יום שישי, 1 בינואר 2010

My thoughts on the movie Avatar

Yes, you can watch the movie, then come out of it and cry: "but it wasn't like Terminator at all!" -
but... why would it be? James Cameron is a multi-genre director and writer - who can make good action movies, good dramas and good love stories. Avatar is a tight fantasy "disney-like" love-story, and as such it is built in a somewhat "standard" formalistic fashion, for the genre. Yes, you can watch each moment of the movie and shout to yourself: "I knew exactly that that's what's going to happen" - but why would you?

If you won't suspend your disbelief and give it a rest - you will lose the movie and the tremendously wonderful things it has to offer for the viewer. In those boundaries of a fantasy fairy-tale for all of the family type of movie - the story works. The characters are in the right places - going through the right stages and voyages in a fairly believable fashion. Especially that of the female character (Neytiri), portrayed by actress Zoe Saldana (Rebooted Star Trek's young Uhura) who does a tremendous job (IMDb's trivia section states that Cameron took the crew for treks in Hawaiian jungles - to help them prepare for their roles - Saldana was wearing "warrior clothes" plus a "tail" - to get in the mood...).




Moreover, Cameron weaved into the script certain scenes that really upgrades the amount of realism and reliability of the characters (for me, at least) - specifically one memorable short shot:

SPOILER!!!!!!!11:
After Neytiri teaches Jake how to fly on those winged creatures and they fly together - there is a short shot showing them sitting on the mountain and sharing their mutual experiences from the flight - Neytiri is all hyped-up and like telling Jake something like: "I was flying near the... and then I almost hit the..." etc. - for me - this small segment of the movie bought me completely - it immediately portrayed those two characters in my mind as "real" - as this what I would expect from those two to do immediately after their flying session - to sit down and enthusiastically share the experiences with each other... from that moment on - I was sold...
END SPOILER

And there are many other touching and emotional moments in the film.

Another element the disgruntled viewer might miss-out is the amazing visual richery the movie has to offer. The movie's plot is set on an imaginary faraway jungle planet - which is filled with beautiful and visually stunning fantasy creatures, plants, trees, mountains - colorful and intensifying - a celebration for the eyes.

And the 3D is really great. While most other 3D movies makes use of the 3D in a way that looks like they're doing it just to "show-off" - this one incorporates it in a way that looks reasonable and right.
Some objects in the background are farther away than others, some objects in the foreground are closer than others and likewise for the midground - while normal 2D frames have "foregrounds,midgrounds and backgrounds" - this one has those as well - but each one of them actually consists of several different layers of depth (the foreground has several depths, the background has several depths, etc.) - thus, actually adding new ingredients to the whole concept of "frame composition".

Another cool thing about the 3D - is that the movie has 3D subtitles in Hebrew. The subtitles are actually a object in its own on the 3D space - which is usually apparent in the upmost frontal layer - though sometimes you can see other parts of the frame actually appearing "in front" of the subtitles (in those cases - the subtitles appear on the side, or on another location on the frame, so that the other frontal objects won't cover them - it's cool, makes the subtitles naturally blend into the 3D environment...)

If you are ready to suspend your disbelief - open your eyes and accept - you will find this movie to be a thrilling and an exciting experience not like any other movie you've ever seen!