I know what you're thinking. Is this post about blogs or internet publishing in general, or is he going to discuss Spiderman 2?

Yep, you got it. I saw the movie this past weekend and was thoroughly entertained. For me, it was a good movie, and would have been worth pull ticket price, even though we had a voucher for a free matinee ticket and paid matinee price for the other. Woo hoo!

Most of the folks I've talked to who saw the movie had nothing but good things to say. The general consensus, unscientifically determined, of course, is that it was better than the first movie. I happen to agree.

So what makes a "good movie" in my opinion? Here's what I look for:

1. Am I entertained?
2. Did I make it through the movie without saying "let's get on with it" to myself more than once?
3. Was I able to maintain my very flexible suspension of disbelief throughout the entire movie?
4. Was I able to completely forget the real world around me and the kid kicking the back of my seat for the entire duration of the film?
5. Was there enough story to keep my intellectually stimulated?
6. Did I care about the characters portrayed in the film?
7. Was I impressed with the cinematography or setup of the film scenes without being drawn out of my moviegoing experience during the film to say "Wow, that was a nice shot"?

The more "yes" answers I have to those questions, the better the movie is in my opinion. Here's my answers to Spiderman 2:

1. Yes. I came away from the film feeling fulfilled.
2. Yes. I can't recall a single time I got "antsy" or felt the pace slowed down inappropriately.
3. Sort of. The whole thing with the malfunctioning webbers drove me a little nuts. Come on - either they work, or they don't. The same thing with the glasses.
4. Overwhelmingly yes! I didn't even feel cold, even though the theater was apparently 60 degrees, based on the shade of blue my wife turned while we were in there.
5. Yes. The plot was much more involved that your typical James Bond film (and I have nothing against James Bond films) but not to the degree of the first "Mission Impossible" movie (which I also thoroughly enjoyed).
6. Yes. I felt this film went deeper into the characters than the first, especially when it would have been so easy to caricature them from the first film.
7. Yes. I distinctly remember thinking at the end of the film, "the CGI was done right - not too long and not too 'in your face.'"

So on the Eriq scale, it was a good movie.

Now, let's take a look at a film that I did not particularly enjoy, although all signs indicated I should have - Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The answers are:

1. No. It wasn't a waste of my time, but all the build-up for that? Come on...
2. Umm, no. In fact, I lost count. I also lost count of the number of times I wanted a tree to fall on Jar-Jar Binks and get the joke over with. Only at the end of the movie did I realize it wasn't a joke.
3. I tried really, really hard. I probably would have fared better if I hadn't kept thinking "That robe color just really doesn't work for Samuel L. Jackson" instead of "that [insert forgotten character name here] must really like the pastels - that tells me something about his inner conflict." Oh, wait. There was no inner conflict in this film.
4. Mostly. I was sitting so close to the screen and the sound was up so loud, the only way I could have been less aware of my surroundings was if I were unconscious.
5. I'll say "yes" here despite my strong gut feeling not to. If I had been able to focus on the film instead of gagging at the next Jar-Jar scene or thinking "man, that Natalie Portman is really hot" I might have had a better chance to understand what the hell was happening.
6. Yes. I really wanted Jar-Jar to die. I cared that he made life a living hell for everyone around him. Who were those people around him, anyway? Besides Natalie, I mean.
7. Mostly. I was very impressed with the visuals George Lucas delivered, but there were several times when I said "wow, that Tattooine really reminds me of Lubbock, Texas."

Needless to say, I did not think that Phantom Menace was a good film. To the point that I haven't seen Clone Wars to date. This from the guy who saw the original Star Wars in the theaters 40 times in 1977, not to mention the Star Wars movie marathons and the re-release of the original films.

This was fun. Maybe I'll do the same for "I, Robot" when I see it this weekend.