I want to start this by saying that I was stunned and amazed and thrilled by the graphics and the effects in Avatar. The movie is visually beautiful, the creatures on the created world of Pandora are surprising and the language Cameron created for the natives has the lilt of a cross between Tolkien's Elvish and modern Gaelic.
I don't want to say too much about the move for the folks who haven't already figured out where the plot will be heading and want a surprise. Fair enough. However, I want to comment on the biggest complaint I had with the movie and I'm able to do that without spoiling it for those of you that haven't seen it yet.
I just want to pause for a moment here and say that if you have the chance to see the movie in 3D and/or IMAX, please do it. You'll be glad you did. I caught myself almost swatting insects, the 3D is so convincing.
Right, back to my complaint. I will say openly that now that I'm outside of the US I have become a bit sensitive about the portayal of the Average American in the media and toward the ideas that other nationals have about us. I consider myself to be more or less an average American, albeit a very liberal democrat American. My complaint is that the team of humans that were mining on Pandora, the military presence that resorted to violence at the drop of a hat and packed some serious firepower, and even the scientists who wanted to improve the lives of the natives by setting up schools for them...they were all American. I know that it's an American movie that was made in America by an American director/producer/writer/whathaveyou, but a multinational cast might be more representative of where humanity will be at that point in the future.
I see the effects of this kind of portrayal every day. Several months ago an Englishman told me that he didn't think that Obama would be in office long enough to make any positive changes because "He'll get assassinated. That's what you lot do in America, you shoot people." Today a customer at work insinuated that my family could help me find a book once he learned that I was born in Atlanta. The book was about reloading guns.
Anyway, if you can make it in to see Avatar at an IMAX, do it. The effects will blow you away...while the Americans on screen do the same.
-
"Do not love the world." How disturbing is THAT? I know what they are getting at, being the good preacher's daughter that I am...
-
Y'all, I am scared of guns. I will admit that right here and now. Scared Stupid Of Guns. Before you ask, I have fired two guns in my lif...
-
[From a post on the Book of Faces] I want to tell you about my good friend Brina. She was able to get some tickets to see the Indigo Girls l...
3 comments:
We are twins! I can't tell you how much time I have spent cringing over the way American culture is portrayed/perceived.
And my English husband thinks I'm over-reacting from time to time...but there's a reason Americans are seen the way we are in other parts of the world.
Now that pretty much everyone who wants to see this movie has seen this movie, I feel I can safely give my opinon of it without ruining it for anybody. Dances With Wolves In Space. Same plot. Highly predictable.Visually stunning, yet I was literally bored to tears. I stopped caring what happened to any of the characters about 15 minutes into the movie. It was a waste of $12.
Post a Comment