Avatar, briefly

Take a look around you right now. Everything is in 3D, right? That's how life is, obviously. But, the problem with movies that do 3D is that they think 3D is crap flying at your face for two hours. Is anything flying at your face right now? No. Of course not.

What Up managed to do earlier this year with its 3D is use it to heighten the emotion of the characters and the story. Only a few times did nonsense fly from the screen and into your face, reminding you that fancy new 3D technology is still somewhat of a gimmick. At that point, and up until this weekend, that was the best 3D experience I've had. Then along came Avatar.

Have you ever been to a play? Think of it like a 3D movie. The cast doesn't throw stuff at the audience only to have it magically disappear four feet before hitting your head. Rather, there is a stage with its curtain that is akin to the movie screen. In front of the curtain is a smaller part of the stage where props and people can stand so that they are in the foreground. Then, there is depth to the back of the stage. This is what the 3D is like in Avatar. This is why I like it. I felt like I was watching a play. In the movie, and it is such a throwaway, non-important scene with Sigourney Weaver that felt like she was actually in the room. On Pandora, the alien world where the movie takes place, there are moments where small bugs are flying in the foreground, with branches and leaves sticking out of the screen. These aren't appearing out of the screen to remind you that you are watching a 3D movie, but to give ambiance and detail to a make-believe world.

And it is believable. Prior to watching the movie, I popped in Star Wars because it has been a year since I saw it in its entirety. I wasn't alive to see Star Wars open in a theater (though I did get to see it at the Cine Capri when the special editions were released). I wanted to watch Star Wars for two primary reasons. First, many have described it as a movie that forever changed cinema. Also, I knew some people were going to lambast Avatar for its story, writing, and non special effects aesthetics.

Star Wars is built upon the Flash Gordon serials from an earlier time. The acting isn't always great and the lines are sometimes cringe worthy such as "But I wanted to go to Tashi Station to pick up some power converters!" Yet, most of my generation, as with all generations after the 1977 release, have seen this movie when they were kids. Star Wars had immediately identifiable characters, amazing effects, the best soundtrack of all time, and a story that while not great was passable. If you watch interviews with Mark Hamil and Carrie Fischer, they are honest that the writing and dialogue are laughable at times and hard to say.

So it is with this in mind that Avatar should be judged. The story isn't that dramatically original, with many comparing it to Dances with Wolves and Ferngully. Yet, it doesn't get in the way. The few bad lines in the movie, such as "who's bad!" being shouted after a victorious stare-down, doesn't ruin the film. But one thing Avatar has is a message in its story that Star Wars did not. Now, some may not like its message, and that's fine, but to fault the movie for having one is nonsense. If you want stupidity, go watch Transformers, or beat a pot on your head like Ebert suggests instead.

Everything in this movie is fantastic, and is the mark of a truly fantastic director. Comparing again to the abdominal Transformer movies, examine the action. In Transformers, all of the action shots are done with quick cuts and in close shots. Why? Well, quick shots create a kinetic energy on screen that can easily mask any lack of action. Why the close shots? To hide the fact that the director doesn't really know how to direct computer generated action. What do we get with Avatar? Not only is the action in long shots, often in a normal medium shot with much of the actor's body in view, but James Cameron even slows down the action, allowing the viewer to encompass everything that is on screen, to marvel, before bring the coup d'etat. It's as if Cameron is giving a big "fuck you" to the way almost all action movies have been made in the last decade in his absence.

And this movie is a big "fuck you" to everyone. For those that thought he lost his mind with his blue tall furries, and to those that thought it would be a disaster and fail to recoup its enormous 300 million dollar budget, and to those that thought he hasn't made a good movie since Terminator 2, and that Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich were the best action directors around, and to those that think The Matrix and Lord of the Rings are this generation's Star Wars, and to those that will pick apart a story that is more grounded than countless other movies, and to those that just want to be contrarians, and to those that just want to see the mighty fall... fuck you.

James Cameron is back.