Sunday, January 3, 2010

2010 So Far

I've been sick, so that's sort of sucked. Mr. Ashley has been off of work, so being sick wasn't as miserable as it could have been and I did have that stack of library books, so I pretty much just stayed snuggled up in bed and read for two days straight.

On New Year's Day, I read "Don't Sleep, there are Snakes" and then on Saturday I read "Little Bee". They were both good, but the first got a little too technical on linguistics towards the end and required some skimming, and the second one got a little too much like chick-lit at times and I hated one of the protagonists (Sarah--too shallow/skanky for likability). Little Bee had the potential to be an amazing story, but lacked some depth in areas. I ended up feeling slightly disappointed by the whole thing.

On New Year's Eve, we took the kids to see Avatar. We wanted to see a matinee and it was this or Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. I dislike sci-fi and am sick of hearing about how James Cameron farts rainbows, so I was reluctant to see Avatar. I was also hesitant because of the PG-13 rating. A little Google-fu revealed that the rating was due to some violence, a smoking character and mild cursing, and I saw that tons of parents had taken their kids and thought it was fine. I also remembered the Avatar Happy Meal toys that were out recently and decided it was obviously a movie intended for kids. Mostly, I had a headache and did not want to hear Alvin and his cronies squeal for 2 hours and therefore my ability to judge appropriateness was probably impaired.

Although it was an amazing, beautiful, incredible, visually stunning, emotionally intense film that I think everyone should see...I think some people should probably wait until they're a little older because it was VERY violent and really scary at a few parts. My kids did well, but if I had known exactly what was up I would have waited until they were several years older. Big Kid kept putting my hand over his eyes and then putting the 3-D glasses over my hand, so he could peek out to assess whether it was safe to return to full viewing. little kid fell asleep, possibly from sensory overload, and then sobbed to find out he had missed the big robot vs. aliens fight.

"I fink it's good you missed it, little kid," his brother told him. "There were these huge robots chasin' and killin' people and planes blowin' stuff up, tons of fire and 'splosions, super loud..."

"I can't bewieve I missed it!" little kid wailed, "Will we buy da DVD, mumum? Pwease? I wanna see wobots killin' awiens and stuffs too!!"

No one seems permanently damaged and I haven't witnessed any plots to blow up innocent groups of people or light stuff on fire as a result of viewing said age-inappropriate movie, and they both really loved what they did see of it (as did Mr. Ashley and I), so I guess it all worked out. But I'm admitting there were a few "OMGWTF was I thinking bringing my kids to this"-type moments. Amazing, fantastic movie though.

While we were walking into the theater, the kids already had their 3-D glasses on. The previews were the "Turn off your cell phone" type messages as we started walking up the steps toward our seats. The boys were walking ahead of me and the new Alice in Wonderland preview came on. Big Kid turned to me to ask where our seats were and screamed AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS at the 3-D cheshire cat that appeared to be lurking right behind him. I LMFAO but people around us weren't amused (and I don't see why not, because it was funny as hell).

The kids don't start school again until Tuesday, so my holiday feels slightly extended. This is good because I'm still not *quite* ready for 2010. Soon though.

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

OMG, I'm just laughing at the thought of him screaming at the cat. And I totallydon't blame him. I've heard that move looks pretty wicked.

Renee said...

Do we have a Life Plan for 2010? I'm all over the place right now with Wii Fit and the treadmill and a list of about 20 Superfoods I'm trying to incorporate into our diets and a plan for keeping paper clutter down and a house cleaning goal and all sorts of other crap, but there is no cohesive PLAN with fancy props (like notebooks) or fun names for categories and whatnot. Do you have anything good for us?

LivingLifeBackwards said...

It's an awesome movie... and totally think that cat was freaky too. That movie looks way fucking crazy.

MrsBlueberry said...

OMG how about the whole sex scene under the tree of souls bit...My husband and I saw that movie last week and there was a set of grandparents next to us with their 8 or 9 year old grand-daughter and I was really feeling for them during that whole scene. Not to mention the bomb crazy militants!

Unknown said...

Nothing like a little grinning Cheshire Cat to frighten the bejeesus of of a kid walking into the theater. Especially 3D. Cool.

Sasha said...

You know, the Chipmunks wasn't all that bad. Except that we had 6 four year olds with us and WC kept asking me questions REALLY LOUDLY. Her social etiquette hasn't kicked in yet.