Avatar deserves the hype, even in 2-D
It seemed like everyone in the world had seen the movie
”
Avatar
”
except my son and I, so of course I had to drag him to it a few
days ago.
In the not-so-distant past, he would have been dragging me to
see it, but for some mysterious reason he has decided it’s cooler
not to be enthusiastic about whatever the rest of the world is
interested in.
Avatar deserves the hype, even in 2-D
It seemed like everyone in the world had seen the movie “Avatar” except my son and I, so of course I had to drag him to it a few days ago.
In the not-so-distant past, he would have been dragging me to see it, but for some mysterious reason he has decided it’s cooler not to be enthusiastic about whatever the rest of the world is interested in.
In any case, I became curious about the movie because so many people had so many different opinions about it.
I think that’s when I get really intrigued with a movie – if it’s universally regarded as bad, I don’t want to waste my time on it, but if it’s universally regarded as good, I still don’t get fired up. I put it on my “Great Movies to See Someday” list and might, or might not, get around to seeing it.
But when some people love a movie and others say it’s only so-so…that’s when I get motivated to see it for myself, to understand what all the fuss is about.
And of course I’d heard about all the comparisons to other movies, and the controversies, and the awards and the hype. And the fact that it’s made $2 billion since its release has to count for something. So off we went.
You know what? Now I know why it’s the biggest movie of all time, and why it got nine Oscar nominations this week.
I was prepared to be a skeptic, but I have to say that “Avatar” quite swept me away.
It does seem like the plot is assembled from an assortment of previous well-known movies – think “Dances With Wolves” meets “Ferngully,” with a pinch of “The Lost World” and the Smurfs thrown in – and although some of the story is so familiar, it is given a fresh spin. It’s definitely a lesson about saving the environment, especially from those who would lay waste to it to plunder natural resources.
But the thing that took my breath away is the world of Pandora – a world which only exists in the mind of James Cameron, but seems incredibly real. About two-thirds of the movie takes place in the computer-generated landscapes of this mythical planet. Yet after about 10 minutes, I completely forgot that it was a made-up place.
Of course, you have probably read something about the amazing technology that director/writer Cameron helped develop to make his vision come true. I won’t bore you with any of that, other than to say whatever it was he came up with, it absolutely works. Pandora seems to have breadth and depth, a remarkable reality and gravitas, that rarely is felt in sci-fi movies.
It’s also a film that officially has ushered in the era of 3-D. I saw it the old-fashioned way, which was fine, because I think I would have suffered from motion sickness seeing that much action in an extra dimension. However, I’d love to be able to see certain spectacular scenes in 3-D, like swooping through the floating mountains. Just not the whole two-and-a-half-hour movie.
“Avatar” is quite a movie, and I’m happy to say I’m a convert. Is it Oscar-worthy? That’s a good question. It undoubtedly will win some Oscars; hard to say about Best Picture, but it could happen this year, because I don’t think the competition is all that strong.
And my son’s assessment?
“It was all right.”
Well, coming from a teenager who doesn’t usually get excited about too much, that’s high praise indeed.
