--------I have but one word to describe Avatar. Epic! I caught this at midnight last night and let me tell you. It was worth it. My initial thoughts upon leaving the theater are that Avatar may have replaced the latest Star Trek movie on my list as the greatest movie of 2009. This might have been a post-coital reaction to a near orgasmic cinematic experience. Star Trek beats this movie out in witty banter and all around well-written dialogue. Where Avatar excels is in sheer epic awesomeness.

--------If you live on Planet Earth you likely have some idea of the plot synopsis for Avatar. Cameron films tend to have huge ad campaigns. So I wont go into all that. If I had to find fault with this movie it would be a stretch. I could make a point that the love story never inspired any doubt. It was pretty clear from the second Neytiri, The blue princess, showed up that there would be some getting it on. Also I found the sound track to be a little enya-esque. That’s it though. And I gotta tell you if you make a three hour movie that is that tough to find fault in then you have done your job admirably. I can now forgive Cameron for Titanic. I wont watch even one more nano-second of Titanic, but I will let it go.

--------I remember looking at my watch when viewing Titanic and seeing that I had already sat through through three hours of the crapfest that is Titanic. I remember thinking to myself how I wished that this movie was only three hours. Wel Avatar goes a long way as an apology. You are forgivin James Cameron.

--------There were a couple standout acting performances. I thought that Stephen Lang was straight up awesome. Giovani Ribisi played a really good slimey businessman type character. He made me think of Paul Reisers character from Aliens. He might as well have been the same douchebag.

--------The funny thing is after watching Aliens I have never been able to bring myself to like Paul Rieser. I am sure he is a very likeable fellow in real life. But after what he did to those space marines he has always rubbed me the wrong way. It’s a shame really. I mean he really did do a standout job in playing his character. I really shouldn’t hold it against him. It’s just everytime I look at him I think of that same corporate fuck who dropped a face sucker in the infermary on Ripley and Newt.

--------Unfortunately the local IMAX theater unwisely chose not to show Avatar at midnight. Nor did it keep Yahoo updated as to wether or not it would be showing Avatar at all. I just now found out that it is in fact showing Avatar. I still would have probably caught it at midnight. Now I need to see it agin in IMAX. Sometimes this fanboy lifestyle can be a little rough.

--------The 3D experience has vastly improved as of late. Now I did find Beowulf to be a more immersive visual experience. I’m not saying better. A large part of it may be that I was able to see Beowulf in full IMAX splendor and I saw Avatar on a normal sized screen. At the theater they did say that they had to buy a new IMAX projector for this, but it was a normal sized screen. I did sit almost all the way up front in an attempt to maximize my immersion.

--------You know what hasn’t improved about the moviegoing experience as of late? The price. To catch last nights midnight showing I had to shell out $12.25. Can you fucking believe that? The last time movie prices jumped like that was for one of the Star Wars movies. And you know what? The prices didn’t go back down after that. They used it as an excuse to raise prices and they may be doing it again. Its like they filmed the movie on Unobtanium.

--------So price aside I have to recommend this movie to every person on the planet. You owe it to yourselves to catch this one.

--------Now this week in Comic Books I caught up on Dark Avengers and The List: Hulk. We will start with the Hulk. This one was a pretty good read for Hulk fans. Basically Banner and Skaar PWN the shit out of a H.A.M.M.E.R facilities security systems to rescue one of their buddies. This makes Norman Osborne decide it is time to deal with Banner. I can’t Remember if Banner was on the list or got placed on the list. Either way Osborne decided he needed to be removed from the list. How does one go about doing that you ask. Well I’ll tell you, but first I need to put out a spoiler alert on the rest of this paragraph. Basically Osborne decides that Banner, due to his amazing intelect is more of a threat than the Hulk. I know its crazy but there you have it. So He exposes Banner to some gamma radiation in an attempt to bring back the Hulk. We all knew that the Hulk would return, and now we know how.

--------I also caught up on Dark Avengers # 9, 10 & 11. Now I really love the Dark Avengers comic book. I think it is really well written. In fact it is one of the few comics that I find compelling even when there isnt much action. Notice I didn’t say when there is no action. Come on I gotta have a little action. The character interaction between these heroes/villains is truly entertaining. I cant seem to get enough. I know I have said it before but I wouldn’t mind if they dragged out Dark Reign forever. Which is exactly the opposite of my viewpoint on this whole “who is the Red Hulk?” thing. Whats up with that?