Went out with Stacy, Zack and Kathy tonight. We went out to see James Bond: Die Another Day. There are some spoilers ahead so don't read anymore if you don't want to hear about the movie. It was ok, nothing special, though it could have been. I liked the tone and the changes they intergrated into the film. I thought the fact that James Bond got captured and was tortured in the opening credit sequence was really cool. I thought his strained relationship with the very people he worked for was all very good. But I think this movie really failed by giving into the formulas of high octane action. I wanted to see James more vulnerable and more affected by what happened to him. Brosnan was hitting the surface of all that when the script swept that away from under his feet with endless action sequences. I honestly feel that effects are slowly dooming movies. I am all for effect but I think it is very insulting to me to simply give me effects with no substance or reason behind them. Effects are not enough for me I want a good story that I really can attach to. It doesn't matter that a story I have never heard is told but simply that I am able to connect or be made to think. I also look at the manner of planting hints of the outcome of the events and I find that there is so much projection that there is almost no way to be surprised and that is what the movie rides on. It's supposed to be a good one ride pony, but is far from that. Instead I saw some real potential that was wasted after numerous and what I found exhausting action sequence. Sometimes I look at CGI as being similiar, to the discovery of the meaning of life. Once you possess the knowledge the taste is not so sweet. CGI makes things so easy and seems so fake. Movies seemed to color life so much better and kept things more real, more mortal. But no longer is that the case.

Going out with my old friends it felt as if I was with many ghosts. My friends all seem like ghosts. THey are not the same pivitol roles they once were. They are things I maintain but I sometimes wonder if it is all worth it. Have I moved forward and on, away from them?