Saturday, December 26, 2009

Avatar

So, it turns out James Cameron’s “masterpiece” was not divinely inspired from God therefore there was no way it could live up to the hype he had given it. But if I ignore the preconceived notions of the film, Avatar was actually pretty good. I cannot think of another non-franchise film that has been able to meld CGI characters with live action and not come off as completely cheesy or fake looking. With that being said the Na’vi were basically blue people who acted as if they were a native African tribe. Of course the customs were very different but their accents and songs were African in nature. That is fine but if Cameron was supposed to be creating this masterpiece couldn’t they have been a little more unique? I’m just saying.

I consider the acting to be Avatar’s bright spot. Sam Worthington who plays Jake Sully has cemented himself as a promising Hollywood lead after Terminator: Salvation put him into the spotlight. He did well playing a part that had enough layers to trip up even weathered actors. The other most noteworthy performance is Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine. I almost always hate Sigourney Weaver but she was very convincing and when the character’s turn occurs she becomes very likable.

As far as epics go I think Avatar fell a little short. The audience doesn’t have as much time to get acquainted with the characters as in something like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. While this was a long movie with a large battle in it there was only one film and I think it would have been better suited to be two or even three movies.

When discussing Avatar I think it has become necessary to address the “political undertones” that has the Internet all abuzz. Yes, the movie has environmentalist themes and yes the military is presented doing a job for the sake of gaining natural resources in a foreign land. But, if that is a metaphor for any real situation I don’t particularly care. Avatar is a movie and I will treat it as that. The blue people were the good guys in it so I rooted for them. Simple as that. (8 out of 10)

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