Avatar
First, I'd put in a spoiler warning, except that it's virtually impossible to spoil this film. If you've seen the trailer, you know what happens in the film. If you haven't, you'll figure it out in the first 15 minutes. 30 tops.
So you may have heard about the revolutionary visual effects in this film. This time around, the hype is true: this is the most incredible-looking film I've ever seen. The realism and attention to detail are astounding. The world of Pandora is probably the most stunning and most fully realized sci-fi/fantasy world I've ever seen on film. The human actors interact seamlessly with the cgi surroundings and aliens, and the aliens themselves look incredibly realistic, without any of the uncanny valley effect. And the 3-D actually enhances the movie, rather than just coming off as a gimmick. At times, this movie felt more like a National Georgraphic documentary than a sci-fi film, with the cameras showing you one breathtaking sight after another: lush rainforests with gargantuan trees and phosphorescent moss that lights up when stepped on, floating mountains with waterfalls trailing off the sides, tiny luminescent creatures that hover like helicopters, and the alien Na'vi soaring through the skies on the backs of dragon-like mounts. You can really see how much love and attention was given to every detail.
Now, as for the movie itself, it runs a little too long for my tastes, the story is completely predictable, and the characters don't have a lot of depth. Also, the super-rare element that the humans are after is called unobtainium. No, really. That said, the movie does at least have a story and does have characters who behave more or less like you'd expect people to behave, which is what sets this movie apart from crap like G.I. Joe or The Transformers. It's not enough to be big and loud and noisy and full of special effects. There has to be some substance beneath it, and Avatar has that, even if it's not a lot.
Also, this movie is more left-wing than a Michael Moore film. It's anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-military, anti-war on terror, pro-enviornment. The white men humans - who all speak with American accents - are mostly greedy, thoughtless, and violent, while the Indians Na'vi are noble savages who are perfectly in tune with, and respectful of, their enviornment, and everyone and everything on the planet is united with the earth mother in a giant hippie tree-hugging, circle of life-fest. It actually reminded me a bit of 300 in that both films contain simplistic, heavy-handed poltical allegories and both take themselves way to seriously. Or, as mamcdowell put it, "Avatar is to politics what The Matrix is to philosophy." It didn't really bother me though, partly because my own politics tend to lean that way, but mainly because I came to see the pretty pictures. And on that score, Avatar does not disappoint.
Oh, there was one thing that happened that did pleasantly suprise me a little bit. Since this is a spoiler, I'll hide it behind a cut.
It's the climax of the movie, and the villain, in a sort of robotic vehicle (or, for you geeks, a small battlemech) is facing off against main female character, Neytiri, who is riding a big alien creature. The villain kills the creature, and in the process Neytiri gets her leg stuck beneath it, and is trapped. Then Jake, the protagonist, shows up to battle the villain. At this point I thought that, like in so many other movies, Neytiri would remain helpless throughout the fight, leaving the hero to save her. Instead, the villain wins, and is about to kill Jake, when Neytiri gets free and kills the villain, and then manages to save Jake - that is, the human Jake, not the avatar Jake - from suffocating in the unbreathable Pandora atmosphere. While I can't say I didn't see this coming at all, it was still a nice subversion of a shopworn trope.
So you may have heard about the revolutionary visual effects in this film. This time around, the hype is true: this is the most incredible-looking film I've ever seen. The realism and attention to detail are astounding. The world of Pandora is probably the most stunning and most fully realized sci-fi/fantasy world I've ever seen on film. The human actors interact seamlessly with the cgi surroundings and aliens, and the aliens themselves look incredibly realistic, without any of the uncanny valley effect. And the 3-D actually enhances the movie, rather than just coming off as a gimmick. At times, this movie felt more like a National Georgraphic documentary than a sci-fi film, with the cameras showing you one breathtaking sight after another: lush rainforests with gargantuan trees and phosphorescent moss that lights up when stepped on, floating mountains with waterfalls trailing off the sides, tiny luminescent creatures that hover like helicopters, and the alien Na'vi soaring through the skies on the backs of dragon-like mounts. You can really see how much love and attention was given to every detail.
Now, as for the movie itself, it runs a little too long for my tastes, the story is completely predictable, and the characters don't have a lot of depth. Also, the super-rare element that the humans are after is called unobtainium. No, really. That said, the movie does at least have a story and does have characters who behave more or less like you'd expect people to behave, which is what sets this movie apart from crap like G.I. Joe or The Transformers. It's not enough to be big and loud and noisy and full of special effects. There has to be some substance beneath it, and Avatar has that, even if it's not a lot.
Also, this movie is more left-wing than a Michael Moore film. It's anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-military, anti-war on terror, pro-enviornment. The white men humans - who all speak with American accents - are mostly greedy, thoughtless, and violent, while the Indians Na'vi are noble savages who are perfectly in tune with, and respectful of, their enviornment, and everyone and everything on the planet is united with the earth mother in a giant hippie tree-hugging, circle of life-fest. It actually reminded me a bit of 300 in that both films contain simplistic, heavy-handed poltical allegories and both take themselves way to seriously. Or, as mamcdowell put it, "Avatar is to politics what The Matrix is to philosophy." It didn't really bother me though, partly because my own politics tend to lean that way, but mainly because I came to see the pretty pictures. And on that score, Avatar does not disappoint.
Oh, there was one thing that happened that did pleasantly suprise me a little bit. Since this is a spoiler, I'll hide it behind a cut.
It's the climax of the movie, and the villain, in a sort of robotic vehicle (or, for you geeks, a small battlemech) is facing off against main female character, Neytiri, who is riding a big alien creature. The villain kills the creature, and in the process Neytiri gets her leg stuck beneath it, and is trapped. Then Jake, the protagonist, shows up to battle the villain. At this point I thought that, like in so many other movies, Neytiri would remain helpless throughout the fight, leaving the hero to save her. Instead, the villain wins, and is about to kill Jake, when Neytiri gets free and kills the villain, and then manages to save Jake - that is, the human Jake, not the avatar Jake - from suffocating in the unbreathable Pandora atmosphere. While I can't say I didn't see this coming at all, it was still a nice subversion of a shopworn trope.