Today is Earth Day, so naturally it was the perfect day to release Avatar on DVD. Wait, what? I'm not sure about the symmetry there, but I'm not really trying to flex my brain muscles on that one tonight.
So I bought Avatar today. Avatar was has a special place in my heart. No, it's not the best story ever. Yes, it was somewhat predictable in spots. Yes, it was visually the best movie I've ever seen. No it wasn't as good in 2-D as it was in 3-D but hey, no shit. Yes I loved it both at the theater and on my couch. It was good to see Jake Sully again. His voice mesmerizes me. The tone of the movie captured my senses like not many films do. It didn't make my cry or even feel like I wanted to cry. But it did make me cheer. It did make me root for the hero and boo at the villain. I really enjoyed all three hours of it. I've seen it four times now. The sights, and the music and the editing of this movie, along with the epic landscapes and incredible effects all combined to make my senses tingle with a feeling of complete satisfaction in a movie-going experience.
I've read many who thought that Avatar was over done, over the top, too many effects, not enough character development, not enough original idea. I have to disagree with all of that. My opinion is that Avatar is very close to movie watching nirvana, a sort of bliss. Why wouldn't we want to see the most incredible thing ever put on celluloid? Why wouldn't I want to watch that? I find it incredible to think that most of what we saw in Avatar doesn't exist in the real world, yet it totally looks like it does. I mean, it's flawless. It's not cartoonish. It's not like seeing a science fiction movie where you can tell where the effects are on the screen. It's not like watching Toy Story. It's an amazing accomplishment in story telling and it's an amazingly interesting movie experience.
My all time favorite movie, ever, is Raising Arizona. That movie is as basic and low-tech as it gets. Funny writing, quirky acting, great characters. Me and a friend I used to work with watched it dozens of times after closing the bar late. I used to have a good solid working number of how many times I'd seen that movie. I think the number was somewhere in the 60's. I lost track over the years how many times I've seen it, but let's say I've seen it 70 times, and that's a real number, not a bullshit number...no exaggeration at all. And now that I own Avatar, I can see watching it dozens of times. Yes, it's twice the length of Raising Arizona and no it won't overtake Raising Arizona as my all time favorite movie. But it will be in my top ten movies of all time. And here's the thing...for me, for my movie taste, there is no question that it's a beautiful, poignant piece, which has transformed movie making forever. This is the picture that has turned the corner of movie making,or perhaps it's turned movie making on it's collective ear. Everyone has opinions about the finished piece of art. Opinions are fair. I like opinions and i believe everyone has their right to their opinions. But what I don't like is when I read that someone is calling Avatar "crap" or something negative. First of all it was one man's dream, his vision to make this movie the way it was made. And the second thing is, to help him make his dream a reality, he enlisted fellow dreamers and fellow artists and fellow technicians to make it happen. And when they figured out they couldn't make something happen on film, they invented a way to do it. THEY INVENTED IT. It's a collective dream piece mastered by this industries finest and brightest talents. It was a ten year trek that led them all through dreams and nightmares and visions. I'm sure at times their faith in their work was tested and they questioned themselves many times. But what makes it great is that the hundreds and hundreds of people who gave themselves to the creation of this fine film were rewarded with the biggest box office in history, and with the single most ground breaking (technically speaking here)movies ever. Maybe of all time.
In the end, I want Avatar to get the respect that it deserves. It does deserve that. If you were in an art museum and you saw something you didn't care for, you'd still respect the painter and the style and the effort that was a made.
So I bought Avatar today. Avatar was has a special place in my heart. No, it's not the best story ever. Yes, it was somewhat predictable in spots. Yes, it was visually the best movie I've ever seen. No it wasn't as good in 2-D as it was in 3-D but hey, no shit. Yes I loved it both at the theater and on my couch. It was good to see Jake Sully again. His voice mesmerizes me. The tone of the movie captured my senses like not many films do. It didn't make my cry or even feel like I wanted to cry. But it did make me cheer. It did make me root for the hero and boo at the villain. I really enjoyed all three hours of it. I've seen it four times now. The sights, and the music and the editing of this movie, along with the epic landscapes and incredible effects all combined to make my senses tingle with a feeling of complete satisfaction in a movie-going experience.
I've read many who thought that Avatar was over done, over the top, too many effects, not enough character development, not enough original idea. I have to disagree with all of that. My opinion is that Avatar is very close to movie watching nirvana, a sort of bliss. Why wouldn't we want to see the most incredible thing ever put on celluloid? Why wouldn't I want to watch that? I find it incredible to think that most of what we saw in Avatar doesn't exist in the real world, yet it totally looks like it does. I mean, it's flawless. It's not cartoonish. It's not like seeing a science fiction movie where you can tell where the effects are on the screen. It's not like watching Toy Story. It's an amazing accomplishment in story telling and it's an amazingly interesting movie experience.
My all time favorite movie, ever, is Raising Arizona. That movie is as basic and low-tech as it gets. Funny writing, quirky acting, great characters. Me and a friend I used to work with watched it dozens of times after closing the bar late. I used to have a good solid working number of how many times I'd seen that movie. I think the number was somewhere in the 60's. I lost track over the years how many times I've seen it, but let's say I've seen it 70 times, and that's a real number, not a bullshit number...no exaggeration at all. And now that I own Avatar, I can see watching it dozens of times. Yes, it's twice the length of Raising Arizona and no it won't overtake Raising Arizona as my all time favorite movie. But it will be in my top ten movies of all time. And here's the thing...for me, for my movie taste, there is no question that it's a beautiful, poignant piece, which has transformed movie making forever. This is the picture that has turned the corner of movie making,or perhaps it's turned movie making on it's collective ear. Everyone has opinions about the finished piece of art. Opinions are fair. I like opinions and i believe everyone has their right to their opinions. But what I don't like is when I read that someone is calling Avatar "crap" or something negative. First of all it was one man's dream, his vision to make this movie the way it was made. And the second thing is, to help him make his dream a reality, he enlisted fellow dreamers and fellow artists and fellow technicians to make it happen. And when they figured out they couldn't make something happen on film, they invented a way to do it. THEY INVENTED IT. It's a collective dream piece mastered by this industries finest and brightest talents. It was a ten year trek that led them all through dreams and nightmares and visions. I'm sure at times their faith in their work was tested and they questioned themselves many times. But what makes it great is that the hundreds and hundreds of people who gave themselves to the creation of this fine film were rewarded with the biggest box office in history, and with the single most ground breaking (technically speaking here)movies ever. Maybe of all time.
In the end, I want Avatar to get the respect that it deserves. It does deserve that. If you were in an art museum and you saw something you didn't care for, you'd still respect the painter and the style and the effort that was a made.
No comments:
Post a Comment