Countdown to Oscar: The Big 10 Challenge, Today: An "Avatar" Review

With the March 7th Oscars coming up very soon, I decided to take it upon myself to watch all ten Academy Award Best Picture nominees, a daunting task so close to showtime and a little challenge I'd like to call The Big 10.

To remind you all, the 10 best picture nominees are: An Education, Avatar, The Blind Side, Up, Up in the Air, A Serious Man, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, and Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire.

Now I've been a diligent girl, and I'm very close to the finish line. How close? Just one more movie to go--the final stretch! The last movie yet to be crossed out on my list is An Education. That's right folks, I've been watching up on my movies and I'm very serious about watching them all this year. Every year I tell myself that I will watch all the best picture nominees, but I've never actually gotten around to watching all of them. Keep in mind normally the best picture category usually only includes five nominees, but this year it has been expanded to ten. Why I decided this was the year to watch all ten? Well, because I'm a girl who loves movies and as a girl who loves movies, I should definitely watch the ones that are (supposedly) most worth watching.

That's not to say I won't be watching my usual fluff: I'm gearing up to see Valentine's Day with my very own valentine on Saturday. I figure if I'm going to get my money's worth, I'm going to watch a movie with everyone in it.

To kick off my big 10 challenge, I'm starting with the movie I saw most recently: James Cameron's Avatar. (Behold, the Avatart! Original image courtesy of Jesse Oleson. Check out the cakespy's recipe here.)
Now let me preface this review with a little side comment: Avatar was at the bottom of my list for a couple of reasons. I kept putting off watching it because: a) the run time: 3 hours. Good god, does James Cameron love filming 3 hour movies or what? b) the trailers and sneak peeks were putting me off--too much cheese, and c) I'm not much of a sci fi buff at all.

With that said, I felt I was already biased going into it. However, I didn't want to make up my mind before even seeing it and I definitely wanted to finish my challenge, so I attempted to clear my mind, and gear up for a 3 hour long trip into James Cameron's mind.

I wanted so badly to like this movie because I can appreciate James Cameron's dedication to this movie and if there was ever a passion project, this would be it. This movie has been shelved for over 10 years and conceptualization for this movie started nearly fifteen years ago. I can also appreciate the fact that Cameron created his own technology to shoot this film-- a 3D camera he invented just to film this movie. I can also appreciate his dedication towards this film's special effects and character details--including the invention of the Na'vi language.

However, I just can't forgive some of the major components of the movie. For example, the story and the characters are incredibly reminiscent of movies we've already seen. Hell, let's face it, this movie is about the history of America. If I wanted to watch a movie about the history of America, I'd watch Pocahontas again. I don't know who James Cameron thinks he's fooling, but we've all witnessed the magic of Disney; the jig is up, James. That's not to say that I don't already realize that half of Hollywood's movies are remakes or reimaginations of one another, but if you're going to reconceptualize an idea, please have the courtesy to do so with a worthy script. If it took over ten years to polish this script, why was I, along with my movie companion, cringing at awkward, forced dialogue throughout the movie?

I suspect this movie fell victim to the yes man syndrome. Studio execs must have figured this was James Cameron, the king of the world, and who were they to step in his way and ask for a rewrite?

One last gripe: the length. This movie was just far too ambitious, there was too much crammed into one length of time, and as a result, I found myself constantly checking the time. I'm not just complaining for the sake of complaining because I already knew the movie was this long going in, but it simply just dragged on forever. I mean I saw Titanic, which we all know was also 3 hours, and I wasn't obsessively wondering when the climax of the movie was (no pun intended with Leo DiCraprio's famous hand on the window scene involved). Right when I thought I was at the home stretch during the last half an hour, a war suddenly erupted. 2.5 hours later, and a war erupts? Jesus, save me now.

With all that said, how can this be the the world's highest earning movie in history, best picture Golden Globe winner, and serious Oscar contender? Could it be that the majority of the world happily trades quality content for shiny, pretty special effects? Why, yes, that sounds about right.

My final thoughts on Avatar: kudos to James Cameron for his contribution to science fiction and for creating a hyper reality complete with 10 foot CGI blue natives of a distant planet, but I'm sorry, I can't forgive the dragging length and the nearly painful dialogue.