I live in Western New York and sometimes the weather can really be weird. I find that our weather can cause unexpected delays and postponements. I don't know if this happens where you live, but sometimes after a major storm front blows through or the day after, say, an opening day midnight showing of a highly anticipated movie, they can call for a "Snow Day." And when I say "they" I mean, of course, "I" can call for a "Snow Day."
Such a phenomenon occurred today. A "Snow Day" was declared and my wife and kids are currently sleeping through it with visions of ten foot tall ThunderSmurfs dancing in their heads.
Ok, so I'll admit blowing off school so that my kids could see Avatar in the 3-D Imax Experience, at midnight, probably won't get me on the short list for parent of the year, but in my defense the movie was AWESOME!
I'm not going to do a traditional movie review thing, but suffice it to say, Avatar delivers the goods. It looks great, the story is solid, Zoe Saldana was terrific and Sam Worthington is the next big thing in Hollywood. But lets not kid ourselves, the technology is the thing.
The technology used in this movie blows everything that has come before out of the water. It's absurd. I used to work for a wonderful man named Ralph Winter, producer of all of the X-Men movies, and he told me in 1994 that Jim Cameron will aways be three years ahead of everybody else technologically. He was right then and he still is today.
Jim Cameron, a notorious pain in the ass, has consistently pushed the CGI envelope. The Abyss, T-2, True Lies and Titanic all ushered in new technology to the world of film. But technology for technology sake doesn't work. He doesn't get bogged down by CGI. He tells a simple traditional story and uses cool fancy gadgets to make it look cool. The one thing you can always count on in his films is a central character on the "hero's journey." The dialog isn't ever going to be confused with Tarantino or Mamet. That's why his films are always saddled with criticisms about the simplicity of his scripts. Too many catch phrases and monosyllabic banter, like "I'll be back." Guilty on all counts but remember that he isn't mimicking Michael Bay, Michael Bay is mimicking him. Cameron was using those cheesy lines before anybody else and while he doesn't deserve an Oscar for his writing, his movies are always entertaining.
But back to the technology. We have all seen how CGI can get in the way, it ruined the last installment of Indy (I mean gophers, really?) and it made the Star Wars Prequels completely lifeless. In both of those cases George Lucas was so amped up about using CGI that he completely forgot why the orginial versions of those movies worked. Raiders and Star Wars seemed real and in most cases were shot practically, with a simple story and characters that audiences cared about. [editor's note- I just watched this it is essentially seven, ten minute reviews of Phantom Menace. Actually I only saw the first two, they are pretty funny and strangely accurate. It explains the flaws in those pieces of deuce rather well. And you will laugh out loud.]
In Avatar Jim Cameron has Jake Sully doing the hero's journey duties and I would care about Zoe Saldana if she was reading the yellow pages. But most importantly he uses the 3-D Tech to slowly bring you into this new world. There aren't any comin' at ya' explosions, animals don't jump into your lap and nobody swings a latter out over the audience. In fact the best use of the 3-D is exists during the quiet moments. Circling the space station, exploring Pandora's rain forest and even the jelly fish-like seeds that bounce around the screen. My personal favorite were the tiny mosquitoes that flutter beneath the canopy, but that's because it has always been a pet peeve that nobody ever deals with mosquitoes in movies. I mean those things are a pain in the neck...literally. How many movies have there been where people just sort of jaunt through the jungle wearing nothing and not so much as a buzzing sound, right? It's ridiculous.
Anyway, you need to see the movie for yourself it will eventually be one of the top three grossing movies ever. I recommend finding the closest IMAX Theater and getting a center seat. By the way I took my two boys, both under ten and they loved it so much that they watched it again during their Snow Day...it's strange the roads are super deep and icy on the way to school but the roads to the theater? Not so much. I mentioned before that the weather here is weird, right?
Jim Cameron, a notorious pain in the ass, has consistently pushed the CGI envelope. The Abyss, T-2, True Lies and Titanic all ushered in new technology to the world of film. But technology for technology sake doesn't work. He doesn't get bogged down by CGI. He tells a simple traditional story and uses cool fancy gadgets to make it look cool. The one thing you can always count on in his films is a central character on the "hero's journey." The dialog isn't ever going to be confused with Tarantino or Mamet. That's why his films are always saddled with criticisms about the simplicity of his scripts. Too many catch phrases and monosyllabic banter, like "I'll be back." Guilty on all counts but remember that he isn't mimicking Michael Bay, Michael Bay is mimicking him. Cameron was using those cheesy lines before anybody else and while he doesn't deserve an Oscar for his writing, his movies are always entertaining.
But back to the technology. We have all seen how CGI can get in the way, it ruined the last installment of Indy (I mean gophers, really?) and it made the Star Wars Prequels completely lifeless. In both of those cases George Lucas was so amped up about using CGI that he completely forgot why the orginial versions of those movies worked. Raiders and Star Wars seemed real and in most cases were shot practically, with a simple story and characters that audiences cared about. [editor's note- I just watched this it is essentially seven, ten minute reviews of Phantom Menace. Actually I only saw the first two, they are pretty funny and strangely accurate. It explains the flaws in those pieces of deuce rather well. And you will laugh out loud.]
In Avatar Jim Cameron has Jake Sully doing the hero's journey duties and I would care about Zoe Saldana if she was reading the yellow pages. But most importantly he uses the 3-D Tech to slowly bring you into this new world. There aren't any comin' at ya' explosions, animals don't jump into your lap and nobody swings a latter out over the audience. In fact the best use of the 3-D is exists during the quiet moments. Circling the space station, exploring Pandora's rain forest and even the jelly fish-like seeds that bounce around the screen. My personal favorite were the tiny mosquitoes that flutter beneath the canopy, but that's because it has always been a pet peeve that nobody ever deals with mosquitoes in movies. I mean those things are a pain in the neck...literally. How many movies have there been where people just sort of jaunt through the jungle wearing nothing and not so much as a buzzing sound, right? It's ridiculous.
Anyway, you need to see the movie for yourself it will eventually be one of the top three grossing movies ever. I recommend finding the closest IMAX Theater and getting a center seat. By the way I took my two boys, both under ten and they loved it so much that they watched it again during their Snow Day...it's strange the roads are super deep and icy on the way to school but the roads to the theater? Not so much. I mentioned before that the weather here is weird, right?
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dude - the 7 part stars wars review was frickin hilarious. only had time for the first two, but jeeez. that was hilarious.
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