December 2009
Avatar
I just got home from watching Avatar.
I was expecting the movie to be terrible. James Cameron has been developing this thing for a decade and a half. He wrote and directed it. He made up a fucking language for it. He scrapped production on it a few times. Who the fuck knows how many script drafts he's gone through. And it's budget exceeds that of several small nations combined. All of that sounds like the setup for a Chinese Democracy-style fail pile than a good movie.
The previews confirmed my suspicions. I mean, for fuck's sake, a character in the trailer says "you're not in Kansas anymore." The only thing lamer than being a person who actually says that is being a movie-writer who thinks that having a character actually say that is cool. And no sooner does a character spout off that cliche than Anna-Lucia from Lost says something like "you guys should see the looks on your faces," like that's a witty or original thing to say.
And then there are giant blue cat people. I did not want to be signed up.
Still, there was a lot of hype, and I figured that it would be a fun movie to see on a giant screen. L-Dawg and X-tina were with me on that, so we decided to catch the 3:30 3D IMAX showing. We showed up at 2:30 to find that the 3:30 and 7:00 showings were already sold out. I was already thinking this thing was going to be way more trouble than it would be worth, but we bought tickets for the 10:30 show. Tonight, after waiting in line for about an hour and a half, we got ourselves some prime seats.
The first twenty minutes or so are bad. I can't exactly put my finger on what I hated about it, but it was just extremely perfunctory. It honestly wouldn't have been much worse if they had just had a Star Wars-type scroll or some narration or something. Giovanni Ribisi's first scene--in which he explains to Sigourney Weaver's character why the humans are on the distant planet as if she actually has no idea even though she's been there just as long and seems to know more about the planet than anyone else--is particularly painful. Perhaps more importantly, though, it immediately becomes clear that you're in store for an unbelievably predictable movie: if you've seen Dances with Wolves, then you pretty much know what's going to happen here.
But that doesn't really matter because everything else about this movie is nearly perfect. This is not the first time that someone's told the story of a civilized man who originally fights against the noble savages but then joins their ranks, but it's the best incarnation of that plot outline that I've ever seen. The fact of the matter is that the story is flawlessly executed, and the few original twists here make it just absolutely entertaining. Think of it this way: the fact that you've had a thousand hamburgers in your life doesn't mean that you can't ever enjoy the fuck out of another one. Novelty and enjoyment are not always linked.
The world in which the action takes place is gorgeous. Every scene--every frame--is littered with stunning detail that never detracts from the experience. This is a world where tree seeds float through the air like electric jellyfish and a gas giant fills the night sky. But more than being aesthetically pleasing, the world is almost a character itself. The botanical explanation for this is intriguing, and the whole thing really pays off in the plot. It's just so well done, I think.
The movie is almost three hours long, but it didn't feel bloated at all. There are slower sections and then there are extremely fast-paced portions, but each is done just right and each is present in just the right amounts. In fact, if it were up to me, I might have cut down a little on the action scenes in exchange for more development of the world and the Na'vi culture, but that's a minor quibble. The point is that this thing doesn't feel like a long film, it just feels like it took exactly as long as it needed to tell the story.
Of course, a movie like this depends almost entirely on the credibility of the visual effects. Here, Avatar finds its greatest success. A review that I read suggested that these animated characters were second only to Gollum in terms of life-likeness. I think that's incorrect--these characters are better than anything in Lord of the Rings. It was at times extremely difficult to tell the difference between what was real and what was computer-generated, although I think that the 3D experience helps to blur the line.
And speaking of the whole 3D thing, I think you absolutely have to watch this movie on the biggest screen possible and in 3D. It's the longest movie I've seen that was done entirely in 3D, and the integration of the sometimes-gimmicky effect was flawless. The actions scenes, obviously, benefit from being in three dimensions, but I was shocked at how much it added to the quieter scenes as well. Avatar absolutely sets a new standard for what you can do with this technology.
I think Avatar is worth seeing. In fact, I think it's worth seeing twice--I can't wait to see it again. The story has some definite weaknesses, even in addition to its nonoriginality, but that is just about the only flaw I can find with the movie.
In short, go see it! And on the biggest screen possible!
