Thoughts on Avatar

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read if you have not seen the movie and intend to watch it, as I may or may not give some stuff away.

I will confess that I originally had not desire to watch this movie. I'm not much of a sci-fi fan, so I wasn't really intrigued when I saw the preview in theaters. But after it came out, everyone, I mean E-VERY-ONE, was talking about it! I don't think I've ever heard so much positive talk by so many people before. Everyone kept talking about how amazing it looked yadda yadda yadda. Some people did mention that there wasn't much in the way of the actual script, which confused me. The whole reason I usually go to watch a movie is because of the actual story, but here are a handful of people saying that the movie was amazing, even though the story was so-so. Curious.

Anyhow, Jeff really wanted to see it, so we had a couple discussions on whether we were going to go together or if he should just go with the guys. I was torn. I really didn't want to spend $12 on a movie I didn't REALLY want to see, but everyone was talking so much about it, it had to be good--and what if I was missing out on watching the best movie ever made?? So I gave in and we ended up going yesterday with Jeff's parents (thanks again!).

A couple things: 1) we didn't see it in 3-D, and as soon as the movie started we realized this was a mistake; and 2) we went to Foothill ranch, and the theater was tiny, so I feel like we got jipped on that one too.

Overall, I thought the movie was great. Jeff and I are actually really torn on whether we should go watch it again in 3-D (thoughts?). Thankfully Jeff's parents paid for the first round, so we wouldn't really be paying twice to see the same movie...or that's what I tell myself ;)

Here are the only issues I had with the movie:

1) As I've gotten older, I've realized (with the help of Jeff), that I hate when characters are over-scripted. I'm not sure that's the right term to convey my feelings: the good guys are too good, and the bad guys are too bad, it's just not realistic (I know, I know, its a movie and it's not supposed to be real, but still...). So every time the general came into play, I was really annoyed. He actually reminded me of the GI-Joe cartoon, but in real life. I mean, what guy would really go through all the trouble this guy went to try and destroy something he really had no vested interest in? Just to blow things up, I guess.

2) As Jeff put it: it's kind of a combination of Dances with Wolves and Fern Gully: the last rainforest. As people who saw it before me warned (aaaaaand as most movies), it had a very predictable plot.

With those two issues aside, I'm glad I went to see it. It's crazy to think that pretty much everything you saw on screen was fake! They did a great job at creating an entire planet out of someone's imagination, complete with their own language and everything. All in all, I'm glad I saw it, and I'm still debating on whether Jeff and I should go see it again in 3-D to get the full experience.