AVATAR
[small]Movie Review by - Kyle "Tootmania" Sorrell[/small]
AVATAR (Directed by James Cameron) is the kind of movie that makes me weep. Not so much out of how good it is, no. More so, out of it's undeserving status.
AVATAR is, in a lot of ways, the embodiment of what I dislike the most about the current state of movies. Even more so than films such as
Transformers 2. Allow me to explain.
AVATAR is a science fiction "epic" set in the year 2154. The humans are venturing out into space in search of a rare, seemingly unobtainable mineral named
unobtanium (pun intended.), and they come across a planet rich in the substance called Pandora. Though they can't just take the mineral (or so it seems) due to a local settlement of large, blue, humanoid aliens called Na'vi living on the land where the mineral currently resides.
Long story short, they recruit an ex-marine named Jake Sully (Played by Sam Worthington) for the "Avatar Program", where in he is able to take over one of the "empty" Na'vi bodies and use it as if it were his own, and send him in to learn about the local tribe, and try to convince them to move so the humans may mine for their precious difficult to obtain mineral.
From here,
Pocahontas syndrome takes over, where in the gullible, white, military-experienced male lead is swooned by the local
indians cherokees minorities underdogs Na'vi, becomes accustomed to their ways, and begins to question which side he should be rooting for.
This is where a lot of the controversy and arguments begin to arise when discussing this film. The Nay-Sayers argue that this film is nothing but a massive bundle of over expensive eye candy, and is completely unoriginal, while its supporters retaliate by mentioning that
"Nothing nowadays is truly original, and if you look hard enough, you can find sources of inspiration and borrowed material in just about anything", and they also bring up the fact that the visuals alone make up for its flaws, due to how ground breaking and revolutionary they are.
Both sides make some valid points, though I do believe that the supporters are kind of missing the point of entertainment in the first place. Or rather, one of the most basic, and fundamental principals of it. One of the absolute oldest, most basic forms of entertainment is
storytelling. Movies, video games, books, comic books, cartoons, even commercials, and music (to an extent), and even art. All of it, in one way, shape, or form, is trying to tell a story.
[small]"$300 million dollars was spent making this film so you could do ^this^. Seems like a good investment."[/small]
It seems as though most people have forgotten this, the importance of competent story telling. Heck, I mean, pretty much all that money you're spending at the theater is paying for the experience it provides, not so much the films themselves. It's almost like an alternative to amusement parks for really cheap people. The lights, the food, the giant movie screen, the top notch audio surround sound. That all doesn't pay for itself. Film makers have also realized this, and are taking great advantage of it. No longer does a movie have to be at all good or distinguishable to do well. As long as you pump up the CGI and advertise the heck out of it, it'll do well.
Which really brings light to an even bigger problem. You want to know a big part of the reason why
AVATAR did so well?
Advertising. It also had James Cameron on board, who is known for much better works such as
Terminator,
Rambo, and
Aliens. That, plus the millions of dollars worth of visuals had people hooked. People are all to gullible for adverts.
Dragon Age: Origins,
Darksiders,
Bayonetta, and just about every big name game coming out recently is proof of that.
But in all honesty, coming up with something new and original is not as hard as it seems. It can easily be done. most people are either just too close minded or afraid to really take the risk of trying something new, in fear of failing. People want security, but the funny thing is, security does not exist.
On its own, there is next to nothing in it that hasn't already been done before, and been done better.
The Last Airbender wears the title better, and has more style,
Lord of the Rings was more epic,
Pocahontas was more profound and distinct,
Star Wars,
Star Trek, and
Battlestar Galactica each had better, more interesting settings and ideas, the list goes on.
And I didn't even have to bring up
District 9 to get THAT much out of it. Go figure.
