2009-12-31, 02:42 AM
Very amazing work of film.
My initial reaction to this film was that it would be an epic flop of a movie. The plot seemed dumb, shallow, and pretentious.
It is. When you have a very well defined boundary of "this is good guy, this is the bad guy", the plot is instantly stupid and hardly believable. The Colonel was some warmonger who was just plain "i am ebul military man", and was two-dimensional at best. In fact, it's almost instantly noticeable how hard James Cameron's script tries to put one group as the good guy and the bad guy, most of the people who planned to extract unobtainium were just plain in it for the money and that's it. There's zero moral dilemma in that; they're easily delineated as the bad guys as its way too evident that they're the "bad guys" in this situation. When you have clear set "bad guys", it's easily noticeable how less believable the story is, and it becomes obvious that it's shallow and pretentious, which immediately lowers my opinion.
But everything about how cinematography and actual execution works so right. There's always a very engaging sense of adventure that keeps the story interesting; and the 3D really enhances this excellent part of the story. For an example, friggin' domesticating pterodactyls sounds stupid, but watching him go for the challenge instead brings about a certain sense of adventure and discovery; and when he starts falling with his new mount and discovered flight for the first time, something felt really majestic and amazing about that. Also, being introduced to the whole world as Jake Sully experiences it really evokes that sense of discovery and the awe that comes with it.
Then we've got the obvious mental journey of Jake Sully and some of the Na'vi ideas like unity with nature. I really like how the visuals try to bring out this idea so that it wasn't just random dialogue mumbo jumbo thrown in.
All in all, good movie.
My initial reaction to this film was that it would be an epic flop of a movie. The plot seemed dumb, shallow, and pretentious.
It is. When you have a very well defined boundary of "this is good guy, this is the bad guy", the plot is instantly stupid and hardly believable. The Colonel was some warmonger who was just plain "i am ebul military man", and was two-dimensional at best. In fact, it's almost instantly noticeable how hard James Cameron's script tries to put one group as the good guy and the bad guy, most of the people who planned to extract unobtainium were just plain in it for the money and that's it. There's zero moral dilemma in that; they're easily delineated as the bad guys as its way too evident that they're the "bad guys" in this situation. When you have clear set "bad guys", it's easily noticeable how less believable the story is, and it becomes obvious that it's shallow and pretentious, which immediately lowers my opinion.
But everything about how cinematography and actual execution works so right. There's always a very engaging sense of adventure that keeps the story interesting; and the 3D really enhances this excellent part of the story. For an example, friggin' domesticating pterodactyls sounds stupid, but watching him go for the challenge instead brings about a certain sense of adventure and discovery; and when he starts falling with his new mount and discovered flight for the first time, something felt really majestic and amazing about that. Also, being introduced to the whole world as Jake Sully experiences it really evokes that sense of discovery and the awe that comes with it.
Then we've got the obvious mental journey of Jake Sully and some of the Na'vi ideas like unity with nature. I really like how the visuals try to bring out this idea so that it wasn't just random dialogue mumbo jumbo thrown in.
All in all, good movie.