User Blog:
Rage rage against the dying of the light

Avatar, X-Factor and Doctor Who.

At Christmas I often find myself depressed. Maybe it’s the awful weather and the fact that my heating is so bad it only has two options: arctic weather or surface of the sun. Or, maybe it’s the fact that I have entirely too little money to buy people presents but feel compelled to anyway else I’ll be forced to feel so guilty I’ll beat myself to death with a stale Stollen. Or, too many minced pies, too much booze, nasty hangover, fat belly and all the clearing up after relatives I didn’t want to have in my house anyway. Or, those bloody smiley children’s faces that you just want to stab with the blunt end of a candy cane. Something like that.

Thankfully this week has thrown up some genuine joy to fill the cracks in the pretend cheeriness that grips my otherwise misanthropic stare.

The first one was the look on Simon Cowell’s weary face, the sort of glazed look you might get from a retarded walrus shunned by its pack. This was of course his discovery of the Facebook campaign to have Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name as UK Christmas #1. Frankly I’m so indifferent to the charts all year around that I could care less what’s number 1 for a week in December, but ‘twas fun all the same.

Even though it’s a hollow victory – an unprecedented NME interview with the dark lord himself shows how indifferent he is to the charts – it was a brilliant experience to turn the TV on and see a 15-year old video of one of my favourite tracks. And the image of a crying metro-sexual teenager throwing darts at a RATM poster is one that I will treasure. Let’s be fair – actually let’s not – any male who thinks it’s acceptable to sing a Miley Cyrus track deserves to be treated with the utmost contempt. Or at least be jeered by over a hundred thousand people on Facebook. Or cuddled by his mum. Bless.

The next lovely warming Christmas feeling was from the riveting Avatar. Unlike Avatar: The Game (which I reviewed last week), the movie was just as good as I imagined. It was worth the pain in my eyes to experience a film that actually delivers on its extraordinary 3D claims. There were times in the film where I was torn between a giggling exultation and real emotion. It just wouldn’t have had the same effect in plain old 2D. For example, there’s one scene where Jake and Neytiri share a moment at the tree of souls and the little seedling-things pop out and glide around as the camera pans through the glowing ‘vines.’ Beautiful. I wanted to grab them and brush them out of the way so I could see the lovers.