Avatar review - part one
I've seen everyone and his brother review Avatar, and I'm not certain there's anyone I've agreed with specifically. For want of anything better to do, and because I need to shake my most recent bout of depression, here's my thoughts. There'll be some plot-stuff, some cinematography, and some science.
General
In one way, Avatar is nothing special. In another, it is the best movie I've ever seen.
Why? The story was repetitive, there were many scenes I would have cut out, and a lot of logical inconsistencies, or things that just made no damn sense. Many of the characters were annoying, or forgettable retreads of characters I've seen a million times before. But I've seen far, far worse. There were incredible bright spots- kickass action, Colonel Miles Quaritch, and Neytiri handing Jake's ass to him right after he spent some forehead-numbing* time fucking up.
Thing is, though, whether it's because I have a totally mismatched sense of values, or I'm just too damn picky, I don't go to movies to get an awesome plot. I go because I want to see something kickass and crazy, and Avatar has that by the EPIC FUCKING MINING TRUCK. I want to see someone take out a helicopter with a car, or get married on a pirate ship in the middle of a storm, or dogfight with a crazy-ass spaceship. I also appreciate characters who kick a retarded amount of ass, and if you want to get to my heart, give me BEASTIES**. This gives me inspiration for art and stories, and generally refreshes my mind. If, on the very narrow chance you manage to make something actually funny or touching (these being EXTREME rarities), you get a set of extra points.
Avatar has bonus points in both parties for making me want to write fanfiction, to explore the whole world. First, it's awesome enough to hold my attention, and second, it's clear hinted that there's more to the story than just what Jake spends his time doing. On the reverse, however, one of the main reasons I want to do this is to fix things that BLOODY ANNOY ME. We also don't see much in the movie that doesn't directly affect Jake.
However, I will note that despite the MESSAGE DO NOT IGNORE!!! I managed to put this in the category of "not all that special" rather than WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO, which is what happened to 9 and the new Alice in Wonderland. What in HELL, 9, you killed my favorite character in the first act, killed the only stitchpunk I actually gave a damn about after that, killed my second-favorite character right after he appeared, and then began slowly eroding away at the other stitchpunk I initially gave a damn about until she was an idiot. YOU MANAGED TO GIVE ME A MOVIE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME AND MADE ME NOT CARE ENOUGH TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR IT. Alice in Wonderland was a plodding morass of dumb, interrupted by occasional interesting things that were then cut off to make room for more Alice being dumb, or some other idiocy. The visuals simply could not make up for that.
* due to facepalming
** depending on the type of beastie, particularly with my favorite ones this may work literally as well
Cinematography, and 3D
Fucking brilliant, no matter what way you slice it. The camera pullback that reveals Neytiri the first time was almost poetic- a quick, subtle change of viewpoints highlighting just how much Jake doesn't know. The camera manages to follow the Thanator attack, and a lot of flying Ikran without either losing the characters in too much background, or sacrificing clarity for cheap "what the cameraman would be going through right now" moments, that "Jake running" scene being the egregious exception.
Also, 3D. I have seen 3D done well, and done like maggoty meat. Avatar is in the FORMER, quite strongly- the 3D generally provides a subtle sense of depth, as though you were viewing Pandora through a window rather than a flat image on a screen. I fucking HATE the maggoty meat ones- where they're like "OMG, IT IS LIKE THE BEASTY IS COMING OUT OF THE SCREEN TOWARD YOU!!!"*, and Avatar had so many chances to do that, yet generally resisted the temptation, the aformentioned running scene, the ACID TRIP LINK scenes and a few times with the Tree of Fiberoptics.
The big thing the cinematography conveys is an epic sense of scale. This applies both to the FUCK THAT'S BIG trees, and the FUCK THAT'S BIG human mining stuff. I'm saddened by the fact that we didn't get to see MOAR EPIC MINING MACHINES, even if that was only to underscore the whole "HUMANS ARE BAD" thing. And the BIGASS SPACESHIPS, and no, Jake, even you can't go step into a wormhole and casually shoot across the universe, these things take time. Less time that they potentially should, but GOOD. The only thing that didn't feel epic were the enormous flying animals- I found it hard to recall that the Ikran's head is about six feet long. They felt much smaller. Toruk, likewise, could have been done with more of a sense of menace and danger, particularly when you underscore the sheerly ENORMOUS size of the beast.
The rendering of the film is also amazing, and is indeed very absorbing. You forget that they couldn't go out into the wild and film an Ikran flying around. The Na'vi, for all my later complaints about them, are reacting to their environment, the animals, and the lighting. There are tiny little details- scars, particularly on Toruk, and all the details in the back of the human lab, the details changing on the logs that Jake submits, the scanners on the link-pods.
I appreciate movies with little details, even if they have larger logical questions. Pirates of the Carribean example- we see people with nasty teeth and bloodshot eyes, but how and where the hell do you use the bathroom on a pirate ship? Most exceptionally, how does Elizabeth do it (particularly when she's pretending to be a boy)? That is a bigger question, but also harder than those little tricks. The little dirty details add some atmosphere, and while so would a pirate toilet, it is rather less convenient, particularly in a movie. In a book, less acceptable- too many descriptions of rotted teeth get annoying, but you can easily include a throwaway line about Captain Sparrow pissing casually off the side of the Black Pearl.
I'm currently feeling abivalent about the musical score. The opening scene is amazing, but I remember being distinctly annoyed with something cliche and overblown in the Thanator scene. I actually do not remember clearly enough what was wrong to articulate it.
* oh, hello again, Alice in Wonderland.
I'm splitting this. Presumably, the length of this ramble actually means the quality is shit, but whatever.
General
In one way, Avatar is nothing special. In another, it is the best movie I've ever seen.
Why? The story was repetitive, there were many scenes I would have cut out, and a lot of logical inconsistencies, or things that just made no damn sense. Many of the characters were annoying, or forgettable retreads of characters I've seen a million times before. But I've seen far, far worse. There were incredible bright spots- kickass action, Colonel Miles Quaritch, and Neytiri handing Jake's ass to him right after he spent some forehead-numbing* time fucking up.
Thing is, though, whether it's because I have a totally mismatched sense of values, or I'm just too damn picky, I don't go to movies to get an awesome plot. I go because I want to see something kickass and crazy, and Avatar has that by the EPIC FUCKING MINING TRUCK. I want to see someone take out a helicopter with a car, or get married on a pirate ship in the middle of a storm, or dogfight with a crazy-ass spaceship. I also appreciate characters who kick a retarded amount of ass, and if you want to get to my heart, give me BEASTIES**. This gives me inspiration for art and stories, and generally refreshes my mind. If, on the very narrow chance you manage to make something actually funny or touching (these being EXTREME rarities), you get a set of extra points.
Avatar has bonus points in both parties for making me want to write fanfiction, to explore the whole world. First, it's awesome enough to hold my attention, and second, it's clear hinted that there's more to the story than just what Jake spends his time doing. On the reverse, however, one of the main reasons I want to do this is to fix things that BLOODY ANNOY ME. We also don't see much in the movie that doesn't directly affect Jake.
However, I will note that despite the MESSAGE DO NOT IGNORE!!! I managed to put this in the category of "not all that special" rather than WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO, which is what happened to 9 and the new Alice in Wonderland. What in HELL, 9, you killed my favorite character in the first act, killed the only stitchpunk I actually gave a damn about after that, killed my second-favorite character right after he appeared, and then began slowly eroding away at the other stitchpunk I initially gave a damn about until she was an idiot. YOU MANAGED TO GIVE ME A MOVIE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME AND MADE ME NOT CARE ENOUGH TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR IT. Alice in Wonderland was a plodding morass of dumb, interrupted by occasional interesting things that were then cut off to make room for more Alice being dumb, or some other idiocy. The visuals simply could not make up for that.
* due to facepalming
** depending on the type of beastie, particularly with my favorite ones this may work literally as well
Cinematography, and 3D
Fucking brilliant, no matter what way you slice it. The camera pullback that reveals Neytiri the first time was almost poetic- a quick, subtle change of viewpoints highlighting just how much Jake doesn't know. The camera manages to follow the Thanator attack, and a lot of flying Ikran without either losing the characters in too much background, or sacrificing clarity for cheap "what the cameraman would be going through right now" moments, that "Jake running" scene being the egregious exception.
Also, 3D. I have seen 3D done well, and done like maggoty meat. Avatar is in the FORMER, quite strongly- the 3D generally provides a subtle sense of depth, as though you were viewing Pandora through a window rather than a flat image on a screen. I fucking HATE the maggoty meat ones- where they're like "OMG, IT IS LIKE THE BEASTY IS COMING OUT OF THE SCREEN TOWARD YOU!!!"*, and Avatar had so many chances to do that, yet generally resisted the temptation, the aformentioned running scene, the ACID TRIP LINK scenes and a few times with the Tree of Fiberoptics.
The big thing the cinematography conveys is an epic sense of scale. This applies both to the FUCK THAT'S BIG trees, and the FUCK THAT'S BIG human mining stuff. I'm saddened by the fact that we didn't get to see MOAR EPIC MINING MACHINES, even if that was only to underscore the whole "HUMANS ARE BAD" thing. And the BIGASS SPACESHIPS, and no, Jake, even you can't go step into a wormhole and casually shoot across the universe, these things take time. Less time that they potentially should, but GOOD. The only thing that didn't feel epic were the enormous flying animals- I found it hard to recall that the Ikran's head is about six feet long. They felt much smaller. Toruk, likewise, could have been done with more of a sense of menace and danger, particularly when you underscore the sheerly ENORMOUS size of the beast.
The rendering of the film is also amazing, and is indeed very absorbing. You forget that they couldn't go out into the wild and film an Ikran flying around. The Na'vi, for all my later complaints about them, are reacting to their environment, the animals, and the lighting. There are tiny little details- scars, particularly on Toruk, and all the details in the back of the human lab, the details changing on the logs that Jake submits, the scanners on the link-pods.
I appreciate movies with little details, even if they have larger logical questions. Pirates of the Carribean example- we see people with nasty teeth and bloodshot eyes, but how and where the hell do you use the bathroom on a pirate ship? Most exceptionally, how does Elizabeth do it (particularly when she's pretending to be a boy)? That is a bigger question, but also harder than those little tricks. The little dirty details add some atmosphere, and while so would a pirate toilet, it is rather less convenient, particularly in a movie. In a book, less acceptable- too many descriptions of rotted teeth get annoying, but you can easily include a throwaway line about Captain Sparrow pissing casually off the side of the Black Pearl.
I'm currently feeling abivalent about the musical score. The opening scene is amazing, but I remember being distinctly annoyed with something cliche and overblown in the Thanator scene. I actually do not remember clearly enough what was wrong to articulate it.
* oh, hello again, Alice in Wonderland.
I'm splitting this. Presumably, the length of this ramble actually means the quality is shit, but whatever.