Immediately after teaching my last class of the day, I ran out the back door and raced across town to pick up my son at school. We slipped into the theater seats just as the previews ended and Avatar began. The screen was all fuzzy until I slid on the 3D glasses, and my vision popped open wide. Once my eyes adjusted, I said to my son, “Whoa! Now that’s some high-definition 3D!” He said, “I know, it’s totally wicked!”
While nothing very important happened in the first 5 minutes, I was incredibly entertained by the effect of this new form of movie viewing. I felt inside the movie, but it didn’t seem strange or overwhelming like a theme park ride. Simply put, it is the most visually-interesting movie I have seen since I saw the first Star Wars in the theater when I was a young boy (I saw it seven times in the theater).
Aside from the truly spectacular visual effects, I want to offer some other thoughts about the film, in no particular order.
Is it appropriate for a young child? I was leery of taking my 11-year-old son to see a PG-13 movie, but after a little research, it seemed like there was nothing that would be too harmful for him to see. In the end, my research proved true. Read the rest of this entry »
There isn’t anything shocking about a fight on a school bus. But the thing that is so awful is that most of the students cheered the bully as he unloaded heavy closed-fist punches to the boy’s face, one after another after another. It was bloodlust. It was not a fight; it was a beating. The victim was unable to defend himself or flee, so he got thoroughly abused by two violent bullies, who were cheered on by all the kids surrounding the victim. In fact, many of them took pictures of the victim’s bloody face while laughing at him.
