Monday, December 28, 2009

'Avatar' Transports You to New Worlds

Avatar movie posterThe “Technology Quarterly” edition of The Economist, which publishes four times a year, displays new technology that most people aren’t aware of. I first learned about wireless mobile phone recharging (Palm Pre), completely electric cars (Nissan Leaf), and virtual autopsies (likely to appear on CSI soon) in Technology Quarterly. That’s also where I learned about 3-D computer monitors and televisions. I still can’t wrap my mind around that.

James Cameron’s blockbuster, Avatar, exhibits 3-D like moviegoers have never seen before. You still must wear glasses, but not those nauseating red and green ones. You forget you’re wearing them as soon as you see the alien moon, Pandora.

We watch movies to share culture, and for something to talk about, and just for something to do. The good ones trigger an emotional response like happiness or inspiration. The great ones sweep us to a new reality and make us forget that we exist as we live through the characters, and see what they see. Avatar, which is estimated to have cost $300-400 million including marketing, succeeds with this in two ways.

The three-dimensional world of Pandora comes to life like Planet Earth only wished it could. You can almost feel the creatures’ snarling breath, and the rain dripping off the huge leaves of the forest. Halfway through the movie the person behind me dripped soda on me, and for a second I actually thought it was from one of Pandora’s broadleaf evergreens.

And without a single dull second in its 160 minutes, Avatar allows you to live through the hero and heroine. Though considered a science fiction/action/adventure flick, Avatar is much more of a love story (even Cameron’s The Terminator was a love story masked by a sci-fi action classic starring Lord Schwarzenegger) with its typical storyline: guy fools girl to get something he needs, falls in love with her, and then wishes he hadn’t fooled her. Most movies, books, and songs revolve around a guy trying to find a girl, or vice versa. Avatar succeeds because it is so creative, and you feel the characters’ pain and adversity.

My family was supposed to see Avatar with all the other Jews and Chinese on Christmas, but it was sold out by 11:00 a.m. for the entire day. When I checked times later that day for IMAX showings on December 26, Avatar was already sold out, so I settled on non-IMAX (but still 3-D). The movie is truly revolutionary, and if you do not see it in the theaters in 3-D then you are the fool.

I have attempted to be objective in my ranking, and even tried separating the movie from the 3-D, which is probably impossible since they are intertwined. Assuming I can mentally remove the 3-D, the standalone movie is still the best of the year, followed by Transformers 2 and Zombieland. Including the 3-D, it was one of the most enjoyable cinematic experiences of my life. That is a bold statement, one in which I try hard not to make, but I cannot stop thinking about it and wishing I was re-watching it right this moment. “Just remarkable,” my dad said upon exiting the packed theater.

James Cameron surely made many millions of dollars for this project that he’s been working on for some 15 years, but the aggregate value that we consumers receive far exceeds his payment. There is rumored to be one or two sequels, and so long as Aquaman is not simply an Entourage creation, Cameron best get cracking.