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Remember when you saw Star Wars for the very first time.
That sense of excitement, that they
got it right.
We had the same feeling walking out of the theater tonight.
Do not waste your time with the 2D version, see it in 3D -- the technology has improved a lot and the effect is very natural.
I read criticisms based on the weak story-line. It may be a story known to everyone but it is a story that has been successful for the last 6,000 years or so -- the classical
Hero's Journey. It may be fashionable to call this a writers hack but it has empowered may a tale told around a distant campfire, many a play on stage, many a novel or poem and certainly many a motion picture. It is common because it works and it resonates with the common man.
I would bet that "the serious critics" who object to the banality of the storyline probably have the complete works of Joseph Campbell sitting proudly on their bookshelves...
The visual story is drop-dead gorgeous -- they got the physics right on the spaceship. The creatures of Pandora are not earthlike but they are lifelike. Brings to mind the requirement of another Campbell (
John W.) who, as Editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine told his writers: "
Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man"
There are a lot of wonderful visual throw-aways and references to other films, particularly the Star Wars canon but James Cameron tells a hell of a better story.
One can almost hear him telling George Lucas to: "Eat my shorts"
We are planning to see it again at an Imax theater.
A wonderful way to spend a couple of hours...
Posted by DaveH at December 27, 2009 7:36 PM