Happy Winter Solstice!
Fellow NCIS and Bones watchers: Anyone notice that Gibbs' dad is the same man as Booth's grandfather? I think Booth might by Gibbs' long lost nephew! (I would say long-lost son, but wasn't Booth's dad an abusive a$$hole?) Also - they were both snipers in the military, and now they both work for the government!
I think someone should write fic about this right now! :)
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In other news, I saw AVATAR this weekend, like everyone else...
I didn't go in expecting Oscar-worthy acting, so I wasn't really disappointed in that regard. Sure, I wish that the Marine colonel/security chief hadn't been a total caricature. And I wish that they hadn't killed off the two supporting female characters (Grace and Trudy, the gunship pilot - but oh did I cheer at the end when she shows up with warpaint on her face AND on her chopper! Awesome). But really, the VSX is stunning. I spent most of the time trying to look everywhere at once, to see all the little insects, how the plants moved, how the sweat dripped down the faces of the Na'vi, how the wind rushed through their hair when they were flying on the flying things. Technically AMAZING, just like Titanic. And just like Titanic, a totally tired story with cliched characters, especially the bad guys.
Where I really thought the story fell down was in the background information department. We didn't learn until the very end that Earth had been completely deforested and basically destroyed. So what's this mineral for? To prop up a dying Earth? To build new colonies elsewhere in space? How the hell did they find Pandora in the first place, and how long have Earthlings been there? Why was Jake's brother shot? Was it a conspiracy to get a military-trained person on the AVATAR team? Surely a highly-trained scientist like Jake's brother could have afforded to "get a new spine" for his identical twin brother. I felt like we were missing these huge pieces of WHY.
But overall, as a scifi fan, I quite enjoyed it. It is a visual feast for the eyes, and the aliens, all of them - even the rhinosaurs - were really cool and *alien*. The 3D was great (I was actually starting to get motion sick at the beginning when Jake wakes from cryo and the doctors are floating around checking on everyone.) And that ship! So awesome. I loved the solar "sail" and just the whole look of it - so too bad we didn't get more of that. I loved the scenes that showed humans and Na'vi side-by-side, so you really saw how much bigger they are than us. I LOVED Jake's "awakening" scene, where the first thing he does is wiggle his toes and run and run and run just because he could.
And because everything comes back to Stargate, raise your hand if you thought that "going into your Avatar" looked like going through a wormhole! :D
So, my recommendation is that if you have 3 free hours, go see it and just enjoy the VSX. Because they are amazing.
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My brother-in-law just came over for an hour or so and fixed a bunch of little plumbing issues in my house. On his vacation. What a guy! Also, it is FREAKING AWESOME to have a plumber in the family. Now if we only had a sys admin and a auto mechanic, and maybe a masseuse...
I think someone should write fic about this right now! :)
+
In other news, I saw AVATAR this weekend, like everyone else...
I didn't go in expecting Oscar-worthy acting, so I wasn't really disappointed in that regard. Sure, I wish that the Marine colonel/security chief hadn't been a total caricature. And I wish that they hadn't killed off the two supporting female characters (Grace and Trudy, the gunship pilot - but oh did I cheer at the end when she shows up with warpaint on her face AND on her chopper! Awesome). But really, the VSX is stunning. I spent most of the time trying to look everywhere at once, to see all the little insects, how the plants moved, how the sweat dripped down the faces of the Na'vi, how the wind rushed through their hair when they were flying on the flying things. Technically AMAZING, just like Titanic. And just like Titanic, a totally tired story with cliched characters, especially the bad guys.
Where I really thought the story fell down was in the background information department. We didn't learn until the very end that Earth had been completely deforested and basically destroyed. So what's this mineral for? To prop up a dying Earth? To build new colonies elsewhere in space? How the hell did they find Pandora in the first place, and how long have Earthlings been there? Why was Jake's brother shot? Was it a conspiracy to get a military-trained person on the AVATAR team? Surely a highly-trained scientist like Jake's brother could have afforded to "get a new spine" for his identical twin brother. I felt like we were missing these huge pieces of WHY.
But overall, as a scifi fan, I quite enjoyed it. It is a visual feast for the eyes, and the aliens, all of them - even the rhinosaurs - were really cool and *alien*. The 3D was great (I was actually starting to get motion sick at the beginning when Jake wakes from cryo and the doctors are floating around checking on everyone.) And that ship! So awesome. I loved the solar "sail" and just the whole look of it - so too bad we didn't get more of that. I loved the scenes that showed humans and Na'vi side-by-side, so you really saw how much bigger they are than us. I LOVED Jake's "awakening" scene, where the first thing he does is wiggle his toes and run and run and run just because he could.
And because everything comes back to Stargate, raise your hand if you thought that "going into your Avatar" looked like going through a wormhole! :D
So, my recommendation is that if you have 3 free hours, go see it and just enjoy the VSX. Because they are amazing.
+
My brother-in-law just came over for an hour or so and fixed a bunch of little plumbing issues in my house. On his vacation. What a guy! Also, it is FREAKING AWESOME to have a plumber in the family. Now if we only had a sys admin and a auto mechanic, and maybe a masseuse...