Avatar: the verdict

So I broke down and went to see Avatar this weekend in IMAX 3D.  Spared no expense, got tickets a week in advance in the middle of the theater.  I was ready to be impressed by stunning visuals.  I knew the story was going to suck, so I wasn’t too disappointed with it.  The dialogue was unbearably predictable, but that was to be expected too.  The worst part was that I was expecting it to look amazing and while it looked pretty cool, it just wasn’t really that great.  I think the problem with Avatar is that basically the entire movie is CGI, even the landscape.  For me, the Lord of the Rings trilogy are the hallmark epic fantasy world adventure films.  The landscapes of those films are stunning, but also massive and immediate.  They draw you into a world of fantasy, something which Avatar's computer generated floating mountains never did.  I think what Peter Jackson had that James Cameron didn’t have was the spectacularly beautiful real backdrop of New Zealand upon which to build his world.  Another problem with Avatar is that while the Pandoran natives the Na’vi are all played by humans, it still like trying to connect with a cartoon character, that isn’t even in human form.  The animation is a natural barrier between us and the character, no matter how big their eyes are.  I think the moral of the story here is, it's still better to use CGI sparingly and interspersed with in-camera action and effects because no computer-generated, jellyfish-like floating seeds or glow-in-the-dark plants that man can imagine, can look as beautiful as what nature has already created.

Cameron vs. Jackson