Some reviewers dismiss Avatar as a 2 hour and 40 minute visual effects feast with 20 minutes of plot. Other reviewers slam it for having a plot based on exploitation and imperialism.
Okay, Avatar is a long movie. But I was riveted to my seat the entire time, and not merely by the visual effects. You can outline the plot of War and Peace in 20 minutes, and so? There’s more than enough story in Avatar to sustain it from beginning to end.
Exploitation and imperialism? Well sure . . . isn’t that what’s happened all through human history, whenever strong cultures encounter weaker ones? And isn’t this a movie about humans encountering a seemingly weaker alien culture? Of course Avatar is about exploitation and imperialism. And don’t you worry, children . . . the aliens have Eyra (and Sigourney Weaver) on their side!
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and for damn sure Stephen Lang (oo-rah!) play characters who’ll stay with you. The Na’vi, the flora and fauna of Pandora, and Pandora itself are fantastically imagined. Now that I’ve seen Avatar, I know how Depression-era audiences must have felt back in 1939 when Dorothy opened her farmhouse door and stepped into Technicolor Oz. If you’re younger and that reference is too ancient for you, how about this one: once you see Avatar you’ll no longer roll your eyes when old hippies like me tell you how staggeringly awesome Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was when it first opened back in 1968.
I saw Avatar in 3D. I’m sure it’s great in 2D — at the multiplex I went to they were screening the 3D version in one theater and the 2D version in another, and I understand there’s an IMAX 3D version as well, should your town have a theater that supports it — but if you can see Avatar in 3D you really should do so. There’s a problem with 3D, though: you’re forced to look where the cameras are focused. While you can see characters and scenery at different distances and off on the periphery, you can’t shift your focus there as you can in nature. I felt as if a tractor beam were locked onto my eyes and pulling them around, and I fought it. Toward the end of the movie my eyes were sore, and afterward I had a slight headache. That aside, 3D turned this visually stunning movie into a visually spectacular movie, and I’m sure that now James Cameron’s broken the ice, 3D movies will quickly become the industry standard (as a matter of fact, I heard a radio interview with James Cameron where he said he might release a 3D version of Titanic).
Don’t worry about the criticisms I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Go see Avatar with an open mind and let the movie do its job. You’ll be surprised, entertained, and entranced . . . just make sure you visit the restroom before it starts.
I’ll end with two predictions and a gripe:
Prediction one: in the inevitable sequel, it won’t be Jake Sully alone filling his new Na’vi body . . . Grace Augustine will be in there with him.
Prediction two: geeks the world over will start learning Na’vi, and anyone who still studies Klingon might as well put on a zoot suit and start saying things like “hep cat” and “daddy-o.”
My gripe: I bought a ticket for a 10:40 showing and waited until just before then to go in and sit down. At 10:40 the house lights dimmed and they started showing previews. At 11:00 they were still showing previews. Then, finally, a message on the screen to put on our 3D glasses. And then . . . another fucking preview, this one for a 3D kid’s movie. The damn movie didn’t start until 30 minutes after the time it was scheduled to start! No wonder so many people walk in late. I thought at first they were just rude assholes. Now I realize they were experienced multiplex veterans!
Paul, I’m so glad you liked this movie! Larry, Gabriel, and I went to see it in 3D and all three of us were mesmerized from beginning to end. Larry rarely tolerates anything other than “real” actors in anything he watches, I had serious doubts that a six year-old could sit through a two hour 40 minute movie, and I’m not crazy about science fiction. Yet somehow it appealed to all three of us.