What I Watched -- Avatar

Again, I ask: what was all the fuss about? The movie world was all a-twitter (literally and figuratively) with buzz about the wonders of this movie.

I will start out with the best thing: the CGI is amazing. Even on my little, old school TV, the picture was crisp incredibly detailed. Really, more detailed than it should have been, actually; it seemed a little overdone. But a visual field trip, nonetheless.

Now the worst thing: the story was totally unoriginal. Seems sort of odd to say that, considering that the movie is about 8-foot-tall blue creatures called the Na'vi who live on a planet called Pandora. But it seemed to me that there were some very obvious copycat moves taken from other movies that are similar somehow:

- Apocalypse Now: Jake Sully, Avatar's main character, keeps track of his interactions with the Na'vi via a video diary. His narration is terribly reminiscent of Captain Willard's voice-over recounting of his travels up the Nung River. Same style of speech, same meter, same forlorn attitude.

- Lord of the Rings Trilogy: practically identical stories. In LOTR, Sauron is the evil lord who is trying to get the one ring and control the world. There are a number of clans -- humans (the two main crews are from Rohan and Gondor), elves (from Rivendell and the woodland realm), hobbits, dwarves, wizards, and any number of wild creatures. In the end, they all come together to defeat Sauron in an effort save their collective cultures.

In Avatar, the humans are the bad guys who are trying to mine for the valuable and appropriately named mineral Unobtanium, the biggest deposit of which is under the (also appropriately named) Hometree. The whole thing devolves into an "I will destroy your society" campaign. So the Na'vi do exactly what the characters in LOTR did: they seek out other clans like them to join in the fight against the humans. (One of these clans is the "Horse People." Rohirrim, anyone?) And they all fight together to try to save themselves.

Oh, and the Na'vi ride wild animals. And there are flying, bird/pterodactyl-like creatures.

The Na'vi in Avatar are very similar to the elves in LOTR. And also, in some ways, to Native Americans. They live as one with nature; they hear the trees talk; the land is precious to them for what it is, not what it's worth.

And let's not forget the man/machine-emerging-from-a-flaming-vehicle nod to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

At least I have to give James Cameron credit for pirating from good movies. He could have picked Dude, Where's My Car? instead, but he restrained himself. (Thanks, James.) On the whole, aside from a few misplaced political references which were so blatantly trying to make a point that they really broke up the flow of the movie, it was enjoyable to watch. But I'm sure glad he lost Best Picture to Kathryn Bigelow; her movie was much, much better.