Avatar

What is there left to say about Avatar? For thirteen years no film came within throwing distance of knocking James Cameron's Titanic out of the number one highest-grossing film of all-time slot. It took Cameron himself to break his old record, and he did it by inventing some new technology that he used to create a world unlike anything anyone had ever seen before.

It can be argued all day whether or not Avatar is really the best movie of the year (it's not). The plot is derivative, the characters one-dimensional, and much of the dialogue is cringe-worthy. But the fact of the matter is that somehow none of that matters, because the movie is just flat out fun.

Avatar has dragons fighting spaceships. Awesomely realistic looking dragons fighting spaceships. And if dragons and spaceships clashing in 3-D with floating mountains in the background isn't awesome, then I don't know what is.

Dragons not really your thing? The movie also has a bunch of dudes in giant robot suits fighting other dudes with bows and arrows. ROBOT SUITS.

I would like to see the Academy have Cameron duke it out with his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow (director of The Hurt Locker) to see who gets to take home the award for Best Picture. Instead I think they'll just hand it over to him.

Too bad, Kathryn would kick his ass. 

4 / 5 on the Awesome Meter

District 9

A few years back Peter Jackson was producing a film based on the enormously popular Halo video game franchise. Due to studio ineptitude the project completely collapsed five months into pre-production. Jackson then handed the film's director, Neil Blomkamp, $30 million dollars and told him to go make any film he wanted. Blomkamp then set out to make an allegorical movie about his childhood, spent in Apartheid South Africa.

HOLY CRAP! Blomkamp took that $30million dollars, which in Hollywood is pocket change-- most directors can't put together a romantic comedy for twice that amount-- and made a kick-ass sci-fi flick with special effects that look better than most films with eight times it's budget. 

District 9 is awesome on several levels. As an allegory, it made me realize how much we, the human race, really suck at treating each other. Towards the end of the film I found myself being embarrassed to be a human being, because our capacity for fear and hatred of anything that we don't understand seems to know no bounds.

The aliens, spaceship and weaponry all look exceptionally cool, and there are plenty of exploding heads and limbs ripped off. Awesome. Oh, and a really cute alien toddler. Who doesn't like adorable alien children?

Newcomer Sharlto Copley probably should've gotten an Oscar nod, but didn't.

Sorry, Sharlto! 

I can't believe that there are TWO movies with aliens in them that are nominated for best picture this year. This movie doesn't stand a chance of winning the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture, because that other movie with aliens has grossed approximately twelve-octillion dollars world-wide.

4 / 5 on the Awesome Meter