Back to the Future

After arriving back here in advance of school, I caught up with a few classmates and we decided to go see a movie.  Being that I'm not exactly in a metropolis, there aren't that many selections to choose from.  Typically, I tend to shy away from blockbusters and head toward more independent fare but, like I said, I'm not exactly in a metropolis.  So, we decided to go see Avatar.  I was curious to see the spectacle and didn't really expect too much from Cameron's story line.  Typically, I think he tends toward underdeveloped characters and incorporates a little too much cheesiness into his pictures.  No matter, I was willing to plunk down my cash and see the "game changer" that he'd unleashed.

One dilemma of seeing movies here in the Palm Springs of Washington is that the theaters take cash only.  Their online ticketing is, shall we say, a little behind the times.  In true 1988 fashion, we headed over to the theater yesterday evening to catch the 6pm showing.  When we got in line for tickets, we noticed after a few minutes that all remaining showings for the night were sold out.  By the way, this was scrawled on a whiteboard hanging on the ticket window.  No worries, we'd catch it today.  This morning, the gang got together for brunch and decided to head over immediately after to buy our tix a full hour before the start time.  Once again, on walking up to the ticket line, the whiteboard noted that the next two showings were sold out!  Seriously, the last time I wasn't able to buy tickets online and actually walked up to the theater to find the movie I wanted to see was sold out was twenty years ago when I was in high school.  Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this town?  Anywho, we bought our tix for a show nearly four hour later.  It sold out shortly after we got our tickets.  Forty-five minutes prior to showtime, our friends called to say that they were in line to get into the theater and would save us seats.

Finally, we made our way into the theater and watched the damned thing.  I'll just say that the animation was amazing.  It makes the animation in Robert Zemeckis' CGI flicks look like stick figures.  So, for that alone, it was worth the money.  The 3D was pretty stinking amazing also.  When I was a kid, all the 3D movies were pretty gimmicky with only a few scenes with objects flying at you.  That this entire film was in 3D still amazes me.  Keep in mind, however, that I've not pulled the trigger on seeing any of the spate of recent films offered in 3D; this was my maiden voyage.  So, that being said it was an entertaining movie.  The technology behind it was amazing.  The visual world Cameron's team created is unlike anything you've ever seen in cinema.  I think it really has moved the bars for digital animation.  Was it the best movie I've ever seen?  Hardly.  The story, in itself, is compelling and can easily be viewed as a parable for any number of issues (both current and historical).  A few of the plot points, though, were heavy-handed and some were far-fetched even for an imagined world which I had no problem buying into.  That being said, I'd recommend seeing it on the big screen just to be a part of the spectacle of a world-wide blockbuster.

If you can, buy your tix online, show up fifteen minutes before show time, and let me know how that feels.  I miss the new millennium.