which is a great sign. I don't think I recall any moments that were "built for 3D", where there is a spear coming at your head or anything cheesy like that. There were a lot of particle effects - certainly those were done to showcase the 3D, but it wasn't obnoxious.

With the success of this movie around CES, there was a lot of talk about 3D TVs coming to a home near you, not to mention ESPN announcing their 3D channel. That, I'm not nearly as excited about. I think it's going to be a tough sell for people to put on glasses to watch TV in their own home. And I don't know how you solve that problem, without implants into people's brains (which is probably not covered by insurance...but maybe Obama can work that into this health care reform?). I enjoyed the 3D effect in the theatre, for sure - I just don't see me putting on glasses and walking around the house to enjoy it at home.

I'm interested in how that's going to turn out...it's also interesting how it seems like more and more, technology is being pushed on the consumer, instead of the consumers pushing for the technology. Blu-ray players, for example? Anyway that's getting off-topic.

Avatar, I'll certainly celebrate you sinking the Titanic at the top of the box office rankings. However...much like McGuire and the steroid controversy, I think you deserve an asterisk by your name too. Without the 3D technology - and the amount that it increased ticket prices - I'd bet you're only putting up A-Rod numbers.

LED Buttons!

I took this low-quality, slightly creepy video with my iPhone using qik.com. It's good considering my phone doesn't otherwise take video...but that's about it. Anyway I was trying to demonstrate my sweet LED buttons on the arcade cabinet.


Proper blog posting to come soon, probably...January hasn't been very exciting in general. I do need to complain about this "Avatar" movie business though...

Drumstick sandwich. So good.