I was very skeptical going into Avatar, despite all the applause and critical acclaim the movie has gotten. So did District 9, after all. I thought it'd be some beautiful example of modern cinematic special effects, but not much more than that. Certainly it would have a mediocre plot, at best.
Well, maybe that is true. But Juno had a mediocre plot as well. But it was told well and so is Avatar. This is a "Beautiful" movie and not just graphically. It has a beautiful sentiment, a beautiful world, and yeah, beautiful visuals. But it isn't so much about the plot, really. That's not the best part.
The best part is the art. Pandora itself, really. Special effects in most movies are just a beautification process for me. They enhance, but they don't really add much. They're just explosions, ohh! look they're flying, hey a space ship. Yawn. It's a little nicer viewing experience than it was in the 70's, it looks better, but that's all. It's not a better movie. But when the art is used to immerse the viewer into the world that they are creating, into the fantasy, such as the art (in the less battle-weary sections) of Jackson's Lord of the Rings, then something has been accomplished with it which is more than just the sum of the parts.
Eywa is a beautiful place. I'd love to live there. The Na'vi don't use bulldozers and understand the importance of a tree extends beyond paper and fence posts and kindling. Avatar is yet another re-iteration of an idea that's been coming up time and time again since the Celts were beaten up by Rome. That nature, while formidable, isn't to be feared, but embraced. Those dark forests England was so preternaturally afraid of aren't vile, but instead quite lovely.
And that our industrial-military complex is frighteningly destructive. Unfortunately, I don't think the movie really exaggerates the reality of it. We can be just as despicable as the people in this movie and just as callously ignorant of it. The attitudes which pushed native tribes out of America has not gone away. We still feel a misplaced sense of entitlement to anything we see.
Which leads into my biggest disappointment with the film: the Na'vi were too special. As a creature on Pandora, they stand out. They do not look native to the planet. Even more so than humans don't look native on Earth. At least we still breathe the same way other animals do. There is too much superiority given them and I would have liked the 'linking' system to be better explored.
Avatar was also my first movie seen in the new 3D format. It was significantly better than I expected it to be, and it didn't give me a headache so that's a plus, but it was a little overdone. There were parts where it would have looked better in a standard format. Not all of the movie should have been done in 3D. The fantastical plants in the forest were phenomenal through the glasses. Everyone talking in the command center... unnecessary. Clear things, like their computer screens and visors, didn't look that good. Nor did smoke and some movements were a little blurry. The tunnel vortex when gettin' into an Avatar was awful and excludes anyone with epilepsy from ever seeing this movie.
If you like Hayao Miyazaki, or any Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke or Pom Poko, then watch Avatar. It's in the same vein.
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