Curiosity Shops and The Cabin In The Woods (SPOILER ALERT!)

The Cabin In The Woods movie poster

    I have finally entered the world of digital arts. I did my very first homework assignment as an invitation to a make-believe curiosity shop. On my postcard, I used Adobe Illustrator to draw apothecary jars full of strange, happy little creatures swimming in colored fluid. After a few weeks of frustration and several You Tube video tutorials, (I have never used Illustrator before), I presented my work to the class. My favorite comment was, "I love how this looks like a little kid did it." Lol
   My very sweet and tactful art instructor said my postcard reminded her a bit of the movie The Cabin In The Woods. I told her I hadn't seen the movie because I'm a big chicken. She assured me it wasn't that scary. My friend Shawnna and my brother both urged me to watch it since it has my all-time favorite actress in it, so I gathered up my courage and some popcorn and I did it. That was quite an entertaining movie! I first recognized Bradley Whitford, who played a major role on television's The West Wing. His character was always a little annoying to me on TV, so I was okay with him being one of the evil businessmen in this movie. Early in the film, I was totally freaked out by the tobacco-spitting Vietnam Vet with a bloody eye at the run-down gas station, but then I was laughing heartily at the scene where they put him on speaker-phone in the control room. Humor and terror in the same film? Nicely done, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. 
   I have one technical comment about the foreshadowing scene where an apparent golden eagle screams and then flies into a force field. That scream is from a red tailed hawk, although the movie industry constantly shows images of eagles making that same noise. (I know this is inaccurate because I share a building with a bunch of fish and wildlife professors.) 
    Chris Hemsworth makes a hunky jock (God I love the Hemsworth brothers!) and I love the "virgin" character Dana (played by Kristen Connolly.) Near the end, when The Director of the whole horror scenario reveals herself (Sigourney Weaver!), Dana starts to protest that she, in fact, is not a virgin. "We work with what we have," explains The Director. 
   The scenes of werewolves, ghosts, monsters, zombies, ghouls, gargantuan bats and snakes, etc. all being held in small glass cages to be released at the will of the controllers was pretty original. It seems many of the monsters were from past movies, but I couldn't be sure about all of them. And that was the link between my curiosity shop postcard and this movie - containers full of all sorts of creatures. Thank you, art teacher, for even loosely associating my work with this fun movie. What a compliment!

   And here is a short clip of an actual red tailed hawk screaming:

Sigourney is back!

Sigourney Weaver - the original Elegant Astronaut   I honestly didn't know Sigourney Weaver was going to be in the new Avatar movie. This is significant to me because the movie Aliens, which was directed by James Cameron in 1986, has been my favorite movie for years. So yesterday, when I watched a cranky Sigourney sit up out of her sleeping pod and ask for her cigarettes, I was ecstatic!

   There were many nods towards the Alien movies in Avatar. Aside from the smart, sexy, no-frills Sigourney herself (playing scientist Grace Augustine), there were also large metal robots operated by a human strapped inside. This type of exo-skeleton was made famous in the 1986 fight scene between Lt. Ripley (Weaver) and the alien queen.
   The tracking devices used by the military on Pandora, where Avatar was set, were also very similar to the hand-held motion detectors used by the marines in Aliens.
   The plot itself had similarities as well. Ripley had to thwart a sabotage attempt from a unethical colleague, Burke, who was attempting to bring back an alien embryo for military purposes. The idea was to secretly implant the embryo in Ripley, bring her back home and cash in the ultimate militant prize: a badass race of creatures who are bigger, faster and stronger than humans. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Ripley figures out what is happening (she would, of course, die during the birthing process of the alien), and she says, "You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them f***ing each other over for a goddamn percentage."

   In Avatar, the humans are merely trying to convince the indigenous race of tall, blue, cat-like people to move away from their beloved "Home Tree" because of the rich stash of minerals right below it. Augustine (Weaver) clashes with the head military guy to try and preserve the rights of these spiritual people. Negotiations fail, the tree is destroyed, and war ensues.
   The bottom line: money is the root of all evil.

   Avatar has some breath-taking scenes. I plan to go see it again, but next time in 3-D.