Like one of the early IMAX offerings that felt more like a test run of what the technology could do, Avatar comes across as if it was purposefully written by amateurs, which is a startling contrast to the detail put into pretty much everything else this movie has to offer.Ĭameron remixes many techniques from his previous films in Avatar, such as the forbidden love dynamic of Titanic, the droll narration from Terminator, the space marine aesthetic from Alien, and so on. Which brings us to the main complaint lobbied at Avatar: its plot is too familiar and undemanding when you hold it against the beauty of the movie itself. And the same can be said for most of the characters meandering Pandora with their simplistic motivations that don’t boil down to much more than anti-war propaganda even our college professors would fine overbearing. He’s not terrible, but he’s also not very good. He’s meant to be a straight man to the wonders of Pandora, but he’s severely lacking of any charisma that compels our interest. It’s telling that Sam Worthington (the lead actor) has less animation than the characters made by a computer. What Avatar excels at is scope, in that it uses its effects for an impressive feat of world-building that makes its plot far more accessible than it deserves to be. This fusion of live-action with computer animation is nothing to scoff at, and for many moviegoers, a by-the-numbers plot is all the film really needed to impress. The character designs are inspired, the environments are as vibrant as they are subtle, and every application of CGI fits naturally, from the action scenes to the computer animated characters. The movie also boasts a wacky creativity for its fantasy sci-fi setting. While you can’t judge a movie solely on how it looks, you can certainly credit effort where it’s due, and Director James Cameron offered something truly beautiful that pushed the needle forward for how CGI can transcend the “uncanny valley.” What the movie does with color depth and digital effects is something 3D movies are still imitating today (and poorly most of the time). On a visual level, Avatar truly was a remarkable film when most of us saw it in late 2009/early 2010. This unpopular opinion was brought to me by fans of The Force Awakens who are simply frustrated with how the numbers turned out, but for my first Unopinionated, I’ve decided to address the fact that Avatar is an average movie, not a bad one.Īnd to do that, I’ll be addressing three key aspects of the film: the Good, the Bad, and the Meh. It’s a terrible film that doesn’t deserve its box office throne. That said, an “unpopular opinion” held by many is that Avatar isn’t just an average movie. Who wouldn’t want such a fun movie starring Han Solo again to do better than a dated rehash of Dances with Wolves? It was obvious to many people like myself that The Force Awakens wouldn’t draw in those same numbers worldwide, but I find it hard to blame anyone for believing a movie as hyped up as the new Star Wars film deserves to perform better than one of the most generic science fiction films in recent memory. For that reason, this was a global movie in which people saw 3D and IMAX for the very first time, hence all of the rereleases that would drive Avatar to an impressive box office take of well over $2.7 billion. It was the movie that spurred the release of worldwide theaters just to house the IMAX technology necessary to watch it. How did I know The Force Awakens would fall short? It wasn’t with all the confidence in the world, just a simple memory of how Avatar took the entire world (namely China) by storm with the introduction of 3D to the mainstream. It’s now February and my friend has conceded, seeing as how Star Wars is still roughly $800 million short of the 2009 3D epic and hasn’t even surpassed the #2 spot, Titanic. In October, I made a friendly bet with a fellow movie buff who was convinced Star Wars: The Force Awakens would dethrone Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all time. This week: loving Avatar is a hard thing to do now more than ever. Unopinionated is a brand new editorial series where I explore “unpopular opinions” and why they’re unpopular in the first place.
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