It only took me a week to post this, but, hey.
We went and saw Avatar on Christmas Eve. I can easily sum this movie up with one word: amazing.
I mean, just...amazing. After 20 minutes, you forget you're in a movie. You are so completely and totally drawn into the world of Pandora, the nearly three hours flies by and leaves you wishing it wasn't over yet.
The visual effects are stunning. This is truly cutting edge film making here. Never has CGI been so flawless and realistic. The movements, the characters...they seemed so incredibly real.
The characters are rich and vibrant, especially the Na'vi. You become fully involved in their lives, you care what happens to them. My sister made the comment after she saw it, that you watch it, and you want for certain things to happen with these characters, and then the movie rewards you by giving it to you. That's largely very true. And yet this unpredictability isn't a bad thing...quite the contrary, it's nice to have a movie that gives you what you wish for, especially when you're so invested in the characters and what they're doing.
There has been much activity and controversy all over the internet about the story. Check out the IMDB.com message boards for Avatar for some of the worst and most amusing. Is the story original? Not so much, no. But neither is it a "metaphor for the Native Americans", or anything like that. Rather, I saw it as a metaphor for ALL tribal cultures overrun by more sophisticated societies and ultimately destroyed. And a warning for the future of mankind: when we finally achieve space travel, we need to NOT travel to far off worlds and rape their lands for metals precious only to us. This variation of a story retold is actually quite compelling and deep, and carries more than one message...the other being, respect your environment.
I will confess though, I saw a strong resemblance to Fern Gully part way through the movie. Not that that's a bad thing...I love Fern Gully!
I really want to see it again. Marcella's already seen it twice, and says it's just as good the second time you see it. I also want to save up for a plasma TV, because my tube TV won't be able to do that movie justice.
I find myself terribly disappointed in reality since seeing Avatar too. My ground doesn't light up when I walk, and I don't have a dragon-like creature to bond with for life. (Yeah, you all KNEW that would appeal to me.) I'm not seven feet tall, and blue, and able to leap through the trees or listen to my ancestors...it's all just so...mundane. Sigh...
Posted by Lysa at December 30, 2009 8:41 PM