Keeping It Reel: Avatar IMAX 3D

Foreword: Paying $16 to see a movie is something I never thought I'd have to do in my lifetime. I still remember paying $3.75 (matinee price) to see Batman in 1989. But this is IMAX and it is 3D so I figured why not. I have yet to see a movie in 3D since Captian EO at Disneyland as a kid. Back when they used Red and Blue lenses that made everything look like an acid trip. Skip to 2009 and the hand over some yellow plastic glasses with gray lenses that look like something Kanye West would wear. One bit of advice is to never get to an IMAX showing 20 minutes before it starts. Luckily, I was able to sneak in line when the ushers told everyone to get their tickets to present at the door. While the people were looked toward their pockets, I snuck in line. No one noticed. I was able to get great seats for me and my friends.

The Shrek 4 (is there really a need for more Shrek's?) 3D preview came on and I became confused. This isn't the 3D I remembered. This was far better and absolutely amazing. My eyes and brain were fighting each other trying to figure out what was going on. The depth perception had me in awe. I felt a buzz in my head from being excited. Yes, 3D is awesome. (Gotta leave the glasses on though or the screen looks like you had 2 too many martinis)

Movie Review: I came into this movie expecting a cliche story that has been previously explored in movies such as Dances With Wolves and The Last Samarai. Thats pretty much what this story is. James Cameron does a good job of making likable and hateable characters. The plot and story is very predictable but thats okay. Cameron isn't trying to wow us with a surprise climatic ending like he did with 'Titanic'. (Whoever would have thought that massive ship would sink?)

The acting is fair, considering we're watching motion captured CGI aliens most of the time. Sam Worthington is becoming an insanely huge star in the US already. He does a good job here. Zoe Saldana does an excelent job as one of the planet's natives. She's somewhat hot even has a giant smurf. The villain of the movie is a bit over the top, but he made me laugh on several occasions so I guess maybe thats what they were going for. I don't know.

The look of the movie is stunning. The special effects surpassed my hard-to-be-impressed expectations. The alien planet comes to life with imaginative creatures and creates a believable ambience. Especially with the 3D. I would suggest to watch this movie in IMAX 3D only. The visual benefit will be well worth the price of admission. As a 2D movie, 'Avatar' is a slightly above average adventure movie. As a 3D movie, its an experience you will remember for quite awhile.

I was very pessimistic about this film and to those that saw it and to those who told me it was great in 3D. I apologize. I was wrong. 'Avatar' is $500 million well spent for 20th Century Fox and $16 well spent for me.

Jason vs. The Angeles National Forest: Part III

I felt lucky. I had just escaped would could have been my rocky grave...or the rocky ground in which I paralyzed myself. Either way, there was a rocky area I didn't want to be in, and I almost fell into it.

After reaching the other side of the cliff, me and Victor took a moment to reflect on what just happened. I was so tired now. Not only physically, but mentally as well. This was like an episode of Man vs. Wild. An episode where Bear Grylls gets amnesia. Me and Victor didn't really know what to do.

After my great idea of crossing the steep mountain, I had another brilliant idea. On this side of the mountain, the way down wasn't steep at all. It did have soft dirt though. Climbing down is a lot harder than climbing up, so my great idea number two, was to slide down the hill.

I went first. I started to pick up speed as I slid down. A lot of dirt and dust went into the air. I couldn't slow down very easily. Yes, I was making great time getting to the bottom, but I was losing control. It was also become steeper. I cut my arm on something that left a scar on my arm for a good 6 years. I knew I had to stop or I would probably injure myself more. I saw a small tree and was able to hang onto a branch, since the tree was angled the same way as the side of the mountain.

It didn't take long for the debris to settle. I told Victor to slide down toward the tree. Now I don't know what happened next exactly. I believe that maybe I cleared all the soft dirt and debris that slowed me down. Whatever the reason, Victor came down like a bat out of hell. He was literally bouncing and coming toward me almost twice as fast.

He smacked into me pretty hard. It winded both of us, but we had to move on. We reached the bottom area and came up upon another cliff. A very small one. Maybe 10 feet. Victor jumped down with no problems. He was given the nickname Spider-Man for a reason. I was nervous about jumping down. My legs at this point felt like Jell-O. I took a leap of faith and landed on my feet, my legs gave way. Suddenly pain covered my body. I landed my tailbone onto a rock. Its a sensation I never want to feel again.

I was so out of it at that point. Tired and dehydrated. It hurt to walk and my arm was bleeding. I actually drank from some dirty pond, just because I felt like I couldn't go on without water. We kept walking on. We were battered and bruised, like Rihanna after a date with Chris Brown. The sun was getting lower. We now started to recognize the area we were in. Success.

We walked toward where our friend parked his car, hoping he was still there. And there he was, drinking a Super Big Gulp and laughing his ass off. Me and Victor were covered in dirt, from head to toe. We were lost in that forest for nearly four hours. Four hours that I will never forget.

Jason vs. The Angeles National Forest: Part II

My legs were giving up and now Victor was eating the dirt I was leaving behind. Since time was an issue I said we should start going sideways, which he agreed on. So we climb sideways and saw a flat area that looked like a dried up river bed. Finally, we had a solid, flat ground to walk on.

Thinking that this was going lead us to safety we walked along it. The river bend became more of a trench after awhile. Almost like in a movie, we noticed the trench ended up towards the horizon. We both knew what this meant but kept going forward anyway. When we got towards the end, it was plain and clear.

If water was present, me and Victor would have been standing at the edge of a waterfall. The drop was close to vertical. I would guess about 40 to 50 ft. Nothing but rocks and dead brush below. Just around the riverbend my ass. Fuck you Pocahontas.

The sun was being a bitch as well. We were stuck. From this vantage point we could literally see where we had to go. Me and Victor were like Lewis & Clark.

We now had the map of this place in our head, but we just didn't know how to get to the other side of this mountain. If we went back up the river, we'd lose time going the wrong way. I took the stupid initiative and climbed up the side of the trench.

I'm pretty sure I confused Victor when I started to climb the side the near verticle cliff. There was dry brush to hang on to. I was tired, hungry and knew it was going to get dark soon. We had to do something. Victor followed me, still questioning my actions. I should have questioned myself, but I knew if we got on the other side of this cliff, we would be well on our way out of this place. Victor knew that too and followed me.

So me and Victor were straddling this cliff, carefully planting out feet and holding on to dead brush. I honestly said a prayer. Its funny how one thinks in dangerous situations. I felt the need to tell a joke to Victor. I told him that this was like Indiana Jones. In the movie, he holds on to a vine to save himself from falling, and smiles thinking he's escaped death. Suddenly the vine snaps a bit and he goes down. The smile goes away. I began to reinact that scene as a joke.

I think God didn't appreciate my humor. As I said that, just like in the movie, the bush I was holding on to ripped out from its roots. Oh, the irony. I started to slide down. Victor reached out to try and grab me, but luckily I had caught onto another bush on the way down. I could hear the rocks crashing below me. What a moment.

We kept going and finally reached the other side of that cliff. It was less steep on this side. Knowing that I could have fallen to my death, I became desperate to get out of there. (TO BE CONCLUDED)

Jason vs. The Angeles National Forest: Part I

1999. It was a moderate day. Not too warm, not too cold. The kind of day that people in the East Coast cringe for in jealousy. Back when summer's meant nothing to do, most of the day was spent looking for something to do.

My partner in crime at that time was some what of a mentor to me. That probably wasn't a good thing in hindsight. If you know who I'm talking about, then you know why. Not that he's a horrible person. He's just crazy, but in a good way...I think. He and I had a mutual friend who told us about this forest are in Altadena that was pretty cool. Mind you, I was on the brink of turning 17, so this sounded like fun.

We get there and explore like young people do. After some walking and hiking we hit a rocky dead end. Sound minds would have returned, but our quest of finding something extraordinary conflicted common sense. We tried climbing this steep rock. None of us could get a good grip.

Beaten but not quite defeated, me and my partner in crime (we'll call him Victor...because thats his name) decided we were going to climb around from the other side, which required us to hike up the side of a steep mountain. The ground wasn't very solid as we got higher and a small rock avalanche happened underneath us. Thats how this all started. We couldn't get back down to our other friend without jumping down about 12 feet.

Victor tried to climb down a tree that was nearby, but the branch broke while he was on it and we thought he was going to fall. I'll never forget his face. Fear and excitement, like a newborn that just crapped itself. During that time Victor said he saw a trail up higher that was pretty close so he came up with the idea that we should start climbing up the steep side of the mountain. Best way to get down is to go up. Makes perfect sense.

So I followed him as the mountain got steeper and steeper. I was getting a bunch of dirt in my face and mouth. Suddenly we weren't really hiking as much as we were climbing. Victor kept assuring me that the trail was just up ahead. The minutes kept ticking by. We kept going higher and higher. We looked out towards the sun and realized that time was going to be an issue. We had no flashlights.

Our friend that was waiting for us below can't even see us anymore. We can barely hear him. We both took a break. It was becoming tiring. I then, took the lead, because the dirt in my mouth and face was becoming unbearable. I couldn't see that trail anymore. Whatever Victor thought was close, was distorted by perspective. We were close to nothing. (TO BE CONTINUED)

The Monopoly Guy Made Me Do This

I'm not to sure what to blog about anymore. No one clicks my ads anymore and I am no longer making blog money, but thats okay. I'm going to trek forward. People that know me will say, "Why am I not surprised he did this to make money." And I'd say back to them "Aw, you know me so well."

Its not completely my fault. Being an only child left me only with my mother to do anything with. That alone might have caused a complete meltdown of normal brain activity, but I'll leave that discussion for another day perhaps. My mother tried her best to keep me occupied, but when watching The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Three Amigos didn't cut it anymore, out came the Monopoly game board.

Monopoly. A real estate oriented game thats main goal is to make money. There was nothing more grand than to have those puke-orange $500 bills stack up. Landing and being able to purchase the Park Place and Boardwalk properties was by far the best moment that could happen in the game. Or worse depending on who's doing the purchasing. Throw in a few Houses and Hotels and those spots become a money hungry valley that meant bankruptcy to the other player(s). Maybe thats what happened to GM and AIG. They landed on a Hotel infested Boardwalk.

I used to annoy my mom when we played. I had recorded the song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters from the radio, onto a tape cassette. The days before mp3s and downloading were tedious weren't they? Well if I ever did get the chance to buy Boardwalk, I'd run to the tape deck and press play. I would have it set up already and my mom knew. She thought it was funny the first time I did it. Not so much after that. I admit it was a bit much to do that, but I was only like 9 years old or something.

I miss playing the game. I heard they have a newer version that includes "VISA" credit cards. That sounds like fun.

The Countdown Begins

Its been a tame 2 years.