Avatar

My wife and I saw Avatar over the weekend and we loved it. We had seen Titanic when we were dating, which was 12 years ago, so we’ve obviously been together for a long time. The word is that James Cameron wrote the story in 1994, but waited to film the movie once technology caught up to his vision and it sure did. The special effects were amazing and the Na’vi looked absolutely real. This was another leap in the advancement of the computer-generated characters from Gollum, King Kong and Davy Jones. Couple that with the fully realized alien world of Pandora, and we have a movie unlike anything we’ve seen in the past. This was also my first real 3-D feature and while I enjoyed the new experience, it was the film itself that captured my imagination.

While the visual effects for the film have been lauded by critics, some critics have taken the story to task as being two-dimensional. Yet Cameron’s stories have never been innovative in and of themselves. From The Terminator to Titanic, Cameron has presented simple stories in complex trappings populated with archetypal characters. It’s the full visual experience that grips the viewer rather than just the story. All his films are highly entertaining, but if someone is looking for emotional depth, unique characters, and a dynamic plot from Cameron’s work that person will always be disappointed. Cameron’s movies, however, have never let me down.