This post is titled:

Avatar

We saw it; it's pretty good. I concur with the recommendation we were given, that you want to see this in IMAX 3D or not at all. The movie is intended to be big and dimensional, so that's how you should see it. Part of the point of the film is that you really have to experience something from the ground to understand it.

Anyway, the movie itself is pretty good, too. The script is good, with no dialog I thought was dumb. The story is good; it's not the most original story, as many have pointed out, but it's good. James Cameron continues to be very good at presenting stories. A key to his story telling style is the way he introduces concepts and key objects way before they are used in the plot. Even if the plot relies on a deus ex machina, at least he shows you the machine and its DEUS button when the characters are getting their tour earlier in the film. If a magician is going to pull a rabbit from a hat, he shows you the hat and tells you about the rabbit before he does so. That's called performance. Cameron is good at it.

This is a good movie. It's not the most surprising or dramatically innovative, but it's very good, and it's totally worth seeing in the best theater you can. You will find it profoundly disappointing to see on video.

2010.01.18 at 10:00am EST

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