Saw it. Liked it. There may be spoilers from here on so proceed at your own risk. If you go expecting a great story line, you may be disappointed – on this continuum, I’d put it right between Star Wars (classic quest yarn, well realized) and The Phantom Menace (wha?). That may actually be a decent analogy – Terminator was an edge of seat experience when I first saw it, just as Star Wars was; since then both Cameron and Lucas have been having fun with tech at the expense of storytelling. Cameron hasn’t gone all the way – there is a narrative in Avatar. I’ve got to agree with Annalee’s critique of the movie, though I do think that Sully’s (easily anticipated) final choice is a variation that helps rescue things a bit. So, what did I like?
Critters! Yes, they’re bilaterally symmetrical and often look a lot like beasts here (blue space horsies, anyone?), but I’m a sucker for just about any kind of speculative exobiology. Cameron could have been a LOT more daring in his critter design without going as far as Eganesque info-processing Sierpinski carpets (tough to relate to) but you gotta take what you can get . While I’m on the subject, let me recommend a few good specbio picture books – After Man, Expedition and Worlds. When I see Avatar again I’m planning on ignoring the bipeds most of the time and concetrating on hammerhead peacockotheria, tubewormplants and their ilk.
Tech! The best CG faces ever – they avoided the uncanny valley altogether. This one worried me – I’ve seen snatches of The Polar Express on teevee – it’s horrifying. 3D – I stopped consciously noticing depth about 5 minutes in. Part of my motivation for the second view is to try to figure out whether good 3D makes a difference – I’m going to see the non-3D version.
Action! Cameron does good action scenes – there were no surprises in the big final battle, but it was quite exciting anyway.
Neither here nor there – Avatar has the McGuffiniest McGuffin ever – although, unsurprisingly, the thing that motivates all the conflict fades into obscurity damn quick. The name? The notion that anything is worth transporting over interstellar distances given light speed/energy constraints? Wow.
That’s it – light entertainment with oodles of ‘ooh, shiny’.
