All Things Avatar

Big day yesterday. We finally finished Avatar AND I finally started Anthill.

First things first. Avatar. A number of people have asked me what I think of Avatar, so here it is. First you should know that as a single mother of two, the “two” part has effectively kept me from going to the movies for years. (I'm not going to name any names here, but you know who you are!) Sure, I catch the occasional Ice Age movie and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but for “adult” viewing, I have to wait until it comes out on Netflix.

Sadly, by that time a movie like Avatar has gotten so overhyped that I'm expecting it to truly blow me away. I had the same experience with James Cameron's Titanic movie (although I seriously heart all things Terminator!): not a bad movie, but by the time I finally get to see it, I'm really expecting SO much more.

So. Avatar. We've got Sigourney Weaver as a tough woman (Alien) and a hot young white man who meets a native (Pocahantas) and decides that her world is better than his (Dances with Wolves). The natives are blue (Smurfs), and James Cameron has created a whole world (all of Star Wars and much of Star Trek), including the flora and fauna and language (Klingon) in which the natives ride dinosaur-era winged creatures (the Prison Break guy in Dinotopia) and all of life is interconnected (Gaia; Isaac Asimov). Our hero must save the world (done many times, except that this time the world to be saved is not Earth) and become like his girl (Splash, City of Angels). While I agree that no film like this can possibly be complete without the presence of Sigourney Weaver, I do have to ask the obvious question: Where was Jeff Goldblum?

The hype coupled with my ancient (let's call it “classic”) TV made me less impressed with the movie than I probably would have been had I seen it on a large screen without months of hype. My TV, which is not as old as my car, was nonetheless bought during my marriage, so it's at least 8 or 10 years old. There's this one six-inch round spot on the television where if the lighting is just wrong, the actor's skin looks blue. Fortunately, this was not a problem while watching Avatar.

While typing this entry, I accidentally typed “Dances with Aliens”. In retrospect, I think that about sums it up.