So I went to see Avatar last night, in the stunning grandeur that is 3D movie viewing. After buying my ticket, showing up early enough to snag a balcony seat (read: Waaaaaay too early), and donning my dorky glasses, I sat and waited until the lights grew dim and the screen started throwing pretty pictures out of it.First, a word about 3D. If there's anything out there that would still convince me to go see a movie in theaters over DVD, it's this. The extra dimension really does make a difference on a screen that big. However, as visually stunning as it is, there's one big huge glaring flaw that continually bugged me as I watched the film. Occasionally there were shots where a wooden spear or gun or dismembered alien limb or something else long and pointy would look like it was literally jutting out of the screen, ready to make us puny moviegoers cower in fear, when whichever character was holding/wielding/flailing it would move the tip off screen. Instantly, the object was suddenly behind the screen again rather than getting cozy with us inside the theater.The sudden transition was always jarring, and only served to break the immersion that the film had previously held with such captivating visuals.
That said, alien sideboob looks way better in 3D.
Another thing: Whoever decided that the subtitles for the Na'Vi language should be entirely in Papyrus should go commit font snob seppuku for their grievous, terrible crime. Like, now. A movie spends $300 million in special effects, and every time they talk it looks like they hired a fourth grader to make the text look fancy.
It's one step up from Comic Sans, people.
Minor griping aside, this movie is still so damn pretty that you should really see it in theaters if you're going to see it at all. I still plan to see if I can make it to an IMAX showing in 3D, because some of those shots would straight up make you crap your pants on a screen that big. If you like expensive eye-candy, this movie has enough to make your eye-teeth rot. You know, if your eyes had teeth. Because the movie is candy, see? For your eyes?
Yeah, it was a terrible analogy. Sue me.
Moving on to the plot...
Despite being as predictable as the outcome of a boxing match between Evander Holyfield and an autistic puppy with only 3 legs, the plot isn't that bad. The characters fill pretty standard archetypes; the environmentally conscious scientist that everyone ignores, the testosterone fueled General Bullets-for-Brains, the soulless corporate schill ready to level the forest for a quick buck, etc. Still, the characters (and the actors who play them) do a reasonable job of making you care about them, despite the movie straight lifting several concepts that have been done to death (even some of Cameron's own).
One thing stood out for me, though. The dichotomy between the main character's small, paraplegic human body and his nine-foot tall "hey-look-I-can-use-my-legs-and-catch-dragons" body was particularly well done in my opinion. As the movie progresses, Jake (the aforementioned main character) spends more and more time in his Avatar body and begins to neglect things in the "real" world, going so far as forgetting to eat. There's a poignant scene where Jake pulls his immobile legs (which at this point look like they were on loan from Christian Bale in The Machinist) out of the device he uses to connect with his Avatar, and the dejected look on his face conveys everything as he wheels himself along.
I'd read going in that that particular part of the movie resonated strongly with gamers (MMO players in particular), and the parallels there are obvious. Wanting to ditching your mundane self for a proxy version who is prettier, stronger, faster, and more fantastic is a form of escapism that I think everyone can relate to. Cameron wields the metaphor like a blunt stick with the whole "legs/no legs" thing, but in this instance, at least, the movie has a shred of originality.
