The Gremlin's Wings

Well, I did it. I finally sat down with a Pepsi in my hand, an open mind and a good few hours and I watched the movie Avatar.

Why is this such a big deal? For starters, I have heard about the hype surrounding this movie, and it was intense. It had multiple Academy Award nominations (and a few wins on top of it) and it is one of the top-grossing movies of all time, if not the top one. According to Wikipedia, it is the top-grossing movie of all time, but that will change eventually.

I am a little late in delivering this review, because I was not interested in this film in the least. In fact, to be honest, out of the top ten on the aforementioned list of top-grossing movies, with the exception of the two Lord of the Rings movies on there, I do not go to theatres to see the first-run of these movies. Titanic, I first caught on DVD almost six months after it was first released, just before it won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

So… what is so special about this one? That should be painfully obvious, if you know me, and has to do with how my brain is wired. See, I am a very big science fiction fan. There is no real denying it; most people that know me know that I am heavily involved in Star Trek stuff online; Hell, this blog has a category named “Star Trek Geeky Stuff” (which I got to remember to update more than once a year). My first TV show review had to do with Stargate Universe, another sci-fi franchise which has a large following.

Avatar, at its heart, is a sci-fi movie that people can get lost in. I can see why; right away, you are hit up with a virtual orgasm of very prettily-rendered 3D environments that really try to bring the story together. I have got to admit, just like everyone else, that the visuals are mind-blowing, and that basically makes or breaks most science fiction movies; why Avatar is so successful is because specifically of the visuals and how they integrate the show and make the storyline possible.

However, this is precisely what the problem is.

Avatar may be a beauty to the eye and a decent movie to boot, but a science fiction film is something that should be about the story as well as the visuals. Take, for example, a science fiction book. That does not have the luxury of giving you an intense visual experience; a book must create its world in your mind. A movie should be using its visuals in the way of bringing the word to life. To me, though, Avatar seemed like it was created in the opposite in mind, using the amazing visuals to tie the story together.

Is there anything necessarily wrong with that? Not really, but it did give the movie a perspective I did not anticipate, and I am not entirely sure that I am comfortable with.

See, back in the day, the visuals were sparse and far between. Tell me what kind of visuals you saw in Star Wars: A New Hope. Did they define the movie?

Then take a look at the visuals in Avatar.

See the difference?

Be that as it may, I found myself immersed in the world anyway. I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy Avatar at all. I saw it as an impressive visual masterpiece, and almost every scene featuring landscapes would be impressive landscapes and watercolors to paint. I would not mind getting my hands on screenshots for exactly that reason. A Photoshop filter here and there, and then instant artistic visuals.

The story… the story was OK. As other, more eloquent people have pointed out, the story draws a lot on a same moral principle as a lot of other forced relocation movies. Hell, District 9 has the same principle. Star Trek Insurrection. Dances With Wolves. Actually, that last one, Avatar resembles a lot, now that I think of it. Well, thankfully Kevin Costner steered clear of this one.

I would like to point out that there is a thing floating around on the Internet which compares Avatar with another James Cameron movie, The Abyss. I say there are some parallels: scientists versus military is a big theme in a lot of productions, and to use this comparison is a little unfair. Hell, I could draw parallels with Doom as well for the same reason. If we really want to nitpick, we could start by saying that the flying creature the Na’vi used are stolen from pterodactyls. The gunships the humans use looks a lot like a vehicle from Unreal Tournament 2004. The six-legged horse creatures are stolen from… horses.

Here is my list of things I like:

• Complete visual orgasm. My eyes need a cigarette now.
• The details behind the story were well fleshed out, I can not deny that. James Cameron has a history of doing well at this particular point.
• The visuals were amazing!
• Two words: Zoe Saldana
• The visuals were amazing!

On the con side, here is what I did not like:

• The story in general seems to have been done before, a little too much. Original concepts, people!
• Why are humans always the destructive ones?
• The subplot with the foreman or head guy or whatever. That seemed like it was going to go somewhere, but it never did… and it just felt incomplete.
• …the visuals were amazing!

Anyway, it is still a fun movie. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely. Will it become parodied? Probably. Will a porno be made with blue aliens? Inevitably. Will I watch it?

…I am exercising my right to remain silent.