Early Present

I can’t believe it is December 21 already. I haven’t done any seasonal posts because it is the time of year when everyone keeps reminding you what time of year it is. That can just be so annoying and so irritating that I chose to skip it all together (so far). I know I haphazardly mentioned it the other day and Cory did do a post on Friday about it…sort of but that is the closest thing to a mention of Christmas we have done so far. But I think there is enough of the festive bombardment already. There are the carols being played in the malls, the decorations that are everywhere, the ads on tv, even the over run malls just won’t let you forget. Every other blog out there has done some kind of holiday movie guide, gift guide, any guide possible really. But after going to the movies on Friday my pseudo boycott of the season has ended. I got to open a Christmas present a whole week early.

When I was standing in the ridiculously long line to see Avatar it struck me that I didn’t really know anything about the film. I only came to that conclusion after reading the short synopsis in the copy of “Famous” I was reading while passing the time. It’s about Jake Sully, Sam Worthington, a paraplegic marine who was asked to replace his twin brother for a special mission after his untimely death. He is dispatched to the planet Pandora a distant world that is home to the Navi, large blue humanoid beings who are in touch with their environment. It also houses a vast supply of Unobtanium. It is a mineral that can save Earth current energy crisis and is worth a lot of money.

Sully’s mission is to interact and learn from the Navi and to do so he will use a genetically engineered avatar that is part human and part Navi. He does this under the supervision of Dr. Grace Augustine, Sigourney Weaver, who is the creator of these avatars and the one who “wrote the book” on the Navi. Because of his military experience he is also secretly recruited by the corporate and military presence on the planet to get tactical information about the people and their stronghold by Colonel Miles Quaritch, Stephen Lang, and Parker Selfridge, Giovanni Ribisi. But after his interaction with the people and falling in love with one of them Neytiri, Zoe Saldana, he has a change of heart.

The storyline for the movie isn’t anything new. It has been told many times in many ways and this adds nothing new to it. There are no twists or shocking revelations and it is predictable in many instances. Even though you can tell they tried with the storyline it was clear that it was put second to the exploitation of the new technology created by James Cameron for the movie.

But that issue quickly falls to the waist side. It is easy to forget the mediocrity of the plot because Avatar is simply beautiful; the character design/rendering, the creatures, the vastness of the environments, and the 3D didn’t hurt. There are sequences that are thrown in there specifically for the 3D experience but I didn’t find it added that much to the overall experience but it didn’t harm it either.

The acting in the film is ok. There’s nothing Oscar worthy but nothing so completely dreadful that it needs to be paraded in front of a firing squad. They all went through the motions and did there part. There were some great people in the supporting cast including Joel Moore, CCH Pounder, and Dileep Rao who we last saw in Drag me to Hell. One person I do want to bring a spotlight to is Stephen Lang. That guy did a great job as the colonel. He was a perfect mix of rational military bravado and fear inducing psycho. That scar on his face and the physical size of the man also helped his performance.

Avatar was better than expected, a well deserved gift from watching a whole lot of crap this year. Even though the plot was mediocre and the acting is just ok it is balanced by the beauty of the finished product. Nothing in the movie is bad. Aspects of the movie start at alright and only go up. It is definitely worth seeing in the theatre and the extra $3 for the 3D. But at a runtime of 162 minutes be prepared for a sore ass.

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