King of another world

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Gee whiz, there can hardly be any question about James Cameron being an asshole, right? I mean, if you have any doubt, just read this. And so logically I would expect film critics, who are, after all, human underneath it all, to look for any chance to rip him a critical new one. So when he has a half-billion-dollar special effects movie, I'm looking for a serious this-is-shitstorm.
I'm certainly not looking for a 30-for-32 score from Top Critics at Rotten Tomatoes. I mean, that says to me that they just can't help loving it. And now I know why.
It's Lord of the Rings, it's every cowboys-and-Indians movie, it's Zululand, it's Vietnam, it's Iraq, it's Star Wars, it's Apocalypse Now--and it's also as original as a sci-fi movie can be in the post-science-fact era. It's feminist, it's ecopolemic, it's anti-imperial, it's the best impulses of John Ford and Francis Coppola and Oliver Stone--Christ, what is it not?
Oh, and did I mention that it's one of the most gorgeous fucking films I've ever seen--or that the alien race Cameron has invented is the most gorgeous alien race ever invented for the pictures? Did I mention that his new 3D technology may or may not reinvent the medium, but his use of it it the most exciting 3D I've ever seen, if only for the tiny details: flying insects in the foreground, e.g.?
A-fucking-mazing.

Invictus

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Unfair to have seen this right after the soulfuck of Avatar, and in retrospect unfair to see it right after reading the book it was based on, John Carlin's Playing the Enemy. We've seen far too many fantastic, unbelievable, inspirational stories in the movies for this to be the proper medium for a fantastic, unbelievable, inspirational story that happens to be true. If you've read the book, you know that there are in fact important elements downplayed in the film, probably because they're just such feel-good clichés--the embrace by the mostly Afrikaner Springboks of the new Xhosa national anthem, e.g., or the symbolic force of Mandela's appearing before the championship game in the green and gold jersey.

Lest I mislead you, this is a fine movie, and the inevitability of Morgan Freeman's playing Mandela is well requited. But this is one story best told on the page. See the movie, but read the book too.

Trailers

• The Book of Eli--Denzel, postapocalypse; that's a pretty good start.
• Kick-Ass--Teenage superhero wannabes.
• Knight & Day--Cruise and Diaz in another one of those action-fish-out-of-water pics (cf. From Paris with Love) must have seemed like a good idea to somebody.
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief--21st-century teen demigods; oh boy.
• Alice in Wonderland--Hadn't seen the 3D trailer before, and I gotta say: seems more magical this way.
• Shrek Forever After--Actually called The Final Chapter or some such in the trailer: definitely promises to be the end of the sage, thank god.
• Extraordinary Measures--Weepy.
• Green Zone--Bourne, but without the amnesia.
• Why Did I Get Married Too--Actually, that's Tyler Perry's WDIGWT; need I say more?
• Edge of Darkness--What do you suppose happens when a widower ex-cop played by Mel Gibson loses his daughter to an assassin's bullet meant for him?