Archive for January, 2010

So, over the weekend my friends and I went out to Rochester to see Avatar in IMAX 3D. Note if you have not seen Avatar this post will contain spoilers. So, yeah.

Anyway, I had heard a lot about it (as was inevitable with a movie of this size being released) and the general consensus was that it was a visually stunning movie, with a story that you’ve seen before but that was pretty good anyway. I entered the theater with fairly low expectations (I’m big on story) and left feeling…conflicted.

Lets get the good stuff out of the way first. Visually, the movie is amazing. The CGI is great to the point of it not feeling like CGI. They’ve found a way to solve the “creepy dead eyes” look that CG creatures have had in the past. The world was cool, the concept of a race of people able to link up with every living thing in the forest/jungle/whatever was interesting. This movie should win awards for Visual FX, hands down. Sound, music, editing, all that it definitely deserves awards.

Where it breaks down, though…is in everything else. First of all, lets get the story out of the way. When people say it’s fairly generic, believe them. You have seen this movie before. It’s a composite of every “white man integrates with native people and gets the girl” movie ever made. You’ve got the evil earth corporation who knows what’s best for everybody, the simple native people in tune with nature, the white man who integrates with their society and finds his true love, the fight to save the planet against the marauding human horde. There’s nothing at all original in here.

Even worse than the generic story is the generic characters. The biggest offender is the tough as nails older military commander guy, spouting such lines as “I want this high and tight people. I wanna be home for supper” and “My job is to keep you alive. I will not succeed.” The second biggest would be the hard-ass chief scientist lady, who becomes outraged with any interference by the military in her operation. Or the female badass soldier who decides beating up on the natives isn’t morally right. The corporate manager who only cares about profits. I could keep going on and on. EVERY single character is a stereotype, with absolutely no character development at all.

The story doesn’t even make sense! Humans take control of genetically engineered native-life form impersonators. The natives seem to know what these things are and yet in a span of 3 months they teach this one guy their ways and he becomes like a totally native guy. 3 months? That’s it?? Knowing that he’s a human somewhere controlling an empty body??? And then the humans come to take over, they throw this guy out of their society, but he instantly regains their trust by capturing a gigantic bird thing. No questions asked. He just shows up again and instantly becomes the battle commander. His presence, apparently , suddenly means that the native’s bows and arrows can now shoot through the glass cockpit canopies of the human military ships (even though they couldn’t at an earlier point in the movie). Just..arhhghh!

Also: Unobtanium. Seriously? You couldn’t think of a better name???

I think I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more if it weren’t for two things: First, all of the people out there saying it’s the best movie ever!! I don’t really understand that viewpoint at all. It’s pretty, but it’s relatively empty. Second, it tried to pretend that it WASN’T empty. If this was billed in the same way as, say…Independence Day was…popcorn movie, lots of action and explosions, fun ride for the whole family sort of thing, I’d be less critical of it. Instead it tried so very hard to portray itself as a serious movie, an idea that is totally undermined by the comical character stereotypes.

I don’t regret seeing it at all. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really enjoy it either.