Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Three-dimensional ... to a point: "Avatar"

Yes, it's that time of year when your humble blogger usually manages to see more than one movie a month. Between the holiday time off and the buildup to the Oscars, this typically is when I can do the most damage at the cineplex. And I'm not talking about the last stall after I've had a jumbo popcorn.

This week we're knocking out a couple of "Gotta See on the Big Screen" pics, the first being James Cameron's latest labor of love. I heard of "Avatar" several months ago, then saw the trailer ... over the summer, I think. Neither the plot not the trailer really wowed me, but with favorable -- some might say fawning -- reviews and the accolades over the technology, I felt obligated to give this tale of tall blue aliens a whirl.

You know the story by now: In the future, our planet is vaguely in a bad way, so we're trying to mine a faraway world, Pandora, for a precious mineral. The natives, however, are more than restless. They really, really, really don't want to make way for the white man. To get in their good graces -- and minimize the threat of all-out war -- the big bad corporation and some scientists have come up with a way to "inhabit" alien-like bodies and mingle with the vox populi. That's handy, since the atmosphere is poisonous to humans.

Into this fun stumbles a Marine (Sam Worthington) who is paralyzed from the waist down. His twin brother was part of the avatar program but died, leaving our hero as the only guy with the same DNA who can inhabit that body. Before long, our man has wormed his way into the tribe, to the great interest of the lead scientist (Sigourney "Deal of the Century" Weaver), the corporate guy (Giovanni "The Mod Squad" Ribisi) and the top soldier (Stephen "Band of the Hand" Lang).

Raise your hand if you know what happens next. I mean, we've all seen "Dances with Wolves," right? Our hero becomes one of the tribe, falls in love with the hot young warrior girl (Zoe Saldana, not that you'd recognize her) ... blah, blah, blah. Then there's the repercussions and violence, and it ain't pretty.

Make no mistake: Cameron has created an impressive alien world, throwing in all sorts of weird creatures, geologic impossibilities and an array of lights and colors. And I saw this bad boy in 3D, which made things pop even more. It's not so much the "Look out! Something's coming right at us!" What really jumped out at me (pun intended) is all the layering. We see stuff in the foreground, stuff in the background, stuff floating around. It really did look like the screen sunk way back into the theater. Neat effects, and it definitely helped bring this strange place alive.

The story and performances? Eh, not so much. Saldana is alluring in a way, and Lang nails the grizzled vet thing before becoming a cartoon. But really, nobody dazzles with anything beyond their one-dimensional roles. The plot is maybe a step above pedestrian. There's a nice "one with nature" aspect, and the effects play to that. But it never really dips below the surface, which could be by design since you may not want to draw brainpower away from processing the visuals. Still, I think I could have taken it.

In the end, Cameron shows once more how he can deliver something new in the effects department. "The Abyss" gave us shape-shifting water, while "Terminator 2" had that liquid metal. Then there was the epic destruction of "Titanic." Here we get the latest CGI and a lot of motion-capture in 3D, and the long, tall aliens are cool, I suppose. Think Gollum, but bigger and better. Still, it is only special effects, and with more than half of the scenes using them, you're going to notice a few holes. Put another way, the aliens didn't look real all the time.

That's a tiny thing, of course, and on the whole "Avatar" is a sight to behold. Not the total package, maybe, but a big-screen experience -- I imagine in 2D as well as 3D. But then you wouldn't get those cool glasses.

1 Comments:

At 10:52 AM, Anonymous slumus lordicus said...

Best picture nom from Golden Globes- foreign press must be smoking something good. Best visual effects- should be the winner in GG and AA. I don't think the movie will translate well to the small big screen. This film and the 3d gimmick is what the big movie houses are made for.

 

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