Friday, January 1, 2010

Avatar: The movie so green it recycles the plot

Studio Exec: Hey, James Cameron, do you think we should change it up at all? Maybe add some unexpected twist or unique character?
James Cameron: No, if it worked for Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves, it will work for us!

Studio Exec: But do you think people will notice that we ripped off a bunch of other movies?

James Cameron: I already set it on an alien planet which I've cleverly named Pandora! What more do you want?

Studio Exec: Touche.
Rose's review from The Girl's' Tent
I haven't seen Avatar although I have read many reviews for it, especially enjoying Scott Nehring's savaging as he is quite clever and always amuses me even if I disagree (though I do not necessarily do so in this case, not having seen the movie). I also have heard many heated conversations in the last 24-hours with Rose (thumbs down) sparring against Hannah and Matt (two thumbs waaay up).

Rose also set off a firestorm of comment on her Facebook page when she changed her status to: Rose Davis has seen Avatar in IMAX 3D. Really James Cameron? You started directing again for this? Really?!?

I will say that Rose gives the film its due, saying that the graphics are worth a viewing and that the movie was entertaining, if you don't thnk too much.  However, she says so, so much more. Go read it.

Sherlock Holmes: and now for something completely different
There has been a great deal of nonsense talked about the new Sherlock Holmes movie not being a faithful presentation of Holmes and Watson. In actuality, Jude Law is one of the great Watsons, adding to the virtues of his acting a face straight out of the Paget illustrations. It was eerie. Downey did a miraculous job of playing Holmes without playing any of his actor predecessors in the role. With help from the script, he even managed to convince one that the one factor that neither Holmes nor he could alter — height — was meant to be shortness, not tallness. It was a great pleasure to see him go to work, or rather, to see Holmes emerge, fully formed, from Downey. Downey and Law made a great team, a faithful depiction of the young Holmes and Watson having adventures.
Aliens in This World wrote a lengthy review/response to nitpicky critics of the newest Sherlock Holmes movie. I also enjoyed reading this as it echoed my own first thoughts on seeing the trailer and reading initial reviews. Primarily among those were that Doyle wrote Holmes for money not art, much preferring his own historical novels, and that my own love of Without a Clue which also twists the Holmesian legend. At any rate, it is worth reading.

5 comments:

  1. DD#1 made the same connection: "Avatar" is "Pocahontas" with aliens. (IMHO, "Pocahontas" had better music. And Mel Gibson's voice. But I digress...) Having seen the movie, sounds like Rose and I have the same feeling about the movie: go for the graphics, not for the plot.

    Haven't seen "Sherlock Holmes" yet, but, really, with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, how bad can it be? ;)

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  2. Yay!! There's no Haloscan. I didn't remark on the post where you talked about getting rid of it but I was secretly glad (and now openly so). Your site loads so much faster now. Which also makes it easier to leave comments. Thank you.

    We saw Sherlock Holmes tonight. I want to read it, them (if it's a series). Seriously, I have no idea about the book(s). I'm excited about getting them.

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  3. Avatar: A friend of mine saw this and liked it quite a bit. He said the visuals were stunning. The plot was horrid and the preaching was ham-fisted, but it was such a beautiful movie that he felt it was worth watching again.

    Sadly, the logic of the film falls apart immediately - anything mined is typically concentrated, so even if you wanted to rapaciously take it without regards to the environment, you'd hardly need to start a war for it. Orbital bombing platforms and a rain of dumb iron bombs would clear out the mining area and allow you to start extraction immediately. There'd be nothing the natives could do about it.

    Sherlock Holmes: I'm sorry, this is just silly. Holmes a standard action hero? Please. Why not add an alien chick from Saturn as a love interest? I highly recommend Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes. I don't watch much TV or many movies and I own almost none. I own this series and have seen them all a few times. It's the definitive version of Holmes, IMHO.

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  4. Dawn ... my pleasure! Though you didn't need to hold back on the Haloscan dissing. I had no particular preference one way or the other. It was free way back when I began blogging and Blogger had no commenting system is all. ALSO, just look up Sherlock Holmes (or better yet probably Arthur Conan Doyle) to get the bibiliography in order for his stories. They came out as stories in the newspaper back in the day but have long since been gathered into books. I envy you your discovery of them. I read them many times when in high school and college as my parents had a collection of them.

    SPOILER in my reply to KT for anyone who hasn't read the stories ... that's you Dawn. :-)

    KT - wait, wait, wait. As I say, I haven't seen the movie, but have you read the books? The part where Holmes dies while battling Moriarty and going over a waterfall? C'mon. That's action hero stuff and Doyle would have put in more of it if many of the standard penny dreadful characters of the day didn't already do such hijinks. :-D

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  5. Okay. Saw the movie this weekend. Loved it. Thought it captured the spirit of Holmes & Watson without repeating the Conan Doyle stories. Personally, I'd like to see more!

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