Cars 2

[Merusk]

So I'm out of town for a wedding and rather than hang in the hotel last night I took the family to catch Cars 2.  I wasn't expecting much more than a rehash of something like the first story. McQueen being a dick, learning a lesson, winning the race.

Well, it wasn't any of that.  Mater is the star of this one and he works well as a main so long as they let Mater be Mater.  They know who the real attraction for kids is, but had to restrain a lot of that so that the spy portion of the movie didn't totally fall apart.  Actually, the whole spy thing was kind of iffy, imo.  They could have done just the race storyline and worked the movie around McQueen-Mater and it would have worked a lot better.  I was getting kind of bored of the movie around the time they go to Italy, but then they got to London and it all began to pay off. 

If you want to watch it in 3d it'll be worth your money.  We saw it in Imax and I really enjoyed the depth of field it gave.  None of the usual "Oooh shit flying at the camera" crap in the movie at all. Pixar and Disney have been among the best users, but not abusers, of the tech.  We had a preview for Lion King 3d that completely underscored this.  (That's going to be really worth it. The preview was the original Lion King opening trailer but in 3d. It looked fantastic.) 

The opening Pixar short is a Toy Story um.. story.. that was fun but not as memorable as any of the previous Pixar shorts.  They did use all the voices from TS3, though.  Additionally, they gave a teaser for next year's Pixar, a movie about a young Redheaded Celt girl called "Brave."

[Selby]

Mater is the star of this one and he works well as a main so long as they let Mater be Mater.  They know who the real attraction for kids is, but had to restrain a lot of that so that the spy portion of the movie didn't totally fall apart.  Actually, the whole spy thing was kind of iffy, imo.  They could have done just the race storyline and worked the movie around McQueen-Mater and it would have worked a lot better.  I was getting kind of bored of the movie around the time they go to Italy, but then they got to London and it all began to pay off.

This was exactly how I felt.  My son started to fall asleep since he was tired during it and halfway through the movie it really dragged.  I never could stand Mater though, so I was slightly annoyed that he was the focus.  The 3D glasses still give me a headache after more than about 30m of viewing them, so if I could see it in a regular theater I would have enjoyed it better

[SnakeCharmer]

Saw this today.

Definately Pixar's worst effort thus far, IMHO.  The first one, while not my favorite but still in my top 4 of Pixars movies (#4 Cars, #3 Walle E, #2 Up, #1 Toy Story 3), had a certain magic to it that romanticized the automobile and racing in a complete "American-made, Bud Light, Chevrolet" kind of way - it made me want to jump into whatever hot rod or muscle car I had at the time and just drive.  I was looking at my watch wondering when it was going to be over about 45 minutes in to it.  I never was a fan of Mater. and with the movie basically being about him, I guess there was no real way I was going to enjoy it.  It was an ok way to spend an afternoon where the temps outside were near 100F. 

The animation was the usual Pixar awesomeness, but they really don't get points for that any more. 

Everybody makes a stinker every now and then.  I guess it is Pixar's time.