Avatar. Holy crap.

Finally saw it. Here’s my take, for what it;’s worth.

To say that Avatar is like Dances with Wolves is to do a disservice to Xerox machines everywhere.

Yet I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s not like Cameron hasn’t done this sort of thing before. read Crichton’s Congo then watch Aliens. It’s the same thing.

In this case though, I think the decision was absolutely intentional. I’m “fairly” sure the idea was to clothe the Na’vi in familiar themes so that at their heart they were familiar to us, and immediately sympathetic, while they looked goofy and alien. It makes the audience see past the differences.

I thought it was a brilliant piece of film making. And I don’t say this lightly. I thought the trailers were the most god awful cheese-fests ever assembled. Those things damn near killed the movie at birth.

I know this much. I really want to see it again.

On a final note, I particularly enjoyed the floating islands. When I was 12 or 13 (back in the early 1980s) I entered a drawing contest where I drew a bunch of floating islands with a rider on the back of a flying bird type thing, flying past them. I have the sketch somewhere. I should dig it out.

5 Responses to “Avatar. Holy crap.”

1. Kim H. says:

   January 3, 2010 at 1:56 pm

   Like the movie. Glad I saw the movie before I saw the trailers, I probably would not have gone if I had seen them.
2. John says:

   January 13, 2010 at 1:10 am

   Sorry, but I cannot agree; this film was simply awful.

   I walked out after 2 hours; that was more than it deserved. The final straw came when the ‘American’ hero went into his motivational speeches and the ‘inferior savages’ roar in approval – give me a bucket !

   What a total insult to our intelligence.
3. Chris says:

   January 15, 2010 at 11:29 am

   I admit, I really went to see this with a closed mind thinking it would be awful and only wanting to try 3D on a big screen.

   When I came out of the cinema my mind was totally changed. I still don’t think much to James Cameron’s dialogue (a problem most movies seem to have these days). The 3D added a new dimension to the world after the initial ‘show’.

   The film itself I found I found beautifully poetic. I think JC captured the nature of the human beast, you don’t even have to look past Earth to see what we’ve done as a kind – just think of the native American’s (I’d recommend watching Bury my heart at wounded knee).

   Avatar has certainly made me think.

   Chris
4. Colton Gruenewald says:

   April 22, 2010 at 9:25 am

   I love the Avatar 3D movie, particularly the story line, not only it brings a totally new sensation but eye opening thoughts of humanity. I heard the New Avatar 2 is comming soon, cannot wait to watch it again…!
5. Yulanda Mould says:

   June 21, 2010 at 12:24 pm

   Hi, love the Shrek movies, very good movie!