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fallon_ash at 10:38pm on 10/01/2010 under movie
fallon_ash at 10:38pm on 10/01/2010 under movieJust came home from Avatar.
And well... it's not like it was a bad movie. Not at all. It was a good solid piece of sci-fi adventure animation. Fell into a bunch of stereotyping gender traps, while managing some really good stuff as well. Women were warriors, men were warriors, women were scientists, men were scientists, and they were all good at what they were doing. This was all awesome. But scientists were nerdy whimpy tree-huggers (who coincidentally wanted to do The Right Thing), and real men were fighters, and Real Leaders and Protagonists and Antagonists were men (except for that female leader of the ocean clan, but she had about 1,5 seconds of screentime), and the Good Guys were beautiful and awesome and the Bad Guys were kinda ugly and short-sighted and liked to hurt others.
And the animation. *sigh* Quantity over quality, eh? It's not like the animation was bad. Not at all! It was good decent animated people. And a cool decent animated forest with cool decent animated animals. Good cool decent animations in every scene anywhere you look for almost 3 hours. But it still looked animated. And why is it that it's so completely impossible to get the speed of the movements right? I'm assuming it's BLOODY DIFFICULT to animate stuff. But the animation in this thing has been so very hyped, and honestly? I kinda like Lord of the Rings better. That said, it was really good. (I know that I'm the peanut gallery. The trickiest animation I've ever done is my f-only banner.)
Which brings me to what was on the screen. Seriously. A little creativity here?! This is supposed to be a distant planet that has evolved on its own for millions of years? And yet the intelligent beings came out looking pretty much like people only they have 4 fingers on each hand and are taller and blue, the horses kinda look like horses only they have 2 pairs of front legs, and the flying dragon thingies look like dinosaurs, and the leaves are green and look like leaves, and the trees look like huge honkin' trees, and the mushroom look just like mushroom except the hat is spiral-shaped. And pretty much everything is florescent. And this is not a big deal, according to Stargate every planet everywhere looks like Vancouver and its surrounding areas. But that's ok, because all the fans know that that's where they shoot the show, and that's what they have in their budget. But a movie of this magnitude, that you're building from scratch in the computers, and this is the world they create? It's a little boring. I guess they wanted something that would be relatable, but the beauty of sci-fi is that you can have Important Issues that are still important regardless of the way shape of form of the beings and the places that they exist.
That said, the jungle was gorgeous. I'd love to go there.
Also, the plot was a bit predictable, eh? I took one look at Grace and went 'Damn, Sigourney Weaver is still as gorgeous as ever, she's definitely gonna die.' And it was reinforced 20-fold when I saw those pics of her with the kids from the village. Dude. That was like putting a black cross on her forehead. And when they put her body and her avatar under the tree, and the shaman was all 'Eywa might choose to put her back in this body instead of her old one' I was like dude, that's not gonna work, because then we won't be Suitably Surprised and Impressed when it works for Hero Dude at the end of the movie when he decides to stay. And that's pretty much what happened. And of course Brother Leader had to die, because otherwise Hero Dude wouldn't have been able to rule the clan with his shaman wife after.
But all this said, it's not like it was a bad movie. It was a good solid piece of adventure, with good guys and bad guys and fantastic music and really cool flying scenes and so on and so forth. (I hate hate hate the heavy too-loud bass explosions though. I know that makes me whimpy, or whatever, but the bass reverberating through my sternum makes me nauseous, and also reminds me of being on a plane. Made me remember why I don't really like going to see movies in the theatre - and also how much I hate flying...)
And well... it's not like it was a bad movie. Not at all. It was a good solid piece of sci-fi adventure animation. Fell into a bunch of stereotyping gender traps, while managing some really good stuff as well. Women were warriors, men were warriors, women were scientists, men were scientists, and they were all good at what they were doing. This was all awesome. But scientists were nerdy whimpy tree-huggers (who coincidentally wanted to do The Right Thing), and real men were fighters, and Real Leaders and Protagonists and Antagonists were men (except for that female leader of the ocean clan, but she had about 1,5 seconds of screentime), and the Good Guys were beautiful and awesome and the Bad Guys were kinda ugly and short-sighted and liked to hurt others.
And the animation. *sigh* Quantity over quality, eh? It's not like the animation was bad. Not at all! It was good decent animated people. And a cool decent animated forest with cool decent animated animals. Good cool decent animations in every scene anywhere you look for almost 3 hours. But it still looked animated. And why is it that it's so completely impossible to get the speed of the movements right? I'm assuming it's BLOODY DIFFICULT to animate stuff. But the animation in this thing has been so very hyped, and honestly? I kinda like Lord of the Rings better. That said, it was really good. (I know that I'm the peanut gallery. The trickiest animation I've ever done is my f-only banner.)
Which brings me to what was on the screen. Seriously. A little creativity here?! This is supposed to be a distant planet that has evolved on its own for millions of years? And yet the intelligent beings came out looking pretty much like people only they have 4 fingers on each hand and are taller and blue, the horses kinda look like horses only they have 2 pairs of front legs, and the flying dragon thingies look like dinosaurs, and the leaves are green and look like leaves, and the trees look like huge honkin' trees, and the mushroom look just like mushroom except the hat is spiral-shaped. And pretty much everything is florescent. And this is not a big deal, according to Stargate every planet everywhere looks like Vancouver and its surrounding areas. But that's ok, because all the fans know that that's where they shoot the show, and that's what they have in their budget. But a movie of this magnitude, that you're building from scratch in the computers, and this is the world they create? It's a little boring. I guess they wanted something that would be relatable, but the beauty of sci-fi is that you can have Important Issues that are still important regardless of the way shape of form of the beings and the places that they exist.
That said, the jungle was gorgeous. I'd love to go there.
Also, the plot was a bit predictable, eh? I took one look at Grace and went 'Damn, Sigourney Weaver is still as gorgeous as ever, she's definitely gonna die.' And it was reinforced 20-fold when I saw those pics of her with the kids from the village. Dude. That was like putting a black cross on her forehead. And when they put her body and her avatar under the tree, and the shaman was all 'Eywa might choose to put her back in this body instead of her old one' I was like dude, that's not gonna work, because then we won't be Suitably Surprised and Impressed when it works for Hero Dude at the end of the movie when he decides to stay. And that's pretty much what happened. And of course Brother Leader had to die, because otherwise Hero Dude wouldn't have been able to rule the clan with his shaman wife after.
But all this said, it's not like it was a bad movie. It was a good solid piece of adventure, with good guys and bad guys and fantastic music and really cool flying scenes and so on and so forth. (I hate hate hate the heavy too-loud bass explosions though. I know that makes me whimpy, or whatever, but the bass reverberating through my sternum makes me nauseous, and also reminds me of being on a plane. Made me remember why I don't really like going to see movies in the theatre - and also how much I hate flying...)
mellow