Avatar --- review from Craig the Movie Geek!
Synopsis: A paraplegic marine travels to a distant planet where his consciousness is placed into a body that looks like the indigenous people of that planet. He is sent to infiltrate them so that Earth can get their hands on the planet’s sweet, sweet ore --- but the marine soon finds himself at odds with the genocide that is about to occur.
This movie made a whopping $73 million opening weekend --- the biggest opening of all time for a 3D movie and a darn respectable amount either way. It was directed by James Cameron, who made some really fun movies like The Abyss, Terminator and T2, and Aliens --- but also befouled our theatres with the horrible, banal, fourteen hour snoozefest known as Titanic. (Yeah, I know it won 11 Academy Awards and made billions of dollars --- I don’t care. It was a bad movie and the Academy Awards were spoiled forever by recognizing it over better movies that year).
It’s a decent story, if not ground we’ve covered before with Cameron. With his sometimes good/sometimes bad dialogue, lots of military type characters (he must love writing jarheads), and Sigourney Weaver thrown in for good measure, it feels like a James Cameron movie --- you can decide for yourself if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you think of him. There’s something for everyone here, from action to a love story, so don’t worry too much about the fact that it’s a sci-fi movie.
And the effects? Well, A 3D movie should be stand on its own with or without the effect. Here, Cameron has upped the ante once again. This is 3D like I’ve never seen it before, and in fact, new cameras and technology were developed for Avatar. The effect isn’t perfect all the time, but it’s pretty darn amazing. The 2D commercials for this movie made it look like a bad CGI version of Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest or something. But actually seeing this movie in its intended 3D glory was pretty mind-blowing. Cameron has conceived of this unique, weird, beautiful planet and its inhabitants, and then brought it to near-life with 3D. This must be sort of what it felt like to see the first ‘talkie.’ It is definitely the first time I could really see what the potential for this technology is.
The big difference here is that the 3D in Avatar not only looks very complex and realistic, but it stays away from schlock value. Instead of things jumping out of the screen at you for the sake of the gimmick, the 3D in Avatar creates depth and motion. So, you are looking into a lush, colourful alien forest --- but you’re seeing 100 yards into it. In a few years, we could be inside the movie. In fact, I imagine that if you saw Avatar in an IMAX theatre, you’re curled up and trembling now because your mind has been reduced to wet goo.
All in all --- I’m going with 4 Dorks out of 5 on the Geek-o-Meter. There are better James Cameron movies, story-wise --- but I’d recommend seeing this movie in the theatre for sure, just for the insane 3D technology and the unique and imaginative visuals.
