I tried really hard to hate Avatar. All it’s pre-release hype, the interview arrogance, the huge calls about “the future of cinema” that were made – it really rubbed me up the wrong way.
The worst part is that they can back it all up: this film rocks.
I’m not saying the story, the characters, or the sentimentality of the film ruled my world, Bactrim Online but as a cinema experience, it is truly hard to beat.
There are only a few times I can remember medications without a prescription feeling something similar to how I felt sitting there in the dark at an advance screening last night :
- When I was 7 years old watching Return of the Jedi on the big screen during that last 30 minutes of battle scene.
- The first time I saw Jurassic Park, especially that scene where Sam Neill grabs his levitra professional girlfriends head and points her over at a dino for the first time and everyone goes “…ooooOOoooohhh…”
- During my initial viewing of Terminator 2 and seeing all that liquid metal.
- Wondering how the hell they did Gollum in The Two Towers.
Avatar is one of those films, those ones that micronase people will be comparing stuff to for years to come, that we’ll all look back at in 20 years and say “damn… the effects still look good even by today’s standard…” and that every studio and advertising agency will be wanting to copy over and over and over again (despite not having $400 mil to do so with).
I’m not a big fan of stereo, but seeing Avatar in 3D is a must.
Sure, my eyes were pretty tired from about half way through the mammoth 2.5hr film, but not tired enough that I was getting sick of wearing the stupid glasses. And let’s get real here – I’ve been a “3d Hater” for quite some time, thinking of it as nothing more than an overused online viagra marketing gimmick that I really hope just goes away. While those feelings still hold true for me, post-Avatar, I can safely say I’ve reformed the opinion somewhat, as Avatar really delivers something new with the format.
The trouble I’ve always had with stereo films was that there never seemed to be any real artistic reason to use it, and that no-one had really pushed the medium and created a film which uses the 3d aspect as art rather than gimmick.
Avatar does this. The entire alien world constructed for the film, with floating mountains, epic flight scenes, lots of close action in very leafy jungles… they use the camera in such a way as to truly immerse the viewer in the experience rather than throw a bunch of things out of the screen at you. Oh, apart from buy generic viagra online pharmacy online | buy cialis pill | cheap levitra buy one horrible “golf ball rolls at screen” gag at the start, which I’m hoping was tongue-in-cheek for this reviews sake…
The story : “Dances With Wolves, buy levitra online except acted by 1000 giant blue Gollums“.
(… or : alien planet has vast mining resources and a tough native population. The hu mans
use matrix-style virtual control of real live alien bodies to infiltrate the native population. Native infiltrator falls in love with said native population, becomes a member of the tribe, hooks up with a very sexy native. Roowwr. The humans still want their minerals. Battle ensues. Natives win. Infiltrator stays with tribe.)
That pretty much covers it.
There really wasn’t cialis tablets 20mg anything original in the writing – this film is all about the spectacle. I found the human acting really flat and lifeless, lines being delivered like they were sitting inside a green sound-stage, and with a really naff spiritual sentimental twist right toward the end which instantly bugged me more than 1000 Jar-Jars. Plus this bizarre and strangely overstated oedipal subtext going on between the major love interest in the film (no spoilers here, but seriously all that “like a baby” talk at the start, then that cradling scene at the end, followed by a very maternal birth? All this from the woman he’s supposed to be into? Pfft… James Cameron has mother issues…)
However, picking on the story is just plain stupid, and any reviewer who dwells on that is missing the point.
It’s like picking on the Star Wars movie for C3PO’s dialog, or picking on Jurassic Park because of that shocking “I’m order online levitra a hacker” scene, or picking on Terminator 2 for the whiny way Edward Furlong’s voice keeps pubescently cracking.
You don’t go to see Avatar for the narrative, you go for the experience. Yet at the same time, the story isn’t that bad. Very entertaining, and considering some of the other bollocks Fox has approved this past year (Australia, Wolverine…) then Avatar’s story is almost high-brow literature.
The part which got me the most was purely from a technical point of view. I went to see the film with a tough visual effects crowd – guys in the industry like myself who’d be more than happy to hate on Avatar given half the chance.
Almost buy buy cheap cheap levitra levitra every frame we saw had such a level of complexity and detail that we couldn’t help just sitting there, shutting up, and taking it like a man.
Considering that perhaps 60-70% of the film is entirely CG, and the remaining portion largely comprised of a mostly CG with some live-action plates, Avatar almost qualifies as an animated feature in my books, acomplia 20mg pills except like nothing else that has ever touched that category. The graphics made Pixar look like a minor newbie player, with every leaf on every tree in every jungle spoken for perfectly by the army of texturers, modellers, lighters, compositors, etc. etc. that had a hand in their creation.
We’re really reaching that point now where the uncanny valley has started to disappear with the animated characters too. I totally bought most of them, all the time.
The realism of expression, the texture of their skin, and the million tiny details that make for a believable CG character were all there, multiplied by the many thousands of characters you ended up seeing on screen. After a while you get sick of any scene that comes on that actually has live actors in it, because the CG ones are just so much nicer to look at (and somehow a lot more expressive).
The FX guys essentially designed an entire world, an entire eco-system, and if that isn’t worth every 2009 Visual Effects award there is this award season, then the award givers are a bunch of chumps.
Go see this film.
Don’t pirate it, don’t wait for DVD, and if possible, don’t see it on a 2D cinema screen – go the IMAX if you can.
It’s definitely worth it. Worth the wait, worth the hype, and worth the ride.
The Plug:
Avatar http://www.avatarmovie.com/ In Cinemas from today
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by demis: #filmreview #avatar I tried to hate this film… i really did. But believe the hype – Avatar is an awesome experience : http://is.gd/5qqrw...
I agree with you. The Experience with a capital E was great. We watched it at IMAX and the world created was beautiful. So, the plot was thin and the actors wooden – Mr Cameron has succeeded in delivering a stellar cinematic milestone.