Avatar Melted My Face

What an incredible day Friday was. I drove over to a friend's house on Thursday night to hang out and spend the night. Besides gaming a little, we watched an episode of the laughably cheesy show Legend of the Seeker, and Christmas episodes of SOuth Park.

Since they both had to work during the day Friday, I was left to chill and enjoy their 55'' TV with surround sound (way better than my own setup) for the day, and made the most of it, completing Modern Warfare 2 on Veteran. I'm now up to 950 in that game, with only collectables and a few other things to go back for for the full 1k.

When my friends came back, we had a Rock Band party for a couple hours. As much as I enjoy that game, it was exponentially better when playing with friends.

Of course, the highlight of the day was seeing Avatar in 3D at the Minnesota Zoo's IMAX theater. Oh my god that film is epic. In 3D, it's a true sight to behold, and the special effects are by far and away the best ever seen in film. While the story isn't really innovative, it tugs at the heartstrings nonetheless (or maybe I'm just a sucker for these types of stories). While I can review games pretty well, I just don't know how to review movies, other than to say that Avatar is 160 minutes of EPIC, and so well paced that it doesn't feel like a long movie. I didn't want it to end. I've had the movie on my mind nonstop since it ended last night.

For people who know anything about me, I'll say this: No movie has inspired my imagination this much since I first watched Star Wars when I was a kid. In fact, the awe factor here puts Star Wars to shame. I don't think I can bestow higher praise upon a movie.

While paying $16 for a movie ticket was pretty spendy, I'm almost foaming at the mouth to get a group together to go see this in IMAX 3D again. Yes, I'd pay $16 again and not think twice about it. If that falls through, I can always go to a regular movie theater an watch it. I assure you I'll be watching it again before it leaves theaters, and a third viewing in a couple weeks isn't out of the question. Bluray purchase on release day is a given. What an awesome, awesome movie.

Of course, the movie didn't start until 8:45pm, so I didn't get back to my friends place until midnight. Then, the drive from St. Paul to Hutchinson took me until 1:40am, so I wasn't asleep until 2am, meaning I got just 5 hours of sleep before having to go to work. Somehow those were the worst 5 hours of sleep I've had in a long time, with a constant strobing in and out of sleep... That made for one incredibly long 12-hour shift today... And I had Avatar on my mind the whole damn time.

EDIT: In other news, my review for Rogue Warrior has been released at last. It's linked on the right side of this blog. Now you can read in more detail just how horrible that game is.