Movie Review: Avatar

Avatar.

One word: Great.

Worth the hype? Probably not. It is a spectacle to be sure. Please go see
it. Worth the $8+ dollars. Do not wait for the crappy audio sound system
in the dollar theatre or unreliably think your pseudo home surround system
woofer will be able to handle the sheer volume of sound. Nor will your new
Christmas gift to you, the plasma television, be up to snuff.

Again, great flick.

But outside of ear drum busting booms, composer Horn’s beautiful score and
more CGI than the human eye pupil can absorb, the movie itself is a hodge
podge of Cameron’s other works. And it does not always work.

An awesome piece of cinema.

But, it is as if he took Aliens’ love of bad ass space Marines and
combined it with the sappy romance of Titanic. Let us all thank God,
Celine Dion was not involved and no one will have to put up with what
seemed seven hours of the inevitable boat sinking. Hell, even I wanted
Leonardo’s Jack to die just so he could get away from Kate. Oh, and the
hero of Avatar is named Jake. Come on Jimmy C, can’t ya come up with
something more original?

Check this film out.

Yet, even as the steam trunk romantic endeavor that so charmed us back in
the 90’s, Avatar fails to tug at the heart strings. Hard to really believe
love conquers all with blue skinned aliens. Action-wise it delivers and
then some. Drama and message, well I see it akin to Dances with Wolves,
but more subtle. At least with Avatar there is no guilt from the audience
at the buffalo’s plight.

No need to run, but jog to your local theatre.

I also applaud Cameron for trying to create a new Middle Earth; one for
the new Quarter Lifers and the X-Gen’s kids. There are already guide books
available for the mother’s basement dwelling geeks to learn every aspect
of alien tech, biology and culture. For sure to be a classic and with box
office ticket sales at $1 billion and change, it is already the fourth
highest grossing film of all time. And that is only 17 days into its run.
Titanic was on screen for nearly a year ending in $1.8 billion. Obviously
Mr. Cameron’s magic is still worthy of high praise, a few bucks and your
time. Life altering, no, but well worth the former.