January 2010 – What We’re Reading, Watching, etc.

I saw Avatar on the opening weekend, and my reaction was simply that it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.  I’m not going to claim it was a great movie regarding plot and dialog, but without a doubt, it was the best I’d ever “seen”.  This brings a whole new take on the phrases “I’m going to go see a movie”, or “I saw that movie”.  I have a theory that the simple plot and predictable dialog may have been intentional.  Since I knew exactly how the movie was going to end after the first five minutes, and each character’s role was cookie-cutter, I just settled in and “watched” the movie; there was nothing left to distract me from the visuals at that point.  The only real issue I had was the assumption that humans would still be operating with a nineteenth century imperialistic mentality after crossing the interstellar divide and discovering sentient life forms.  I guess I just have far more faith in our potential to make that extrapolation.

I finally read the final two books in the Harry Potter series.  I had some issues with them, but until I sell a bazillion books and have them turned into movies, it seems rather pointless to complain.  Suffice to say I had difficulty suspending my disbelief with teenagers doing adult things with adult emotions, while at the same time being typical emotional teenagers on a personal level.  One thing I was thinking about after finishing the series, however, was whether or not I’d ever read it again.  Right now, I’d have to say no.  I don’t really have any desire to read the first book again, even though it has been many years.  I’m not sure if this says anything about the books or not.