|
|
|
Well the massively hyped blockbuster has finally surfaced and I shall relate this juggernaut to the best of my ability. I'm sure many have heard of it's praise and sheer scale and by no means are those opinions deserving of disregard. But has the sheer hype of this movie killed it right underneath its own nose? The answer is a resounding, "Maybe".
As a tradition I always save my criticism for last, so let's get the praise right out the door.
This movie is monumental, and there is no two ways about it. The sheer size of it, both in length and scale is huge. This movie makes the final battle in the "Lord of the Rings" third installment look like a fight between a a dung beetle and a pile of excrement. This is due mainly in part of it's special effects. Every facet, nook and cranny of this movie is flawless in its design and realism. Utilizing technology used in many films for digital characters and completely new ones, this movie captures imagery so flawless it begs to be seen in 3-D.
The effects are usually accompanied well by it's masterful and epic soundtrack. Scenes of frantic and harrowing battle leap off the screen with an equally harrowing score, comprised mainly of instrumental pieces with choirs that sing in an original dialect.
Now that the good bits are out of the way, time for me to voice my unpopular opinion.
The trailers for this movie were being hyped and pushed in our faces everywhere, on buses, on T.V., on posters, and they even went so far as to perform the ultimate sin and release a game a month prior to the release of the film. This method is usually an ill precursor of a shitty over advertised film. The games are never good either.
So what did most of these trailers advertise? well mostly a strict outline of the plot, and various demonstrations of the movies powerhouse technology. That and the unusually boisterous claims that it would be unlike anything we've ever seen before. Somehow, I found that hard to believe.
The movie follows the events of an earth expedition to a planet populated by a race of anthropomorphic cat-like beings called the Na'vi. These beings are characterized by their blue skin, height and their rather tribal bearings. According to the leader of the human expedition, The Na'vi are living on a large deposit of an incredibly rare mineral that is apparently worth the genocide of an entire race. The main character Jake Sully is a marine who lost the use of his legs and must assume the Avatar, a genetic recreation of the Na'vi in order to obtain information about their race and whether or not they can be negotiated with diplomatically.
Through his actions he becomes acquainted with the race, learns their language and ways and eventually comes to love them, this leads to his human employers becoming impatient and further convinced of the Na'vis lack of cooperation. Eventually all restraint is bid farewell and the human army begins a genocide of the whole race and a destruction of their sacred grounds.
Now if you haven't heard of anything like this before, you've probably been living under a rock for a few years, because this plot is nearly identical to that of the Disney animated film "Pocahontas". It even contains character archetypes that are completely identical. An American warrior enters a strange unexplored land filled with "Savages" who are supposedly sitting on a deposit of gold and upon meeting them he grows to love them and even falls in love with the chiefs daughter, who happens to be engaged by arranged marriage to the strongest warrior in the clan. These too are absolutely identical plot points that seem just too similar to be coincidence. And there are plenty of plot points that are similar to the film "Dances with Wolves" another high-grossing film about Native Americans.
Half way through the movie I just couldn't even think of the Na'vi as aliens and could only see them as a hastily put together analogy of Indians. There are more unusually coincidental sounding plot-lines that seem to borrow elements from the movies "Ferngully: the Last Rainforest" and "Atlantis: the Lost Empire". Such as the Na'vis unusual link with the forest around them and the all too overbearing "SAVE THE ******** TREES" dogma.
These things would be somewhat forgiveable due to the movie being in development for roughly 15 years. But this wouldn't have been an issue if the characters had any depth to them at all. Every character, from the most important to the most minor seem dead set on only serving whatever purpose or role the script intends for them, leading to some really bland predictable plot points and boring disenchanting dialogue.
The actor line-up is mostly new talent, with a guest appearance by Sigourney Weaver, The most bad-a** woman in all of Hollywood. However great she is as an actor, her prowess is completely undermined by the terrible bland dialogue and the movie suffering from "Harry Potter Syndrome".
Harry Potter Syndrome, or HPS, is a term I use to associate other media of storytelling with the Harry Potter series's worst flaw. That flaw being the killing off of well developed characters in exchange to focus on the most mundane characters. Through the course of the Harry Potter series, they manage to kill off every single compelling or interesting character one after another all the while making the main characters less and less interesting.
And this movie definitely has HPS, as Sigourney Weavers character is killed off, even though she's the only one with any personality. Even if her personality is just her being a bad-a**.
Every other character is just a cardboard cut-out of every single stereotype we've come to expect so far. And even more are incredibly see through analogies of people and celebrities. I just wound up referring to the main villain as George Bush, because whoever wrote his script must have really had it out for the former president.
This is evidenced by his control over the situation, his tendency to resort to violence while spouting ignorant jokes, and his motivation, which is what else? Money.
This movie is so hard to take seriously because the villains are completely ridiculous. They seem to have no other motivation for what they do other than money, greed, and the desire to wave their dicks around shouting how awesome they are as they kill defenseless animals with guns.
This needs to stop. Villains that have no motivation aside from being a b*****d is terrible story-telling and it leaves plot holes along with discredit. For instance, what was the point of the rare element? Did it cure cancer or something? All we are told is that it's valuable. So we are expected to believe that people in the world of tomorrow (The future) are completely lacking in the basic moral principles we have today?
It's shallow and a bad attempt at prodding the past of native americans while blowing trumpets of disdain from the current events that took place in the middle east under George Bushes legislation.
I can agree that George Bush is a d**k and a terrible president. But when you make promises of original plots and tell us we'll see stuff we've never seen before, you better quit with the ******** obnoxious propaganda or the movie will be forgotten. Much as I'm sure this movie will be forgotten. At least by me.
Cruel Thanatos · Mon Dec 21, 2009 @ 12:40pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|