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I finally made it to see Avatar this evening.
If there was ever a movie worthy of being seen on IMAX 3D, this was it - I was more than happy to pay £9 for total immersion in a gorgeous and different world for 3 hours. Pity the plot was so utterly predictable, but I hadn't been expecting much from that anyhow. I did feel moved from time to time, but mostly from the sheer beauty of what was filling my field of vision, though to be fair perhaps I'd have been more invested in the world presented if much of my brain was flipping between Wow, that's so cool! and What the heck is that out-of-focus object in the foreground? (I conclude that for the immersive effect of 3D to work, deep focus is necessary, at least on a huge screen where the main part of the action is too big to take in without moving your focus.)
I left the cinema feeling awed but rather embarrassed at the storyline. I'm not quite sure why that would be - there are plenty of cliched action or romance films out there. Perhaps it's because this one seemed to be trying to be portentous, invoking a thin spirituality to add meaning. Perhaps it's because I can enjoy stock plots of good guy vs bad guy (The Patriot comes to mind) but eco-destruction-porn makes me uncomfortable. Or perhaps having the good guys on a more close-knit planet win just seems a convenient way of displacing concern for our home-grown ecocide.
But perhaps I'm being too cynical. Perhaps fear of ecocide is just part of our psyche at the moment, so of course it will bubble up in creative works. Just as we watch endless permutations of romance (or read endless permutations of non-con porn), perhaps revisiting the story of ecocide and cultural destruction is something we need to do. And, after all, it's been twenty years now since Dances With Wolves, and twenty-four since The Misson.
That said, it would be interesting to see a film that explores our complicity rather than encouraging us to identify with the innocent 'others' and go skipping happily off into the sunset leaving behind creature comforts, economics and multi-million-dollar entertainments.
It was visually stunning, though, especially the night scenes.
If there was ever a movie worthy of being seen on IMAX 3D, this was it - I was more than happy to pay £9 for total immersion in a gorgeous and different world for 3 hours. Pity the plot was so utterly predictable, but I hadn't been expecting much from that anyhow. I did feel moved from time to time, but mostly from the sheer beauty of what was filling my field of vision, though to be fair perhaps I'd have been more invested in the world presented if much of my brain was flipping between Wow, that's so cool! and What the heck is that out-of-focus object in the foreground? (I conclude that for the immersive effect of 3D to work, deep focus is necessary, at least on a huge screen where the main part of the action is too big to take in without moving your focus.)
I left the cinema feeling awed but rather embarrassed at the storyline. I'm not quite sure why that would be - there are plenty of cliched action or romance films out there. Perhaps it's because this one seemed to be trying to be portentous, invoking a thin spirituality to add meaning. Perhaps it's because I can enjoy stock plots of good guy vs bad guy (The Patriot comes to mind) but eco-destruction-porn makes me uncomfortable. Or perhaps having the good guys on a more close-knit planet win just seems a convenient way of displacing concern for our home-grown ecocide.
But perhaps I'm being too cynical. Perhaps fear of ecocide is just part of our psyche at the moment, so of course it will bubble up in creative works. Just as we watch endless permutations of romance (or read endless permutations of non-con porn), perhaps revisiting the story of ecocide and cultural destruction is something we need to do. And, after all, it's been twenty years now since Dances With Wolves, and twenty-four since The Misson.
That said, it would be interesting to see a film that explores our complicity rather than encouraging us to identify with the innocent 'others' and go skipping happily off into the sunset leaving behind creature comforts, economics and multi-million-dollar entertainments.
It was visually stunning, though, especially the night scenes.
