Avatar: The Experience of 2009

So I saw Avatar (in 3D, of course) with my fiance and my Dad the Friday before the "Blizzard of '09". In fact the blizzard started while we were in the theater--when we came out there was already a good four inch white fuzzy blanket covering everything. It was a surreal experience going into a theater seeing just light flurries and coming out to a winter wonderland. But perhaps the only thing that could trump the sights outside of the theater would be the visual specticle we saw inside the theater.

Sure, what you have heard about Avatar is true in a certain sense--it's long and the dialogue is a bit hokey--but to me those a strengths rather than weaknesses. It is long because Cameron wants to envelope you in this world that he has created. He wants you to go on the same journey of discovery as the main character, Jake Sully. The dialogue is hokey--but only in a fun way. The type of way that puts a smile on your face rather than makes you roll your eyes. It's a fantasy/sci-fi movie--so the writing will feel a bit different, if not odd.

One reviewer stated that Avatar is "the closest we will get to visiting another planet." and I whole-heartedly agree with her. Cameron's attention to detail is what makes this film special, and this is due to the innovative 3D technology that was created specifically for the film. Once you get used to the 3D--which I will admit takes about 15 minutes--you forget that you are even wearing 3D glasses, or that you are even watching a 3D movie. You are literally watching an experience, and it works best if you simply let yourself get lost in it.

I guess the best way to sum the whole experience up is I felt like a kid watching Star Wars for the very first time. I wasn't critiquing it. I wasnt trying to spot things that looked fake or felt unreal. I was simply marvelling at a created universe that felt enormous and mysterious. I wanted to know more about this place that seemed so alien--yet somehow still made sense. I never doubted what was on (or in this case, in) the screen. I accepted it and came out giddy like I was when I was 8 years old and Luke Skywalker just blew up the Death Star without his radar.

In the Arcade Fire song "Wake Up" Win Butler sings "Now that I'm older, my heart's colder". I've always found myself able to relate to that particular line. Sure Im still more optimistic than most people my age, but I can still feel that when I was young the world was full of possibility and you literally could do anything that you wanted--even if it meant something as fantastic as exploring another world. When you're a kid you just think Sure, it's easy to visit another world. You just build a space ship and you go there. Done. Another film this year expressed a similar sentiment to which I wrote about earlier: Where the Wild Things Are. While Where the Wild Things Are showed me what is lost from growing up, Avatar reminded me of what it felt like to be a kid. And if a movie can do that--if it can make you feel like a kid for two-and-a-half hours-- then God bless it.