I had someone read my Top Movies of 2009 post and asked why I had the movie 2012 on the list, but not Avatar. Let me see if I can offer a decent explanation.

I saw both films on their opening weekends and can say that I enjoyed both movies. Both obviously used the latest in technology to make the special effects and characters come alive on the big screen.

Roland Emmerich has a history of making high end productions that involve aliens [Independence Day], water and ice havoc [The Day After Tomorrow] and now Mayan prophecy.

James Cameron is no stranger to large productions and top-grossing box office films. Titanic holds the worldwide record for the film that made the most money. And I really liked the first two Terminator movies a lot.

Both directors have their own similar patterns for making movies, taking some standard plot structures that are shared in most of their movies. Every filmmaker does this to a certain degree. It’s their mark or their style.

But the main reason for me that kept Avatar off my top list was due to how unoriginal the story of Avatar was. If I were to have based it solely on special effects, Avatar would have been included. The realism of the characters were so well drawn out. But no new or compelling plot left me feeling let down a bit.

*WARNING SPOILER ALERT*

For me, Avatar was Titanic told on another planet with different characters. People dying due to the greed of others. A person gets a chance at a new life. The bad guys are after something with great monetary value, with no regard or concern to a large group of people. Nothing really all that original in the overall plot structure.

*END SPOILER ALERT*

It took me a year to see Titanic because there was so much hype over the movie. Once I saw it, I enjoyed it, but to me, it wasn’t anything grand or incredible. I enjoyed the story, but it was really a take it or leave it. I have not seen the film again since.

Avatar has those same elements. A great feat of special effects, but the lack of an original story will most likely have me with only a single theatrical viewing of this movie.

2012 Better?

So what did 2012 have that made it good enough to be included on my list?

It had a really good mix of special effects combined with a plot that was not only entertaining, but exciting and original.

So wait a minute here… I know what you are thinking.. “That story and plot has been told over and over before in other movies” and “the cheesy lines and cliches didn’t bother you?”. Yes, those elements are there in this movie, but there was something completely different about the approach taken. It was based on a real story/legend without being overly political or shoving some sort of agenda into your head. It made the few cheesy lines [including the final line of the movie being overly cheesy] not seem all that bad, as the plot tied itself up at the end, leaving no noticeable loose ends or questions of what happened to any of the characters.

There was an element of difference and excitement for me with the movie. John Cusack in the lead role actually worked well. He wasn’t an over the top Will Smith trying to coin the next popular action movie phrase. He wasn’t some gung-ho Dwayne Johnson trying to show he’s strong enough to save the world. Just a published author, separated from his wife, a couple of kids, trying to escape pending doom and destruction. I would enjoy seeing 2012 again to see if my experiences are the same. And I suppose I should be fair and give Avatar another viewing. But I personally don’t think I would change my stance or feelings.

Agree or Disagree

So am I off my rocker? Off in left field? Spot on? Tell me what you are thinking.

Every year during Memorial Day weekend, the weather is a mixed bag of some sunshine and heat, but mostly clouds and colder rain – and even sometimes snow [that was two years ago, which was quite the shock]. So it’s hard to get into the season when you are stuck indoors for most of the weekend. Which is good that I took this week off from doing an episode of Scooter Sunday.

Of course, being stuck indoors isn’t all that bad. I can always find a good number of things to do to take my mind off missing the sun and warmth of the outdoors. So with this post, I give you a list of what I’ve done and what I am planning on doing this extended weekend, both inside and outside.

Mac Upgrade

My wife’s Mac mini G4 has never been rebuilt in the over four years we’ve had it. I used it for a year before she inherited it. It came with Mac OSX Panther 10.3, but I did an in-place upgrade to Tiger 10.4 which it’s been running since. But the past few weeks, she’s been complaining how slow it’s gotten. So I decided it was time to blow it away and start fresh with Leopard 10.5. It took most of the day, with me walking by it and clicking here and there, waiting the almost 4 hours for it to backup 50gb of data, but by 9pm last night, she had her computer back and it was noticeably faster. Always good to have a new older computer [and a wife that's not complaining]

Firepit

Most of the day on Saturday was actually decent. Some clouds during the day, but the sun was able to peak through enough to enjoy a shirtless day outside.

My wife has been talking about using our old garden area for something and she suggested we build one of those firepits. We’ve looked at the pre-made kind you buy at the home improvement stores, but never really liked any of them. So we decided to build our own.

It wasn’t hard. About an hour of digging and shaping the area and fitting in bricks. Of course it’s not done yet, but the start to it is looking pretty good. Just need to find some more bricks and by the middle of June, we’ll have us a nice pit that we can sit around at night.

TV Shows

A great show…. Terminated *sniff*

I’ve gotten so bad at keeping up on the TV shows this season. I had to learn from Karl’s radio show and blog that both Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Reaper had been canceled. WTF? I loved those shows, even though I hardly made time to watch them this past season. So maybe I’m partially to blame for them being canceled [sorry Ray Wise and Summer Glau].

I watch a majority of my TV shows either online via Hulu.com or by means of downloading them from the various locations on the interwebs. So what better way to get caught up on my favorite shows than to download them to my iPod and watch them as I lounge around the rest of this weekend. Hello, season enders.

[More TV Plugs: It's a good thing there are others out there that still watch a good amount of TV. Hilly's a television maven and wants to know what your favorite TV shows are. And Miss Britt's Buy-Her blog posts her 6 favorite TV shows available on DVD.]

Drink

Just because the weather is sucky, that doesn’t stop me from imbibing. Since Friday night, I’ve done my share of putting back a few adult beverages like dirty martinis, Red Bull/vodkas and gin & tonics. Tonight, we are having some friends over for a BBQ and I will get out the ingredients for making mojitos. I may have to make a few practice ones before, just to make sure I remember how to make them.

Movies

While I still subscribe to Netflix [we are down to the 1-out-at-a-time plan], I also am still just as bad about watching and returning movies at a moderate pace. We’ve had “Australia” sitting in its red and white envelope for almost two months now. I want to watch it and so does my wife, but we are down to one TV in the house [we sold our remaining tube-based TV at the yard sale last week] and when the granddaughter comes over, it’s Cartoon Network or Nick or Disney blaring from our HDTV.

And going to the theater isn’t any better. We’ve been wanting to see “Star Trek” since it came out two weeks ago. My wife promises me we are going on Monday, but I’m not holding my breath.

Have A Great Weekend

So there you have it. Stuff I have planned for this weekend. Some of it I’ve already done, some I’m planning on doing and some of it may end up not happening at all. But I will do my best to try and fill my time doing stuff instead of sulking about the lack of sun and warmth. Because why waste a three-day weekend. Hope all of you won’t waste yours either. Enjoy!