TheWillVega

Came back form Paranormal Activity 2. At first I didn't like it so much but by the end they put enough jump scares and terrifying build up moments to finally prove i'm just a coward. The original scared me and I was thinking to myself for the sequel "i'm gonna get scared but i'll control myself". Nope. I was fidgety the entire time but I was by myself like last time, everyone else had someone to latch on to. And someone brought a baby there too, what were they thinking? Poor thing was crying during the loud jump scare moments.

I think the original was better overall. It had a better cast and better build up. The acting, ironically, was pretty bad sometimes in this one. Considering they had a supposedly more professional cast this time I expected better. Plus the two person dynamic in the original made it more involving. With this bigger cast, you jump from several points of view and don't see them get more and more terrified over time. Most of the time its just jump scares, a couple were actually so stupid they were funny (everyone in the theater laughed). Like you can tell where things were being picked up by strings and whatnot, something the original was more clever to hide. The only time anyone laughed in the original was when that Micka guy, or whatever his name is, cracked a joke.

The ending was good on paper, and expected, but really cheesy on the execution. I mean seriously, look it up sometime. They could've done it MUCH better considering the budget. Also the paranormal scenes were shown with the security monitor system most of the time and they cut to A lot to scenes where NOTHING happens at all. I thought "well, OK, maybe in the end SOMETHING will come out of it" but it never did. At least in this theatrical cut. Hopefully they did film scenes where creepy stuff was happening and restore them/have them in the delete scenes on the DVD release.

Despite my complaints, I had a fun time overall. I got just as scared as I did last time and I think it was worth the money despite what any self proclaimed big balled macho guys say. If you liked the original or this genre, i'd definitely recommend it.

Just came back from it.

If you guys are gonna see it, do not go to the dollar cinema. Unless that dollar cinema has 3D IMAX equipped and ready to go, you'll only get nearly half the experience. The movie itself is good, very good even if you put aside the fact Dances with Wolves did it before (maybe better, I dunno, I haven't seen that movie myself). Its a classic nature vs. technology story. The opening is completely amazing and the ending is jawdropping. And the great thing about it is the special effects are not the star of the show. Nay, they...and get this....actually enhance the story and characters. Get that, eh? That's exactly what I and many other people complain about when it comes to these effects driven movies. And Cameron apparently answered that calling.

There are a couple of moments that are truly amazing, but other than that it's nothing groundbreaking (apart from the technology I guess). Its just a really entertaining movie. The only things that keep me from giving it even a 9 (and it was pretty close) were a few slow moments, some cheesy dialogue, and very derivative almost uninspired looking creature designs. That aside the characters get better as the movie goes along, Cameron is pretty much still the king of the action genre cause a lot of the battle scenes were fantastic, the story gets more involving even if it is predictable (and admittedly, feeling a tad rushed), and in the end it felt satisfying. Yea I paid $13.00 but it was $13.00 well spent. Movies to me are about the experience, not really how unpredictable the story can be or witty the dialogue is, and it succeeded I think.

The 3D, even in IMAX, I have to say is breathtaking. I actually felt like I was in the world. Most other 3D movies I went to felt like a really cheap pop up book. Not here. They made specific objects pop-out and set them up really carefully to actually give a 3D illusion. It helps immerse you into the entire thing, which is why I want to watch it again without all the fancy stuff. But even if that tech wasn't there, I think it would've been a great movie anyway. And I had a pretty bad seat too. I'm thinking of going back in there, sit in the best seat an hour ahead of time (it was filling up 45 minutes prior when I got there), and see it again to get the best possible experience out of it.

8.8/10

PS: As a side note, i'm gonna give my personal top 4 SCI-FI films for 2009:

1. D9 (9.2/10) 2. Star Trek (9/10) 3. Avatar (8.8/10) 4. Moon (7.5/10)

I skipped through it the first time cause it was boring me but after reading into the Alien stuff recently, I decided to give it another chance. Yeah, doesn't surprise me why I skipped on it the first time. The characters are terrible. I don't know why they elaborated on like 4 different sets of characters, they're all stock, one dimensional, and boring. Not one stands out like Segorney Weaver or Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Plus I dunno why they keep trying to do the whole horror suspense thing with these franchises. I think it only worked with the first Predator but even then it was better when the action kicked in. Aliens and Resurrection also worked better as action films and character studies with a FEW characters rather than a whole town. Like I care about a bunch of hicks and abercrombie and finch wearing kids getting gutted and skinned alive. They even managed to make the Predator and Xenomorphs boring. As cheesy as the first movie was, at least I give them credit for keeping a little bit of my interest intact. I don't know why they gave the directing helm to a couple of guys who only did commercials (they ain't no David Fincher). Or worse yet, the screen writing job to a hack.

The main problem is that they thought they were doing the franchise justice by throwing in some gore and naughty words to seemingly justify giving it an R rating without actually putting some quality work into it. Yea the last film was PG-13 but making guts spill a little and say "**** you" a couple of times didn't make this movie any better. The story is so poorly constructed, there's no suspense, there's no excitement, you just want a nuke to fall down and kill everything just so you can see the credits and move on with your life (oh wait, that's what happens). And its barely an hour and 20 minutes, not enough time to tell a compelling story (though thankfully at the same time i'm glad its short).