Avatar-Spoilers after the cut
One of the greatest comics of all time is the Death of Phoenix.
For those who aren't wise to the ways of X-Men, it is an incredible story telling how one person imbued with the power of God slowly is turned mad and ends up falling to the dark side. In the end faced with total power of true love, our heroine chooses to take her own life instead of becoming the thing she spent her life fighting. Really, one of the best stories ever told in my opinion. Written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne back in the day...it was and still is to some, the pinnacle of the comic book story.
Now told in 1980, this story was well before the internet and as readers, all we knew was Byrne shortly after that story, quit and went to make his own comics while Claremont stayed on X-Men. And he stayed there for another fifteen years. The stories became...muddled some and the prose almost unreadable at times. There were moments, when teamed with brilliant artists, that the stories became readable and at rare issues...awesome. But never did it rise to the epic level that it did before...and no one really knew why.
It wasn't until years later that John Byrne explained that most of the storylines that came after he left were storylines that he had rejected out of hand to Claremont before. It sounded a lot like he was doing an awful lot of editing to make what was a good story covered in a lot of excess stuff more streamlined and accessible and in the end....better. No one can deny Claremont had a fantastic imagination...it was the fact that no one was around to edit him anymore that it became obvious he needed restraint.
There are a few film makers like this in my book. Tim Burton, who started out being the guy who made weird movies and then stumbled on to being TIM BURTON, the guy who made THOSE movies. He proved time and time again he could make a 100 million dollar movie so after a while, the studios and everyone who could have given him notes on what to cut and when to cut it...stopped. And Tim was given free reign to make whatever the hell he wanted...
And I really thought those movies sucked.
I mean I like Burton and all...but his Willy Wonka did not leave me wanting to see three more movies like it...it made me long for Gene Wilder. I think there is a great movie in Burton's Willy Wonka, if someone had just told him...ok Tim...that's enough of that.
James Cameron is a god.
I mean seriously, Terminator, Aliens, Titanic. With only those three movies we are talking about more money than most countries ever see. His story telling is rich and descriptive and as a fan I have to admit, every time I have seen a director's cut of his stuff I wondered why anyone would have made him take that stuff out?
I saw Avatar tonight, and I got my answer.
Avatar is not just a movie. It is A MOVIE! I mean huge, sweeping, grand, over the top, majestic, insane special effects, engaging storyline...all of it. They don't make movies like this any more and when they do they come out as Phantom menace or Matrix 2 more times than not. It is a fantastic story that will make anyone who remembers US history and the American Indians squirm in their seats mixed with a level of CGI that is really making me wonder if we even need real actors now. It is three hours of everything you would expect in a James Cameron movie and more...
See...it's the more I have a small problem with.
The point of the movie is to sweep you off your feet to a degree you never look back again. You forget the aliens are blue, tall, have a tail and have yellow eyes...you forget we are on another planet in the future in a situation that seems so far fetched it begs a little mocking.
After this...some spoliers...so if you want the end of the line...good movie, kinda long, pack a lunch and be ready for it. Wanna know more? Keep reading.
( Spoilers ahead!! )
4 out of 5 stars.
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