REVIEW: Avatar

Finally got a chance to see James Cameron's latest creation. I liked it and actually came away with quite a few observations.

First off, I wasn't all that excited for it until I saw an interview with Avatar's effects supervisor, Robert Legato. (Via Kevin Pollak Chat Show...download from iTunes for free. One of my favorite "shows" these days.)

After hearing how this new effects approach allowed this digital film to maintain the director's "eye," I wanted to see if this movie actually translated differently than a standard CGI project. Turns out...Legato is right. The movie has the feel of a live action film that, to my mind, minimizes the CG aspect and focuses the eyes and mind on other things.

Let's talk about the movie...

STORY
The big complaint that's been circulating the web is that the story isn't complex enough...that the story line is predictable and therefore not engaging enough to compete with the visual component. For what it's worth, the story IS predictable. But since when do multi-billion dollar CGI blockbusters have great story lines? Sure, there are some...but let's be honest...couldn't we say that the majority of every film out of Hollywood is pretty predictable? I'm not sure what folks are looking for with Avatar, but if something costs 500 jillion dollars, it's pretty safe that story is going to take a backseat. And for what it's worth, there were a few surprises...

ACTING
With the exception of Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver (and maybe Michelle Rodriguez,) I thought the acting was top notch. I thought Sam Worthington's role as the lead was especially strong. He did a great job of capturing just how displaced "Jake Sully" truly is when he shows up on Pandora. Gionvanni Ribisi also was great as the project administrator...making him more than just a bad guy.

THEME
There are a few themes working in Avatar, and strangely, the love story/family connection concept gets overshadowed by two heavy-handed thematic lines. There's obviously an "oppression" theme - and while the bad guys here aren't "cowboys," the idea of rooting out natives for financial pursuit is clear. As a fan of Westerns, I love this aspect of the movie. Sure, it's not original, but it's been awhile since we saw a fiction work focused on the upheaval of indigenous people. The other obvious theme is environmentalism. I didn't mind the overall concept, but it was overkill. Cameron obviously didn't think we would get it, I guess, because one monologue in particular might as well have said, "THIS-MOVIE-IS-ABOUT-GLOBABL-WARMING-AND-YOU-SHOULD-FEEL-GUILTY-FOR-THE-DAMAGE-YOU'VE-DONE-TO-MOTHER-EARTH."

MISC.(rapid fire random musings.)

• Yes, the movie is too long. Personally, I thought there was a very obvious place to end the film...but it kept going. And going. Which is sad because even the best movies can suffer because of their length.
  
  
• There's a lot of vlogging in the movie. I kid you not. Every time Jake sits down to do a begrudging "video log," I got a little giggle. Times have changed, y'all.
  
  
• I was grateful that this movie didn't feel "3D." After a few minutes of acclimation, you're really invested in it and the film thankfully doesn't do anything stupid with the technology (Have native hold flower toward camera....flower floats in mid air in front of audience!)
  
  
• I enjoyed the movie, but didn't think it was near as epic as I had been led to believe. Maybe came in with expectations too high?
  
  
• I actually enjoyed how sleeping played a role in the film. I want use any spoilers here, but it was fun to figure out what the avatar was doing every time we saw Jake Sully up and moving around on the base. It was fun to keep that story-track running in my head.
  
  
• Of course, my favorite part of going to the movies is the trailers! On Tuesday, I'll share a few of the trailers I caught and share my thoughts.

Did you see Avatar? Did you like it?