Avatar Review by X

First, I want to thank Wenxin for being our first reader (before I even got to see the blog). See Wenxin, you got both of the blog maintainers to comment on it, it's already a VIP status itself.

Now onto Avatar. I want to first start talking about the context in which I saw this movie. Feel free to skip the next 3 paragraphs if you're not interested.

When I organized a group of 17 to watch Avatar, my friend Jack warned me, "You're hyping it up too much, giving people way too much expectations. People aren't gonna like it as much." To which I replied, "I trust James Cameron. If he's been wanting to make this movie for 10 years, and then he has a really good reason to believe that it will be good. He has shown that he has talent, and he's put tremendous dedication into this movie. This movie should be good regardless of what the expectations are."

But I was scared.

You see, I hate it when I do something that people don't like (except when making mean comments at my friends). So I didn't want to come out of Avatar with people saying "wow X, you have such a crappy taste in movies, this movie sucked!" Especially when I was so anal about people getting there on time (I told people that if they didn't arrive 15 mins early, I would not let them in, and still make them pay for their tickets). I needed this movie to be sooooo darn fudging good that they'd forget about how mean I was, and just tell me how awesome I was in organizing this movie event.

AND IT WAS! Avatar is a solid Contender. All 17 people came out of the movie saying how great it was. It should definitely be nominated as "best picture" for Oscar (may not win, but definitely should be nominated).

Many people had a problem with the story in Avatar. I think the story is great as is. It's exceedingly simple -- a young, naive warrior is assigned a task to spy on the enemy, but in the process he falls so deeply in love, both literally (with a woman) and figuratively (with a culture), that he decides to switch sides and leave all that behind him for a chance at a new life. But what makes Avatar such a great movie is not its storyline, but in the way the movie has been executed.

James Cameron has paid attention to every single little detail that everything is just perfect (at least in my opinion). Sam Worthington's portrayal of Jake Sully as a tough marine with a soft heart, Zoe Saldana's portrayal of Neytiri as a warrior princess (can anyone say Xena?) with a weakness for guys like Jake, and Stephen Lang's portrayal of Colonel Miles Quatrich as the manly-man Clint Eastwood character was done so gracefully that I was convinced these actors weren't just merely actor -- they WERE the characters that they were playing. I wanted to get into the movie and punch Parker Selfridge (played by Giovanni Ribisi) in the face when he chuckles and says "they're just trees!" Manohla Dargis (regular NYTimes critic) nailed it when she said "He [Cameron] bring the movie to you [the audience]."

But a more business oriented person might argue, "James Cameron spent something like $230 million in production along, with advertising and everything, the movie amounts to something like $300 million. Is it truly worth it to make such a movie? Why not just make a movie like New Moon? It costed $50 million to make, and it's making $662 million as of now (Dec 29th 2009)"

Here's my counterargument.

1. I believe there is more to movie making than just money making. Movie is an art, and like all forms of art, it should be created with thought, and more importantly, with passion. If all you do is make things blow up and spice it up with some CGI (yes Michael Bay, I'm talking to you), then you're the credit of making the movie does not belong to you. It belongs to the Chinese people for inventing gunpowder (for explosives) and the graphic arts engineers (for the special effects). As long as you have them, you have a good movie. All you have to do is get the money.

2. Call me traditional and naive, but I do think that there is a place in this world for quality. When watching Sherlock Holmes today (Dec 28, 2009), which I will review in a later post, Avatar 3D was still sold out. This is on a MONDAY night. So even though New Moon has made $662 million and Avatar is still at $623 million, I say give Avatar some more time, because I bet people are still waiting to see it in 3D because tickets are still being sold out. As I told my friend Stephanie, if Avatar does not make more money than New Moon, I will eat my hat. And you are all welcome to force me to hold up on my side of bargain. I am THAT confident.

3. Avatar may not have changed movie making, but it has certainly made an impact on MY life. As one of my professor said *insert Chinese accent here* "you remember something one year, then two year, then NEVER FORGET FOR LIFE!" I will certainly not forget Avatar, whereas New Moon is very easily forgettable. Wait, I'm sorry, that is not correct; I don't think I'll forget New Moon either -- I don't think I'll ever forget how Kristen Stewart was so obviously playing with Taylor Lautner's six pack while telling him how much she loves her vampire boyfriend, and how Robert Pattinson delivered the line "you are MY brand of heroine" in the first twilight movie.

In summary "Avatar" is a must see. If you can't make it to the theater, then BUY THE BLU-RAY WHEN IT COMES OUT! Yes, you read it right, I'm telling you to BUY it (I certainly will). This is a must see (I told my oral surgeon this when I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled out), for it has definitely restored my faith in humanity -- that when you truly believe in something, when you truly have a passion, you WILL succeed.

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That was my review of Avatar. I hope I didn't sound too pretentious or anything. Feel free to disagree with me. And if you read through all of it, THANK YOU FOR DOING SO! I'm sorry you had to deal with my bad English.