Christmas time movies

Got to see a couple of movies in the last few days. Saw I Am Legend last Saturday and then watched Juno on Christmas night. Both were good, Juno flirts with great.

Legend was fun, exciting, another good performance by Will Smith, and had a surprising depth of emotion and thought. It's a relative thing certainly but they wrestle, for at least a few minutes, with some interesting issues. Themes of isolation, community, the morality of killing were cool and I thought they even dealt with the whole "God did this"/"God didn't do this"/"There is no God"/"God is still with us" debate very well. Interesting stuff around the idea of the nature of science and faith and how sacrifice may play a role in both.

Juno was excellent. Funnier than I had thought it would be but incredibly sweet and not really preachy. Ellen Page is really great in her title role and the rest of the cast orbits nicely around her. Michael Cera plays the same guy as most stuff he's in but he does it well. Jennifer Garner even does a nice job as the adoptive mom and though I didn't like seeing Jason Bateman play kind of a jerk, he's good as well. I was especially surprised by the parents of Juno, though shocked and obviously disappointed by the discovery of her pregnancy, they are not portrayed as stupid, out of touch, or mean, rather they are given ample opportunity to portray the love and wisdom they have for her. But ultimately good dialogue, a fun plot, and again Ellen Page's portrayal of Juno make this a very entertaining movie. I would see this again soon (if I could afford it).

Somehow I doubt Alien vs. Predator (Requiem) (should Requiem even be used in conjunction with this kind of movie? sounds too fancy) is going to be as well done but I'm still looking forward to seeing it with a few friends who are nerds like me and loved the Alien series and the Predator series (though I'm not sure I would put them on exactly the same level).