so, I broke my cardinal rule of movie watching; don't ever see, read,
or hear too much about any movie before going to see it. The reason I
go and see movies relatively early in their launch is not because I
love standing in line or the crowded theater effect, but it allows me
to make my own impression of the movie before too many people have
talked about it. I read a Wired magazine article about how it was
Cameron's pet project and all the technology that went into the
production of the movie. So, I was interested in how groundbreaking
this movie would not actually be.
I wasn't able to see the movie in IMAX, but I did see it in 3-D. To be
perfectly honest, I am not a fan of 3-D. I've seen Beowulf, Up!, and A
Christmas Carol in 3-D. The graphics are extra crisp in these movies,
but I end up expecting to duck objects coming out of the screen and
eventually leave disappointed. Avatar is a little different. No, I
wasn't ducking objects that appeared to come out of the screen, but my
tendency is to take the 3-D glasses off several (many) times during
the movie and see what's going on. I didn't do that in Avatar. Either
the 3-D is superior or I was so engrossed in the story, that I didn't
take the glasses off for compare & contrast.
Avatar is a beautiful movie. Every character, spacecraft, animal or
plant is convincing. I remember watching Lord of the Rings and seeing
Gollum/Smeagol as the most impressive digital character ever made, at
the time. But it was from that viewpoint, you knew that what you were
seeing was not real. I've read some of the reviews for Avatar that
have come out, and critics are busy with taking on the tree-hugger,
racist or anti-war themes in the movie. I think that it's a testament
to how impressive the visuals are in Avatar, the digital world created
is completely believable to the point of being taken for granted. The
real magic of Avatar is that it is so convincing, that you have to
pick apart anything but the visuals.
Am I biased? Absolutely. I love several of James Cameron's movies.
(Note: I have never seen Titanic, and have no real desire to ever see
it) The Terminator and Aliens are two of my personal all-time
favorites. But the downside to seeing Aliens so many times is that I
can clearly see some of the same design elements in the spaceships for
Avatar, as well as hear a similar music in the suspenseful scenes of
Avatar.
I strongly recommend Avatar. Note: I don't go to movies for a life
changing story or scientific accuracy. I go to see visual storytelling
and to enjoy a few hours of putting my mind somewhere else; simply to
be entertained. I like a lot of movies. I think that is from a
tendency to take a movie for what it is. A comedy should be funny, a
summer blockbuster should have little plot and lots of explosions,
etc. Avatar takes you to another world and it does it very, very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment