With all the hype, I’ll keep this one as brief as I can.

I went to this expecting an experience similar to the second Transformers movie. You go to a movie like that in theaters because, even though everybody knows it’s going to be terrible, if you’re going to see giant robots blow each other up (and we all will see that movie eventually), you might as well see it on as large of a screen as possible, so as to be at least a little amazed. That is to say, if the first time you see it is on a small screen, it’s barely even entertaining. How much does a movie like Independence Day lose from a big screen to a small one? It’s loses most of its wonder and astonishment, and for most of these kinds of movies, that’s really all they have going for them.

So I expected my one-sentence review to be “terrible movie, looks pretty”. I will start by commenting on just how pretty it looks. It’s gorgeous. CGI has reached a point where with enough of a budget (this one and King Kong come to mind), you can manufacture reality, or whatever version of reality you like. In addition, the 3-D is a nice touch. I have seen a few things in this new 3-d, and don’t let it fool you as a gimmick. It’s not stuff-jumping-out-of-the-screen 3-D like the days of old. They edit the film (I believe they simply throw different depths into different focal lengths) to give the extra dimension to it. That is, when you look down a hallway, you actually feel like you are looking down it, and not at a 2-D projection of a hallway. It’s nice. I realize just how far the technology has come because I was guilty of TWICE swatting at the air in front of my face to clear dust. It was in the movie.

So now, the story. It’s great. James Cameron blew my mind. He made a gorgeous movie that was excellent. It was well written, well acted, well directed. I haven’t seen Sigourney Weaver act this well in a very long time (Imaginary Heroes was very good, but not really because of her).

This movie, more than almost any other I have seen in a while, is a theatrical must-see.

One-line review: Go see it, and go see it in 3-D.

Consensus: 87/100