Avatar: The Hype vs The Reality

So I saw Avatar today with Karen, Liz, Timmy, David, Kathy, and William. Post is pretty much spoiler free. This movie has been overhyped so I was not expecting so much from it. I knew it would be visually amazing, but with a slim story. I thought it would never live up to the hype. I must say, it lives up to the hype and the weakest part of the plot is the quest for “unobtanium” (who thought up that horrible name?)

I am always predisposed to Sigourney Weaver, and I wasn’t let down there. I am not a Sam Worthington fan, but he did a bang-up job in the film. Stephen Lang stole the show as far as real people go. The real star of the show was the special effects, something that is normally dangerous. But this movie delivers and doesn’t seem one bit the 162-minute running time. We saw it in 3D, but I am not a fan of 3D and would have been just as happy watching it in 2D.

I have a few quibbles. Early in the film the Navi arrows will not go through the glass on the spacecrafts but later they do. This is inconsistent and unexplained. Another thing that drove me crazy is that the Navi are much larger in size than humans. However, they vary in size from shot to shot. If you’re (example) 1.5 times bigger then you’re always 1.5 times bigger — you can’t keep changing it.

I really do need to say, this is a movie you should see. It’s good. It’s not great by any standard but it’s a good, solid film.

In other news, it’s 41º and raining. It’s like a little bit of London come home with me. Not much to report for the rest of the day: woke up, went to breakfast with Dave, John, Liz, then skating with Evan, Liz, and John before going to the movie. Came home and ran to the dry cleaners and post office before setting in to watch the Jets v Bengals and write this post.

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