Me and Jessica went to check out Avatar today after much delay. I've been aiming to see it since opening day but for one reason or another it was postponed until today. I knew I had to check it out in the theater because being the type of film it is, without the big screen and RealD 3-D experience it would probably seem like an overly long cartoon. Being a big fan of James Cameron's previous work I was looking forward to it, and here's what I thought.
During the film I actually caught myself thinking "I'll probably never watch this again"...this isn't because it's not good, because I thought it was...but because a lot of what made it so enjoyable was the 3-D. It's not traditional 3-D where shit is being shoved into your face every two seconds, but it really just gives the movie a sense of depth and makes the effects look even cooler than they already are. So basically, I thought it looked awesome, no question. As for the story, it's good, but it didn't blow me away. A lot has been made about the fact that it's a cliched story, that's it's no more than Dances with Wolves with aliens instead of Indians. Sure, there are familiar things in here...but it's a new thing and it is it's own thing. I think the reason it didn't have the amount of enjoyment for me that classics from Cameron like T2 or Aliens did was because I really enjoy how he deals with the action of people that are adept with guns and make firing weapons look badass. This time, the military is the enemy and the heroes are fighting not with automatic weapons and vehicles but with bows and arrows and flying dragons. The corporate military present in the film does provide an excellent villain in the form of Stephan Lang's Colonel.
All in all, I enjoyed it and would enjoy seeing it again if the 3-D experience was preserved (I hope the upcoming Blu-Ray 3-D technology is comparable to the theater). If you want to check it out, do so in the theater for sure.
