Best Picture Nominees # 7 - An Education and # 8 - Avatar

I saw An Education in the crappy dirty old theater in my town (as opposed to the somewhat crappy, somewhat dirty newer theater) - I believe the temperature was set just south of Meat Locker. Therefore I spent the entire time crunched up into as tiny a ball as I could manage in a theater seat (no cup holders - that's how old this place is) attempting to retain body heat.

Anyway- despite the lingering hypothermia, what I liked best about this movie were the performances by Carey Mulligan (who deserved her Best Actress Oscar nod) and Peter Sarsgaard (who should have gotten one as well).  She was totally believable as a 16 year old - I had to look it up, she's really 24 - which would explain how she looked like an adult when dressed up as one. He struck the exact perfect chord between charming and creepy in the grand Kevin Spacey tradition. Always good to see an intelligent female teenage character - although she makes the same mistake every woman has at one time or another. I give it an 8.

And on to Avatar -I thought this film looked idiotic just from the trailer - I didn't even have it on my Netflix queue but then was forced into going when it was nominated for Best Picture. I'm a fan of sci-fi and fantasy in general, but something about the ads for this just didn't move me.

I have to admit I liked it more than I thought. The 3-D glasses were almost more distracting than anything - losing all peripheral vision is kind of freaky in a theater full of kids making random noises - where exactly are they and are they about to dump a coke on your head? I also had a welt across my nose for an hour afterwards.

Despite that, those rare moments when you could forget you were wearing the glasses really worked. All hail Weta Digital - the world they created was fascinating to look at without any story at all (which is a good thing) - although it, and the Na'vi., are a bit too reminiscent of World of Warcraft for me (coughdarnassascough).  The storyline was meh  - the female lead character (whose name was, apparently, Neytiri - had to look that up) was just annoying - and Sigourney Weaver was kind of wasted as a tree hugging scientist (she's supposed to be an ass kicking warrior, isn't she?). They could have cut about 45 minutes out and still had the same story.  I'm glad I saw it, if only to imagine what a really well written sci-fi film might look in 3-D. I give it a 7.

And the previews for Alice in Wonderland in 3D were pretty kickass. Maybe next time I'll bring my own glasses.