Dir: James Cameron, 2009
I finally saw Avatar yesterday and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Was the plot predictable? Sure. Was it an implausible as a metaphor for the way colonialism plays out? You bet. Was the voiceover a bit heavy-handed, yet robotic at times? Yeah.
I finally saw Avatar yesterday and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Was the plot predictable? Sure. Was it an implausible as a metaphor for the way colonialism plays out? You bet. Was the voiceover a bit heavy-handed, yet robotic at times? Yeah.
But it was beautiful, action-packed, thrilling and spectacular on a massive scale. And I can't even see in 3-D, so I can only imagine what the majority of the population must experience.
I think the fact that it won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama last night upset a lot of people, who probably thought critic darling Up in the Air would take the award because it's a movie of our times/generation/something... The thing is though, all the realistic, subtle, nuanced, scripty-ness of a movie like Up in the Air, all the Murphy's Law gut-wrenching drama of Precious, all the gratuitous pomposity of Inglourious Basterds doesn't compare to the elaborateness, detail and scale of storytelling in Avatar. While I'm sure other movies have more developed characters, more reality, more grit, better dialogue and performances, Avatar just leaves you awe-struck by filmmaking. It creates a world and that's always hard to beat by films set in the real world, even when that world is tweaked or not our immediate one.
I'm pretty sure Lord of the Rings: Return of the King didn't sweep the Oscars just because it told an amazing story (yes, that was part of it), but more because it told that story so well, so grandly and all-encompassingly, bringing together thousands of details to create a totally different world the audience could just dissolve into. So it is with Avatar (except the story was just OK, not great).
I think the rumored/planned sequels are a bad move, though.
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