David Theiss

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Giavanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver

Directed by: James Cameron

After 15 years of hype and anticipation, Project 880, or James Camerons’ Avatar, is finally here.  Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive and anticipation has reached a fever pitch.  Hell, Roger Ebert cited Star Wars in the first paragraph of his review to describe the experience.  Everyone knows the general story by now as it has been rehashed again and again in the media as of late so I won’t do so here.  The only question that remains is whether or not Avatar lives up to the hype.  Is it as good as everyone hoped it would be?  And the answer is: kinda.

Avatar is a pretty good movie.  That’s as far as I can go.  It’s not great by any stretch of the imagination and all the “four star” and “A” ratings that it’s getting are really boggling my mind.  Sadly, with a movie this big, it will turn out that if I don’t absolutely love it, most of my comments will be negative, and most people will take from this review the idea that I must obviously hate the movie.  And that couldn’t be further from the truth.  So, right from the beginning I’ll say it: Avatar is a good movie.  I liked it a lot.  I recommend it and you should definitely go see it.  But with all that being said, Avatar can be described as nothing else but a modest disappointment.  I feel similarly to this movie as I did to Inglourious Basterds.  Both were built up so much and were ultimately victims of their own hype.  I’ll try to break it down:

Story: At the end of the day, the story of the movie may be the biggest disappointment.  It’s completely trite and cliche and is based off the oldest of character archetypes.  There are no surprises or interesting character developments.  You don’t get any insight into any of the character nor do any of them particularly make any huge changes throughout the movie that the film doesn’t absolutely require them to.  Minus all the affects and artistic design, you have seen this movie before – many, many times.  And the saddest part is that its so predictable.  While it’s nowhere near as bad as the Star Wars prequels, something still feels very stiff and sterile; like there’s a fill-in-the-blanks book somewhere for directors that teaches them how to make “epic”  movies.  The whole film feels rushed (which is quite an accomplishment for a film that runs 2 hours and 40 minutes) and is lacking any actual “moments” that don’t constitute marveling at the technology or CGI.  Story details that should be given real time to breathe are discussed only in passing and with little attention.  To say the least, I expected a lot more.

And on top of that all, it’s really preachy.  The ignorant and greedy white man seeks to steal land and resources from an innocent and peaceful indigenous people.  The real-world overtones are so clunky and obvious they’re almost groan-inducing.  And even though I’m in film’s wheelhouse as far as my political leanings as they relate to the lessons of the movie – even I found it pretty lame (Note: using the term “shock and awe,” at any time, is retarded – sorry).

Performances: There are two actual performances in the movie: Zoë Saldaña who we only see as a CG character Neytiri, and Stephen Lang as the evil corporate mercenary Miles Quatrich.  Both are excellent and really anchor the movie.   Saldaña particularly pulls off quite a feat due to the fact that her performance is 100% motion-captured but feels true and authentic throughout.  Other than those two, the performances are all pretty poor.  Sam Worthington shows even less charisma than he did in Terminator Salvation and Sygourney Weaver is just going through the motions as the bleeding-heart scientist.  The script is much to blame as it doesn’t give them much to work with by way of memorable lines or witty dialogue, but with so much talent you would expect more.

Visual Effects: Quite honestly, the real star of the movie.  The environments are absolutely stunning.  Pandora is a living breathing world that always feels complete and tactile – it’s feels like a real place.  They far surpass the Star Wars prequels’ use of CG environments and finally moves beyond the video gamey feel that many of those backdrops had – i.e. it doesn’t feel like actors standing in front of a big painting.  The flora and fauna all feel appropriately beautiful  and the creature models are spectacular.  The Na’vi character models are also very good, but still fall short of being completely photo-realistic as Cameron intended.  Their facial expressions are particularly stunning in their realism as is the realism of the mouth movements when speaking.

3-D: This gets a “meh” in my book.  Some parts are really cool – particularly the flying scenes and anything having to do with real heights.  But for the most part the 3-D is just a novelty.  It’s cool and adds a little bit of flavor to the movie, but I’d like to see it again without the 3-D on the big screen.  Plus, it seems like the frame rate suffers in scenes with really fast movement – but that only happens a few times.  Particle effects and the smalls jellyfish like creatures that float around look pretty awesome, as well.

So, while the story isn’t as compelling as advertised, and despite all my gripes, the movie is still very good.  The middle of the film especially, when Sam Worthington’s character is learning the ways of the Na’vi, is where the movie is strongest as well as the final showdown between Sully and Colonel Quatrich.  Everyone should really go see it regardless of your movie interest for the sheer fact that it’s a true EVENT film – an event film of a quality we don’t seem to get anymore.

My Grade: (a mildly underwhelmed, but strong) B Read more…

I really liked the first one – didn’t love it.  And it definitely got overshadowed by The Dark Knight.  Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most under-rated actors of his generation and after the phenomenal “The Wrestler”, I hope Mickey Rourke continues his comeback tour.  This teaser came out earlier today, you may have already seen it, but it warrants a quick posting for sure.  To say the least, it looks pretty badass.  So everyone, enjoy this trailer and then wait the mere 5 or so  months until its release.

Looks like the trailer isn’t in a format that I can embed in my blog here right away, so follow the link below to check it out.  Once it gets onto YouTube in an appropriate quality, I’ll stick it in.   Until then, CLICK.

Starring: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale

Directed by: Kirk Jones

I’ve taken a few days off before writing about this for no other reason other than the fact that blogging has gotten a little tedious.  It’s hard to sit down at the computer and pump out three or four paragraphs these days.  I’m not overly busy, I think it’s just because I’m overly lazy.  But, in any event, Katie (shout out!) and I did see “Everybody’s Fine” this past weekend, so I’d really be slacking big-time if I didn’t take the time out to write at least a little tid-bit.

The general theme of the movie seemed to revolve around Robert De Niro as a widowed patriarch of a family trying to reconnect to his four children, three of which are played by Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore.  Since all four of his children live as far away from each other as cinematically possible, the movie sends De Niro on a trip around the country on trains and automobiles (he doesn’t fly apparently for health reasons) surprising each child one at a time.

Going into “Everybody’s Fine” I had pretty indifferent expectations.  I figured Robert De Niro hasn’t been in a great dramatic picture since Jackie Brown, odds were I was going to be blown away by this movie either.

And I was right.

However, the movie is really good.  De Niro, even if he looks a little uncomfortable throughout, has genuine charm as the wandering father.  While each of his three children are only given limited screen time, their stories’ feel complete and complement the over-arching story arch nicely.  And even if no real resolution comes at the end of the film, there is an extremely touching scene involving De Niro speaking to a family member beyond the grave that is especially emotional (Katie was tears-down-her-cheeks crying).

“Everybody’s Fine” is just the movie I need.  It has primed the film pump and will hold me over until Avatar hits this Friday.  I’ll definitely be writing a bigger review for that – and hopefully in a more prompt manner than this one.

My Grade: B