Why I would have liked this movie better if it came out July 4th

DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional movie critic.  I don’t expect everyone to agree with my thoughts and I am sorry to anyone I offend with my opinion of the movie.  I know how passionate people are about this film

When I first heard about Avatar a few months ago I didn’t think I would ever see the movie.  For one, I am not a huge James Cameron fan (that’s right – didn’t LOVE Titanic).  More importantly, I didn’t get a good sense of what the movie was about, and the title didn’t grab me.

Cut to the week Avatar opens in the theater and everyone I know is telling me what an amazing movie it is.  Academy Award worthy!  Such an interesting commentary on modern society!  The CGI was truly amazing!  After that, I figured I really had to see it.  So I grabbed Meg and we bought tickets for New Years Eve.  IMAX.  3-D.  Done.

The Lame-Line General

Let me preface this by saying that I haven’t seen a movie in 3-D since saw “Captain EO” when I was 9.  So as Meg and I put on our very attractive 3D glasses (mine went OVER my regular glasses) I started to get nervous.  My eyes were having a very hard time adjusting – I felt like I had to keep looking in different directions and couldn’t just relax. How will I survive 3 hours? 20 minutes later, my eyes adjusted and I was able to sit back and absorb the film. Yes – the CGI was pretty incredible.  How they combined the graphics with the actors was fantastic!  But the story?  REALLY?  Not only was his “social commentary” completely obvious and uninteresting, but I actually laughed out-loud at some of the absurd and poorly written lines (i.e., anything Colonel Quaritch said).

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed the movie (albeit a little long – although what movies aren’t too long these days?).  But I liked Avatar like I liked Independence Day.  It was a fun escapist movie that had some cool graphics and a thin plot.  Oh yeah – Sam Worthington is very easy on the eyes.

Yummy Sam

Had this movie come out over the summer and was touted as a fantastic summer blockbuster I think I would have been pleasantly surprised!  Sadly, the angling for award season left me, as Michael Kors would say, “underwhelmed.”  It should win awards for film editing, visual effects and even sound editing!  But best picture?  I think not.

Tags: Movies

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 12:09 pm and is filed under art&music, celebrity&lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.