Sunday, January 24, 2010

Probably the umpteenth blog post about Avatar.

So last night the boy and I went out to the movies for the first time in probably a year. Avatar wouldn't have been my first choice (I would rather have gone to see Sherlock Holmes or Where the Wild Things Are - and then there're all the less mainstream movies that I don't bother to find out about any more), but I knew the boy wanted to see it.

I booked us for the 2D version, because I was sure the 3D version would give me a headache at the very least - feeling slightly nauseous after ten minutes of Coraline in 3D (on DVD) had been a useful clue.

As it turned out, even watching Avatar in 2D was enough to give me a headache. Though I would have to blame the fact that it was too long, kept me up well past my normal bed time, and had a cookie-cutter storyline (not to mention the oft-observed racial stereotypes portrayed here). Having said that, it was pretty much what I was expecting - including the excellent special effects.

My personal highlight of the movie was watching Sully's avatar wriggle uncomfortably in his new g-string (the standard uniform of Pandora's natives - of course). It was the one sign that maybe James Cameron wasn't taking himself too seriously.

7 comments:

Antoinette said...

Haven't seen this one yet... and am not in a rush either. Thanks for sharing your perspective!

Kolt said...

You have to watch the movie in 3-D to get the full effect. For me it was just an amazing adventure in an amazing world created from scratch. With the tribal feel and the fresh new language this movie was a great hit for me. Just depends on your view of movies, but I recomend watching it in 3-D for sure. It is a must see! Absolutely mind blowing! Keep an open mind and try to watch it from a cross-cultural mind setting. Makes the movie experience feel more like a real life experience.

Violet said...

Antoinette: it's just one of many!

Kolt:I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, I'm sure millions of others have too. But for me - and this is only partly speaking from the non-white perspective - the plot was utterly 2D.

LK said...

I really enjoyed it and saw it in 3D but kinda wished I'd just seen the 2D version now. The 3D glasses are so crappy, my eyes just ached at the end of it, and the 3D scenes didn't seem to add too much to it. Good movie though.

PBS said...

I haven't seen it yet. Some friends have loved it, others not so much.

Anonymous said...

Violet you knew it was going to suck, really. the 3-dness is probably the only redeeming feature, although I think I was kind of expecting a bit more? Just from what everyone was saying I had extremely high expectations and not sure that they were met. Looking forward to Alice in Wonderland in 3-d cause it looks RAD!

Violet said...

Tiki: I reckon you're the first person I've come across who didn't think that was amazing in 3D.

PBS: you won't be missing much unless you're a sfx fan, which I'm guess you ain't.

donnasoowho: yeah of course I did. But that's no reason to withhold a perfectly good negative film review is it? Watching Alice should be a trip (geddit?).