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Avatar 3D

Basically, it’s Dances With Wolves, with blue people, and spaceships, set in a forest, and as if the director has skimmed through books by James Lovelock. All of those things are independently good – even Costner, one of the Hollywood icons when I was a wee nipper.

But, well, it was all a bit silly.

The aliens weren’t particularly alien. Everything was pilfered from the real world – even the sacred tree idea/visuals. (I remember travelling by river through the Amazon, and seeing certain tree species sticking up out of the plantain region. I think they were some species of fig, but it was a few years ago, and those trees were preserved because they were important to the local tribes.) But yeah, I can see it introducing newcomers to science fantasy, and that’s no bad thing.

However, District 9 for the Oscar for best picture, please.

Still, I did learn that you can really impress your girlfriend with the 3D glasses. What you do is put the glasses on, glance at her and suddenly move back startled, as if she is actually in 3D!

This joke works only the once, I’m reliably informed.

Keyword related posts:

  1. Peridexion Tree
04
Feb 2010
AUTHOR Mark Newton
CATEGORY

discussions, genre stuff

COMMENTS 6 Comments
  • http://www.samsykes.com Sam Sykes

    It was a decent movie, really: lots of stuff no one ever saw before. As I said, it wasn’t that deep, but it gets a free pass because of the innovation.

    Same with literature, really.

  • http://blog.markcnewton.com Mark C Newton

    Stuff – you mean the whole 3D technology angle?

  • http://philsrandommusings.blogspot.com Phillip

    The story seemed secondary to the visual spectacle. I’m sure you’ve seen the bit going round the interwebs demonstrating that the story was basically the same as Pocahontas with the names changed. In its own way I suppose the story is classic but this was an interesting way of telling it, plus it looked awesome. Did you hear about the many people who experienced depression after watching it? They felt that the real world couldn’t compete with Avatar…methinks someone needs to get out a little more.

  • http://blog.markcnewton.com Mark C Newton

    “Did you hear about the many people who experienced depression after watching it? They felt that the real world couldn’t compete with Avatar…methinks someone needs to get out a little more.”

    Hmm. That sounds a little like paid-for marketing hype, to me.

  • http://www.samsykes.com Sam Sykes

    3D technology, photorealistic graphics, the absolute depth (read: cost) of the whole project: it certainly *did* refine graphics as a whole to an extent we haven’t thought of.

    And apparently this is enough to get it an Oscar nomination.

  • http://davebrendon.wordpress.com Dave

    I loved it, completely and totally, and I might add, unashamedly. :-) Avatar is like ‘Star Wars’ for our time – it’ll redefine the movie experience for sure, and you can add another question to the Big Question List: (Where were you on 9/11? Where were you when Princess Diana died?) How many times did you watch Avatar? :-)

    But that’s just me – I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to these things. ;-)