Jumping Spiderwicks

Do you remember those good old days at the beach when you could go to the movies for a double feature and super sized pop-corn ( you know, before some smart ass told us how many carbs those exploded corn puffs had), and enjoy a "slightly" passé movie for not much money? Well this last weekend I went down memory lane and repeated those adventures of yesteryear, well.... without the carb-corns, the movies were just released and the price was not a deal (we did see one of the flix in IMAX). This whole incident got me thinking of the whole movie going experience per se and how it has changed during my lifetime. Besides the fact the movies and movie theatres have changed dramatically, I think this only accounts for about half of the experience. We, as spectators, also change during time... we are less impressionable and more cynical. I can remember that just hearing the overwhelming pre-Dolby-surround-digital-7.2 analog sound made my skin crawl; colors and surreal worlds made me quiver. I was happy with just a consistent plot and likeable characters. People would sit down without excited and not talk or eat loud from credits to credits. I personally believe that there is some sort of "been there- seen that" attitude.

After you have seen Trinity leap in the air and “slow time" the first time you will never see again a unanimous crowd spontaneously dropping their jaws in awe and vocally expressing their wonderment. For me that was the epitome of my love for movies. I always go back reminiscing that moment expecting the same. Movies are getting less ambitious and fluffier. As long as you have an A-list actor/tress it is ok for a movie to be full of loop holes and devoid of depth (I am Legend..HELLO).

We saw Jumpers and Spiderwick (IMAX) on Saturday and the best thing from that experience was the ice cream sandwich that I sinfully ate. Jumpers was such a big disappointment- you know those movies that are good if they had just showed what appeared in the trailer. It was a sci-fi chick flick, don’t get me wrong I love those two genres, but rarely do they work when they mix them up. Slow beginning, took forever to develop the characters and once you saw the cool "jumping" effect it got old pretty quick. God bless Hayden but he is the new Keanu Reeves, cute but with a monotone and flat acting skills.... I am sure he would be awesome in a prequel to The Matrix but that would be it.

Spiderwick was sort of better, or maybe it just looked better compared to the previous bland experience. It was Narniaesque and the special effect where interesting enough. Acting was not amazing but cute. If I had to choose between both I would recommend Spiderwick but don't bother in paying for the IMAX experience.

Now back to my regular poll watching and political blog lurking.