Tuesday, February 2, 2010
We're Not Saying You Had To Be An Idiot To Have Liked Avatar, But...
I like to think that I began the Avatar backlash back in August four months before the film actually came out. So its nice to see that while the movie has become the most successful motion picture of all time the group of people who are least won over by its alleged charms are the science fiction geek community who expect more from their films than our non geeky brethren walking the streets. Geeks were the first ones to spot the Dances With Wolves connection, the FernGully connection, the Thomas Covenant connection and the general lameness of the film. I've come to the conclusion that the people who really loved Avatar were the same type of people who were amazed and terrified by trains coming directly towards them in the days of silent cinema. Several times over the last month I've been told that Avatar is all about enjoying the ride. Well, as RedLetterMedia point out in part two of this YouTube if you want to enjoy a ride go to bloody Disneyland. If you care about cinema stop supporting films like frickin Avatar, cos if you dont ten years from now all movies will be like this.
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35 comments:
Yesssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, I'm going to have to play the 'Old Fogie' card here.
This is exactly what we said when Star Wars came out. It was just a rehash of every B-western we were so tired of.
For the first half of the 70's it looked like movies were going to become something we could discuss on the same terms as books. Univesities started up film programs, critics started writing long, detailed articles, good analysis - which was possible because there was something there to analyze - and some of the best movies were actually movies, they weren't simply adaptations of books.
Hell, some of them were even westerns getting a little deeper and trying to tell some real stories.
It looked for a minute there like film might become something.
And then Star Wars came along and crushed everything under its Imperial Stormtrooper jackboot.
Oh, sure, we can blame Jaws, too, and even Close Encounters but in the beginning even Speilberg was trying to make movies.
I even have a soft spot for George Lucas, because as he said on The Daily Show a couple of weeks ago, he thought he was going to be a great filmmaker.
Who knows what happened, but maybe when the real stories and characters in American Graffiti got drowned in the wave of nostalgia he realized something right away that it's taken us thirty years to figure out:
The movies are a ride at Disneyland.
You know I had a funny experience a month or so ago. I was sitting in a bar talking to friends. I saw this guy at a distance and then his head just grew larger and larger larger till it took up the whole space.
They were projecting old movies on the wall, which I knew, but which didn't give me the context for what was happening for a second. It was very unsettling. It gave me some sense of what early movie viewing might have been like.
Read Alan's new book Winterland, everyone.
John, when is that TV show coming out? I thought it was January.
Loved Winterland.
There's a rumour the TV show will play in Canada after the Olympics. And in other countries but not the USA.
If we're very quiet and we don't spread it around I'll tell you it's because the scripts were terrible. It's very tough to have been a member of the one department that let the whole production down. I don't think I should talk about it yet, but I am keen to tell the story someday.
Well, that's very sad. I know it wasn't your fault, John, and look forward to hearing the dirt someday.
That seems very fitting for this posting, though.
I appreciate your faith, Seana, but I don't think I'm blameless.
It is somewhat appropriate for this post as the root of it all is money. James Cameron wants it and I want it.
I think you've already alluded to some of the dynamics that went on earlier. Waht is that called, the race toward the bottom or something like that.
John
I do take your point. Before Star Wars we had The Conversation etc. and then after we had action based films, but Empire Strikes Back in particular is a character based film and the characters are complex and do unexpected but logical things. They ARE multidimensional and interesting unlike the new Star Wars trilogy or the new Indiana Jones or Avatar. Things were heading in a dodgy direction but now they've gotten much much worse.
Seana
There's something very magical about it too. I remember when we used to watch home movies on the Super 8. It was a real occasion. Lights dimmed, projector on etc. Now they're up on youtube or on the computer and it doesnt quite feel the same.
Alan
I take you werent bowled over either.
And yup Winterland was my Irish book of the year last year. (In a strong year). Really lovely piece of work.
I know that there are maybe one or two people here who like both beer and maps. So I thought I'd post the link to this blog post, which I happened upon more or less randomly.
Things have gotten worse, absolutely, but I don't think it can entirely be blamed on the blockbuster - many of the great 70s directors, e.g. Coppola, Friedkin, Polanski, did themselves in without much help from anyone.
Even Scorsese's recent B.O. hits, The Aviator and the Departed, when viewed objectively in comparison to his classics, show a guy trying to reach for something that just isn't there any more, as much as it hurts me to say it. Funny, though, that his late-in-career, middle of the road efforts are his biggest financial successes...
But I think there's hope. There are still good writers and directors out there. I wasn't the biggest fan of Up in the Air but I think guys like Reitman are on the right track. Blockbusters look like they might become prohibitively expensive in Hollywood. As for Avatar, there seems a Dark Knight-esque mob mentality about it, people going back 4,5,6 times to watch it and adamantly defending it against anyone who would call it anything less than perfect. And these are people who have never even seen the director's cut of Aliens.
Hi Adrian,
No, not bowled over at all. Enjoyed it, sitting there with my glasses on, but got increasingly depressed, especially by the pantomime bad guy, and by the missed opportunities, for example there should have been a wow moment at the end where the Na'vi chick is confronted much more explicitly with the shocking contrast of Human Boy's real condition. But anyway, on the wider point, my fear is that this reflects the creeping triumph of computer games over movies (how much bigger is the games industry now over Hollywood, what order of magnitude?) and Avatar - which is horribly like a computer game, or a Disney ride - seems like a further capitulation in this direction. I have two small boys and I got a Wii recently so's they could dip their toes into the games world (they wanted to) and I am really struck by how viscerally taken with it they are (very basic movie-based games to start with) and how they are now watching fewer movies, and seem less engaged with that process. Keeping them reading is a priority, and an uphill struggle. I don't know from computer games, but they do seem to be narratively barren and retrograde. So I'm worried. About what lies ahead. Having said that, I can't see the endless power of their imaginations being that easily dampened . . .
(Thanks re de buke).
Seana
Yes that was interesting. I liked this map showing the bar grocery store ratio. Northern Massachusetts comes out as I would have expected.
Matt,
IMHO Scorsese's 3 worst films are The Departed, The Aviator and New York New York - the fact the two former ones got Oscars and lots of money is amazing to me. Apart from Mark Wahlberg's surprising performance I thought The Departed was worthless.
I liked Juno. Havent seen Up in the Air yet. A film like The Pasenger or The Conversation wouldnt get made today though would it? It'd be committeed to death.
It seems that there are two camps--one, small, which gets depressed while watching the movie, and one that gets depressed that it's over.
I might stay away and so not be depressed at all.
I think the connection Alan's made to the gaming world explains a lot. I'm not a gamer, but even I find the computer more enticing than the television sometimes and though this isn't always a bad thing, sometimes it is. But the interactive nature of computers does seem a plus over television passivity in some ways.
I just wrote a brief review of Winterland which you can find here.
Oh, and I really find Northern California to be a bit of a disappointment on that map, although I think it distorts the fact that beer is available pretty much everywhere here. In fact, I'm surprised we haven't started selling it in the bookstore. The lord knows we sell everything else these days.
Alan
Yeah for whats it worth (not very much I suspect) I lobbied for Winterland in a few quarters.
I like a video game as much as the next guy. (I once got to level 4 on Quake 3 without killing anyone which I consider to be a major achievement) but it would be nice to see a film that explored characters without being all artsy about it and dull. Mark Kermode promises us that The Prophet is that film but we'll see about it.
Seana
They sell beer in the cinema on Fitzroy Street here which I think is very civilized. I saw District 9 slightly toasted and really enjoyed it.
Of course in Santa Cruz people go to movies in an altered state all the time, but I think it's more often under the influence of a different substance.
Some friends were telling me about a new trend in movie theaters the other night. You pay some inordinate price to get in, 29 dollars was what they quoted, and in exchange you get reserved seating and people coming around serving food and I hope drinks. Sounds insane. What people seem to like is that, at that price, there aren't likely to be a lot of kids.
I find that a bit sad. If you can afford that for the movies, you might as well just get a home theatre and be done with it.
The other two people in this house have seen Avatar. Separately. Very unlikely situation, really. I have no wish to go anywhere near it.
Ah, the George Cinema ! Wonderful place. It's good they sell beer, cos I couldn't have made it through Avatar without assistance. And isn't Avatar supposed to be the first of a possible trilogy ? I can see a blue Sam Worthington heading back to Earth a la Planet of the Apes ! Has anyone seen the film version of The Road ? Any comments ?
Seana
Agree too much to see a movie and I'd be really ticked off if it was a bad movie. Thats why film critics have to be more honest.
Bookwitch
Nope dont think its your cup of tea.
Simon
Yeah the George is great. I dont think I could watch the Road. The book was harrowing enough.
I have to agree that while there is a marked lack of nuance in Avatar amongst the characters, the whole story is derivative and well worn, and it certainly can't compete with the likes of Empire Strikes Back, or the Mighty Blade Runner, I too enjoyed the ride, and I don't see it as a threat to great cinema. Actors will not be replaced by computers, and great film makers will still manage to shoot amazing special effects-free movies. There's just so much subjectivity in the movie-goer's experience, isn't there? I liked Avatar not because it was predictable and sort of clunky but because it was spectacular and fun. Sure, it's not Errol Morris, but that's not why I was there. And I love good sci fi, brother, no doubt. I did like District 9 better though . . . and The Road was about the most faithful adaption from a novel I can remember seeing, which means it was relentlessly, mercilessly bleak, dark, and depressing. I thought it was pretty awesome.
All that being as it were, I laughed my ass off at this two part review you posted. He pretty much nailed it.
HB
About the only thing I really took away from Avatar was Sam Worthington.
I think that kid is a real find. I wonder too if you can watch a 3D film if you wear glasses. I found the 3D specs really uncomfortable and started getting a headache about an hour in. I'm sure that didnt help my appreciation of the visuals.
OMG, I LOVE that RedLetterMedia review! I've watched it about 10 times now and laugh just as hard each time.
James Cameron was OK in my book for a while but he blew it, starting with Titanic. He just gets on my nerves with all that king of the world crap and that ridiculous Titanic love triangle makes me want to hurl.
I won't be seeing Avatar as long as I have to pay to see it because I really don't want to add to Cameron's coffers. I'll catch it when it's free on TV.
(I’m quite possibly the only person at Microsoft who hasn’t seen it.)
I think I'll wait until I can watch Avatar on my iPhone.
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Holden
Lash yourself to the mast. Do not succomb, it really isnt worth it.
RedLetterMedia's review of The Phantom Menace is something of a classic. Matt who comments here from time to time turned me onto it. Its a seventy minute long disection of the film, which I think might hold up even if you havent seen Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Peter
Or on your iPod.
My only small contribution to this conversation is to say that the spectacle has always been a large part of the appeal of movies. Movies that trade solely in spectacle have their place even if they aren't help up as high water marks for the medium.
I still haven't seen Avatar btw
I too read Winterland and liked it a lot and will have a review ready for the US release. I will say this, it is a critical review. Not a negative review but a critical one.
Brian
Criticial reviews are good. The review staffs of newspapers have been wiped out and then you have people like Ms Stasio who are company men to the bitter end. Intelligent critical reviews like yours can only help novelists, IMHO.
Brian
But I still think there's no comparision between a spectacle film like Jaws and Avatar. Jaws has 3 great characters, the USS Indianapolis speech on the Orca, the Mayor, evil yes, but completely understandable. Avatar has no memorable dialogue or characters.
I'll be interested in reading your review, Brian, so I hope you'll post a link here.
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