Avatar

I really had no intention of seeing the most expensive film of all time. For months, the world was saturated by the buzz, constantly in the ear, more annoying than sharing a tent with a rouge mosquito. I remembered this same kind of buzz for James Cameron's Titanic, another big-budget, special effects extravaganza that became the highest grossing film of that time. And of course, I did see Titanic at the cinema.

I had decided to boycott the quarter-million epic on mere principal sometime after I saw the trailer for the 900th time. This was especially amazing considering I don't even have television at home. Then the film came out. The reviews were as I expected, lukewarm. They hailed the effects, panned the film. I further felt justified in my boycott. Then, people started watching it. The talk, oh lord the talk. So many people were saying such great things. This further fueled my anti-Avatar fire. This was until the right person talked, my friend Brant. His tastes in film are pretty reliable. If he recommends a film, I watch it.

After he hailed it as an amazing experience, I reached the inevitable point that I had to see the film. My decision to watch the film had less to do with wanting to see it than not wanting to miss it. I mean, $250,000,000 is a lot of money; it had to go somewhere. Imagine what I'd say to my future children when they ask, "What was it like seeing Avatar when those effects were cutting edge, not just expected?" I'd hate to reply, "honestly children, I'm a crazy, pretentious asshole who overtly avoids anything that the corporate media deems worthwhile. I chose to boycott this film in an effort to advance my internal socialist struggle." Hardly a worthwhile story to tell a child.

On Sunday night, a couple of my friends, Cailin and I went to a late night showing of it at our local imax theater. It wasn't really much of an imax, just a big curved screen, but it must be cooler than a normal movie screen, since the tickets were $5 more expensive. We donned giant silly 3D glasses. The only difference from the red/blue silly 3D glasses of old, is that the colors are less extreme and they are made of plastic instead of cardboard. Hardly the "cutting-edge" I was expecting.

The film was simply put, an amazing experience. The money was well used to create a spectacle of the grandest kind. The alien planet was full of life and stunningly beautiful. The wildlife looked like real animals. The blue people, despite being a work of pure high-definition pixels were exceptionally human like and warm. Never has CGI looked better and more realistic than this. The 3D effects heightened the action of the film and added a depth that further immersed the viewer into the fictional world of the film. Sadly, this was the best aspect of the film.

The story was unoriginal; just combine together Dances with Wolves and Dune and you get Avatar. Every plot idea presented on the screen was rehashed from every other war epic ever done. The script was very non-cheesy, which was nice. The actors did a splendid job with the material that was there. The film lacked much needed depth, especially with the internal conflicts within the characters. They change without looking back, old prejudices die easily on Pandora apparently. This may not be a bad thing however. With the intense sensory overload of the film, more depth of plot may have hurt the film. Plus, when this much money is pumped into a movie, it needs to reach every possible viewer.

The most astounding aspect of the film are the overt socialist themes. The evil capitalist Americans are essentially destroying this alien planet for profit. The only people who stand in their way are the communal wildlife of the planet, who are all linked by a strange force and have literal bonds to each other. No creature is more important than any other. To see such ideas used in a film that was specifically calculated to make insane amounts of money, could potentially be hinting of some larger social movement of which may are not overtly aware.

This film won't win any non-technology related Oscars, but it will be loved by current and future generations for years. Calling it the Star Wars of our generation may not be long shot. I recommend that people get up and see the film immediately, because taken out of the context of the movie screen, it will probably just be a pretty, yet flawed film when viewed upon a television.