I finally went to see Avatar last weekend, which has forced me to have to rethink my top movies list. At first, I thought that it might be my new number one, but there were still a few things that bothered me about it. I'll still put it in my top ten, but I need to see it again to be sure of where I'll put it.
Here's my list thus far:
#1. The Incredibles. Avatar didn't quite unseat it. The whole idea of a middle-aged superhero just appeals to me. What keeps it on top for me is the totally freakin' awesome soundtrack.
#2. Avatar. This is a tentative ranking until I can see it again. The CGI was incredible, plus the story sucked me in. I'm still a little bothered about wanting to cheer for the aliens in the end, though.
#3. The Fellowship of the Ring. This is my favorite of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I think Boromir is the one who did it for me. For some reason, I like the tragic hero.
#4. The Empire Strikes Back. Best of all the Star Wars movies. It's nice to see the good guys get whooped every now and then, as long as you know they'll get back up and win.
#5. Ironman. Just a well-done superhero movie. I liked the character arch that Tony Stark went through. Now, I hope the sequels continue the arch and don't have him returning to his sordid ways, but I'm afraid they will.
#6. Star Wars: A New Hope. I still get tingles when Han comes out of nowhere to blast Luke free.
#7. Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. Great bad guy. Enterprise gets the snot knocked out of it. I don't know why, but I think that's cool.
#8. Spiderman II. In this case, it was the tragic villain. Had that a little in the first movie, but I felt more for Doc Ock. Also, Peter had to make up his mind about who he really was.
#9. The Magnificent Seven. Coolest western of all time.
#10. Men In Black. Just a good ol' fun movie.
That's the list for the moment. I'll probably change my mind again tomorrow.
2 comments:
So why do you feel bothered cheering for the aliens in Avatar? Is it not okay to cheer for someone else if your own species (or race or religion or . . . ) is doing something evil? (I really enjoyed the film, too.)
And you know the coolest western of all time is based on a Japanese film, right? The Seven Samuari by Akira Kurosawa is an excellent film. I recommend it and the anime series that is based on it, Samauri Seven.
What bothered me about Avatar might also be what intrigued me. There wasn't a well-defined good and evil. For instance, I really liked Col. Quaritch and did not see him as a villain; just a man doing his job. Likewise, I did not view the human mercenaries as villains either. The conflict between them and the natives had me cheering for the natives, but not wanting the humans hurt.
One of these days I do need to see Seven Samurai. It was also a big influence on George Lucas.
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