Avatar

[Matt Pniewski]

Last Review for a bit. I've finally got access to my old film review blog. I'm going to spend time working on updates and trying to get more people interested in readying it.

So, here is my review of Avatar, the movie that almost killed me. See, after I saw it, a few people I knew at that theater asked me what I thought. I didn't have time to put everything together, and I'm not nearly as hard on the film in my review as I was.

I said 'That was terrible.' After which somebody went on a huge rant about how "Your whats wrong with today's society. You can't just enjoy a fun, stupid movie. ******** snobs like you" then another a*****e gives me a lecture on the dangers of American Imperialism and how Corporate America is destroying the world, as if I didn't understand the subtext (which isn't that subtexty. in this film, I just call it 'text').

I was riding my bike home. At three AM after the midnight show. In December. One of those assholes decided to side swipe me, while I was riding along the bridge. Only eight feet off until the ground, but come on- This is a Chicago Winter. I slipped, hit myself on the railing, grabbed on and had I not, I would have tipped over, and at least broken several bones.







Sam Worthington provides a monotonous narration at the beginning, where he essentially tells you everything you are seeing on screen. He also talks with a certain awareness of what is to come, and maybe this narration is actually part of his final video log. It didn't feel like that to me. Then again, you can move any sequence of the movie to any point and it would still be the same. There is actually one case where a monolog is cut within a thought, a scene stuck in the middle, then continues on as our hero is chased onward by a giant bird-like creature.

This is a "Woo" moment for Worthington, as he only has two settings in this movie- apathetic and woo. No matter how much emotion is in the words, he seems to be reading the script from a teleprompter. Sam Worthington is a much better actor than this movie leads you to believe. Sigourney Weaver manages to steal scene after scene, hopefully earning her an Academy Award Nomination. Zoe Saldana, who recently got the in with the nerd crowd (the same target audience in this film) by playing Uhura in Star Trek, also proves she is more than a pretty face by giving a performance that transcends the many layers of animation.

Worthington's Jake Sully is a disabled officer of the U.S. Marines who is put into this "special project" on a distant planet. He is to put himself into the physical body of a Navi, a member of the native race, and try to win their trust. Though he is working with a group of scientists with good intentions, his loyalties remain to the Marines, who want him to force the Navi out of their homes so the Marines can plunder a rare mineral. That mineral is called "Unobtainium." The mineral doesn't matter, which is why they gave it the only possible name more honest and to the point as "McGuffinium". Perhaps the could have called it "Plotdeviciton".

When he gets in, we have ritual after ritual, while he wanders through a mystical glow in the dark forest. There were times when I wondered if I was actually watching a cartoon. Cameron's CG landscapes are convincing by day, cheesey by night. Not once, however, did the Navi seem even one third as real as District 9's "Prawns".

They say this movie is all about it's graphics. While I will say that they fail to deliver, they are great to look at nonetheless. James Cameron would have you believe that the only way to see this movie is in IMAX, in 3D. Save yourself the up charge and appreciate the beauty without distorting it.

After a while, Jake has a change of heart. Or so he says. Truth is, there is nothing in his character that shows he ever had any allegience to the Marines at all, which robs us of a decent, albeit cliched, character arch. The Marines are vague bad guys. So void of personality, with a lack of a clearly defined motive this might as well be about zombies. We have the Corporate interests telling the Marines to get the Unobtainium. The Marines, however, are simpletons who only want to kill. And if the fact that that's essentially all they do isn't enough, they pretty much say it flat out. Because apparently America can't understand things any other way.

Why does the Colonel hate the Navi so much? If you give him a real motive, it doesn't diffuse your satire. It actually helps bring it to a whole new level. I had the same problem with District 9, but at least you saw the slums, you saw the crime, you can actually imagine how somebody can think of them as subhuman at some stretch. Not even General Custer would treat the Native American's with such disdain.

The evil, cliched Colonel, when given scientific evidence that the ecosystem is actually an intelligence, says "It looks like a bunch of trees to me." That dialog should set the tone of something like "Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest". Not a 300 million dollar action epic. Not a film that has been called an Oscar contender even in pre-production.

The movie isn't without it's high points. There were some sequences that were so fantastic they gave me that sense of awe and wonder that I look for in any great epic. But they were too far, too few. It's a real shame when you can't get into a movie until the Third act.


** out of ****  

[xXSuperWhateverXx]

Two things:
1) You should check out this guys analysis of the Navi in Avatar.
It's funny because it's true. Even Yahoo agrees with him (I don't think this is the original video but it's close).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FalEVmLAmys

2) My thoughts on the movie:
I thought that the CG was great and it seemed very life-like. However, the plot is really unoriginal and seemed too much like Pocahontus (sp?). It is also racist as the Navi seemed a lot like Native Americans (to me anyway, but I agree that they are like African-Americans somewhat).  

[T_Megami]

Yes, nicely put.
I'm sorry that assholes tried to push you into a river...
that sort of nonsense is what is wrong with society today.

I was vaguely unimpressed by this movie as well. I thought Dances With Wolves put it at least as well...
I'm an environmentalist and I thought the subtext was as subtle as a freight train. I guess that is what the general public needs to "get it".
I was satisfied that the corporations got drummed out though. Something that never happened in the old west. Something that I fear would never happen in real life. But James Cameron always did have a few too many stars in his eyes. Nice ending though, kinda like Dickens Christmas Carol...
but that took three, count them, three supernatural beings to accomplish.  

[Blue-sky-at-night]

I love your review.
The whole "noble savage" premise is a bit cliched.
It was a pretty movie though.
As far as CG goes, I thought Disney's Alice in Wonderland was a little better. But then again, that was Tim Burton.
I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit the other day. I guess that was the height of CG at the time (when, early 90s?). Technology stuff sure changes fast.  

[Matt Pniewski]

BlueVidder

I love your review.
The whole "noble savage" premise is a bit cliched.
It was a pretty movie though.
As far as CG goes, I thought Disney's Alice in Wonderland was a little better. But then again, that was Tim Burton.
I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit the other day. I guess that was the height of CG at the time (when, early 90s?). Technology stuff sure changes fast.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit didn't use CG. They used traditional Hand Drawn animation. Compare that to something that used computers for the same effect, like the underrated "Looney Toons: Back in Action". Even though its much easier, and you can actually have 3D renderings of 2D characters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit STILL looks better. Probably because they were more concerned about where the Rabbit was going to be, what he was doing, and less involved in "Okay, we'll put that in later...."


I didn't much care for the new Alice in Wonderland, because it's just Tim Burton repeating himself. It's almost as if it was a joke. You know "Haha, this is what Alice and Wonderland would be like if Tim Burton made it." Tim Burton was once known for his visual flair, his German Expressionist-inspired cinematography. Now he's playing to what everyone expects. I can't believe the director of that movie was able to make classics like "Edward Scissorhands" or 'Ed Wood" or even "Sleepy Hollow".

Though the special effects were GREAT. I even noticed a couple instances of dropped frame rates on a couple creatures, which can give computer animation the seamless movements of CG, but just enough distortion to be reminiscent of Stop Motion animation. Guillermo Del Toro did the same thing in "Hellboy" with the Sammael monster being killed in the museum.