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29th March 2010

Avatar amazes

Posted by Margaret on March 29, 2010
posted in Movies |

I never go to the movies, hate animation, and wasn’t interested in a 3-D movie at all; however, I did finally go out to see Avatar. I’m glad I did. The 3-D wasn’t just for over-the-top action and violent special effects, it added so much to the beauty of the planet and the believability of a wholly-created world. I heard that Cameron held off from making this movie until he thought the technology could do it justice, and he was right. (Watching an older sci-fi movie, “Stargate”, recently, the whole concept nearly fell apart with the appearance of a goofy looking alien animal).

Probably at this point, anyone who was going to see the movie already has done so; however, I’m thinking of people like me who might shy away from going because it’s in 3-D. It’s also long – I went in thinking that 2 hours and 40 minutes was going to feel endless. Wrong. It is tightly plotted, and it doesn’t assault you every minute with action sequences so the length wasn’t an issue for me. Sure, it’s somewhat predictable, but it is also a very beautiful and powerful movie in a lot of ways, and it’s not too late. Avatar is still showing in Arlington, Boston and elsewhere around the hub.

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There are currently 3 responses to “Avatar amazes”

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  1. 1 On March 29th, 2010, Flaherty1 said:

    I too enjoyed Avatar much more than I thought I would. Like you, I was worried that it would be a crazy shootem’-up action movie aimed at the teen crowd. And I was leery of the nearly three hour running time and what I guessed was a 3-D gimmick. But I ended up loving the movie.

    But I’m surprised you didn’t mention the most remarkable thing about this movie: it contains the most radical critique of American military and foreign policy that I have ever seen in a mainstream movie. For those of us used to Top Gun, Black Hawk Down, and any number of John Wayne movies, Avatar is absolutely remarkable. I’ve seen movies critical of our military. I’ve seen movies sympathetic to civilians caught up in war. But Avatar is way beyond that. The heroes in this movie attack and defeat US military forces sent to another land to allow American corporations to steal the local resources. And the audience cheered. My mouth dropped open!

  2. 2 On March 29th, 2010, Jackie said:

    After reading Margaret’s post and the above comment, I’m going to make a point to check out the film myself.

  3. 3 On March 29th, 2010, Margaret said:

    Mark’s right – it is an anti-war movie, which I coyly alluded to by referring to is as “powerful.” The horror of the super war machines moving in on the intricately linked ecosystem of the planet Pandora, mowing down everything in sight with ’shock and awe’ tactics made me think, “I’m ashamed to be us”. It felt at that moment, and I think this was Cameron’s message, that we had misdirected all of our talents, opportunities and resources toward destruction.

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