When the trailers for Avatar hit a few months ago, I was surprised. It looked sci-fi, it looked unique (we'll get to that later), and had pretty cool effects. But I didn't have a desire to see it. That usually doesn't happen with me and cool explosiony-type movies.
Turns out my first instinct was right.
To be clear, I still haven't seen it. And I hope I never will. Here's why.
1: It has giant smurfs.
I mean, come on James Cameron. At least make the aliens look cool. Giant smurfs? Riding birds and crap? Woohoo.
2: The plot is directly ripped from Pocahontas/Ferngully/Braveheart/The Matrix/Dances With Wolves/Titanic/Several other movies.
I can't even bring myself to see a movie that has "revolutionary effects" if it rips off that many movies without even bothering to make any major plot changes. James Cameron even rips off his own movies.
Exhibit A
3: Its (seemingly) only redeeming quality is the effects.
Granted, I have quite a few SFX-heavy movies in my collection. At least most of those have a plot that engages.
4: Its MacGuffin is ACTUALLY called "unobtanium."
A MacGuffin is a movie device that serves no other purpose but to drive the plot. They were pioneered (and named) by the late great Alfred Hitchcock, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a cheap cop-out of a plot device.
And they kept a script placeholder for the real name. Unobtanium. Wow. I must be wearing a wedding band made out of shinyprettyium. My car's engine block must be milled from a solid piece of stronggreasyium.
Beyond lame.
5: No one is calling it lame.
I swear, reading the media reports of this thing makes Avatar the new Barack Obama. Avatar can do no wrong. It is REVOLUTIONARY, will bring CHANGE to the medium, yada-yada-yada.
6. This is the theme song.
ATTENTION JAMES CAMERON: It is no longer 1994. Songs like this shouldn't even be recorded anymore, much less featured in the end credits.
To sum it up, I understand it's pretty-looking. I understand that seeing it 3D is cool. But Hollywood is so hopped up on trying to promote 3D tech that they seem to have created this film to serve as a showcase of that and the animator's computers. Everyone I know that seen it has had the same opinion more or less.
Me: So was Avatar good?Smurf-watcher: Oh yeah, it was awesome! It's going to revolutionize the industry. The effects were beautiful!Me: Was the plot any good?Smurf-watcher: Oh, no, it sucked. Just a rip-off of Dances with Wolves and those kinds of movies. But the effects were cool!
No plot, no engagement, and giant smurfs. I'll be skipping on Dances with Ferngullian Pocahontases. In The Matrix.
I can understand your frustration and general contempt for the movie being trite, although I'd argue that if you held every movie to this standard you would only watch about 2 movies a year. Most people would agree that all stories boil down to the same archetypes (I like Northrop Frye's analysis of all stories fitting into particular "myths").
ReplyDeleteHaving seen the movie (and it's not as terrible as you think) I have to at least credit James Cameron for trying to inject contemporary commentary and relevance into his version of the story. The nuances and details of the film that make it work are not addressed in the trailer; It does slightly more than *just* look good.
There are definitely more movies and directors out there that make "big movies" that have NO redeeming qualities(*cough*MichaelBay*cough*).
That's true about not all movies being good. I own some pretty cheesy ones. I just am always wary when the media tells me I should consider something as the biggest game-changer since yada-yada-yada.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the "contemporary commentary" has been straight outta my KU "cultural psychology" class: I, as a white, American, Christan male, am the most horrible person on the face of the planet. They call this plot the White Messiah device, and I'm not a fan. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/opinion/08brooks.html?scp=1&sq=white%20messiah&st=cse
As a white, American, Christian male, I actually didn't even think of the "contemporary commentary" that way. I think you can look at Avatar and obviously see Colonists v.Indigenous or USA v. World (for lack of a better term), but there's a lot in the film that is much more environment/industry and I think that might be Cameron's biggest point being made (and that is something not really addressed in the trailer).
ReplyDelete*Note: I haven't read your NYT link yet*
I understand your overall point and also dislike how the media seems to polarize everything (because Avatar and other movies could never just be good or mediocre). However, I would almost always say that you could make a better point after having seen the movie simply because you'd have that much more to draw from.
Addition; That's a good article. I dig it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, note that the title of the post is why I don't want to see it, not why it's a bad movie. It might be enjoyable. But those were just the reasons why I don't want to.
ReplyDelete