Attack of the Giant Blue People!!

If you haven't guessed already, then I will inform you that I went and saw Avatar this evening. To begin with, if I were to give this movie a rating from 1-10, I would have to give it a 7. And it's lucky to get that 7. The effects make the movie. There is no way that that movie is made without the technology. My guess is that there had to be 85-90% effects. Even most of the interior scenes on the base were filled out digitally. That's not to say that it's a bad thing. Look at the Star Wars Prequel movies for instance. Those movies were made on a computer and they still turned out alright, despite what most cynical critics might tell you.

Now, to the movie at hand...

I've read and heard many different opinions about this movie. How it is a "digital retelling" of Dances With Wolves. Or how it's like Romeo and Juliet. Heck, one opinion that I haven't heard to date is that it is a futuristic retelling of the cutting down of the rainforests.

Let's see...one "people" or "government" finding a precious "resource" where and indiginous people are living and that original "people" deciding that what they want is much more important than the indiginous people. Hmmm, I guess that also sounds like what happened to the Native American tribes back in the olden days.

Now, I'm not trying to start anything political here. I'm just offering up some observations.

Yes, the movie is similar to Dances With Wolves and for those of you that haven't seen it, that's a shame, because it is a great movie. Avatar is a good movie (notice what I did there?). The problem with Avatar is that it is too long. It spends countless minutes on exposition and narration that could be covered in simpler montages. It's obvious that Jake is going to fall in love and change his ways and lead the Na'vi against the "aliens". That's fine. But it could have been done a lot quicker.

Even Dances With Wolves got out of hand in the time category, running over two and a half hours, but the story held its own. Avatar doesn't really do that. There are parts in there that could have been removed and still kept the story moving toward its eventual climax. An ending, I might add, that was predictable. However, just because I think the ending was obvious, again does not mean that I did not like the movie.

All in all, it was a good film (I did it again), but I don't think that it is worth the hype. If you are merely talking about the effects, than yes, it is definitely worth the hype and more. The effects wizards at WETA Digital, ILM, Stan Winston Studios and the rest of the companies that created that world are geniuses and I recognize that. However, James Cameron could have used a little more assistance on the actual story.

Like I said, 7 out of 10. Not bad for his first movie since Titanic, but I think that it is what it is - a popcorn movie. Made solely to escape to a world of giant blue creatures that have an immense bond with their living world. If only people here on this world thought of that before deforestation.

No more politics for me. I enjoyed the movie, but not as much as I had hoped for. At least James Cameron can say that he created the two top grossing films of all time.