Posted by
Catmman on Saturday, December 19, 2009 10:50:46 AM
The movie has a leftist message, but it is a STUNNING film. Let me break this down for you. CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!:
Speaking strictly on the plot itself: Predictable. Frankly, I was a bit under-impressed on this particular film's plot given the hype and time it took to bring to the screen. Knowing however the leftist message contained in the film, it isn't real surprising: Evil white-man army comes to pillage the native's planet of it's natural resources. How good can that plot actually be? A few weeks ago I read a commenter on another blog sum up the plot pretty well - this movie is "Dances With Wolves" in space with blue aliens. Pretty much on the nose.
To get it out of the way, let me paraphrase the leftist talking points contained in the movie: The VA can't and won't take care of it's veterans wounded in evil wars. Soldiers are really just mercenaries in waiting, chomping at the bit to murder innocents. Military commanders and corporations are evil (they advocate "pre-emptive war to fight terror with terror"), while scientists are portrayed as altruistic advocates for peace and diplomacy. Toss in a fair amount of Gaia (Eywah) worship and sprinkle on every modern stereotype about how American Indians were treated in the 19th Century and BAM - leftist message in movie. John Cameron isn't even subtle with the messaging. Why should he be? He a Leftist who's last picture made somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.3 BILLION dollars worldwide.
One thing which was funny about the heavy-handedness in the movie's leftist messaging was that it didn't really impact the audience. In fact, the messaging was so heavy-handed that when the "pre-emptive war" line mentioned above was spoken, the audience I was part of laughed and heckled the line itself. Even the audience I was attending the movie with wasn't 'touched' by Cameron's attempted proselytizing.
Of course I knew the movie was Lefty message heavy going in. Being prepared for it made me enjoy what really makes this movie awesome - the technology used to film it.
The visuals of this movie are incredible! The 3-D filming was spectacular. The CGI-live action syncing was pretty flawless. It was paced well; the movie honestly didn't seem like it was as long as it's 2 hour and 40 minute run-time.. The action was good with some decent humor thrown in as well.
It's almost hard to describe the 3-D effect in this movie. There was one point in the movie where the main characters are running along high-altitude terrain where I felt, just for a moment, like I wold fall off the edge of the trees the characters were running along myself. This movie isn't hindered by old-time, cheap 3-D gimmicks - the whole film is shot in 3-D. It is seamless and there is depth to every scene.
Not to make this review to long, let me close it up. Knowing this movie contained a rather heavy-handed attempt at Leftist proselytizing helped me enjoy all the other aspects of this film. Just as "Dances With Wolves" is message-centric, it doesn't take away from how good a film it really is - unless you let it. If you go see this, don't allow yourself to get bogged down in the minutiae of the messaging. Enjoy this movie, as I did, as a visual and technological feast.
ADDENDUM:
I saw this movie on an IMAX screen in 3-D. IMO, this is the only way to see this movie. But if you aren't near an IMAX screen (or can't stomach the extra cost of seeing an IMAX movie - let's be honest, it cost me $60 dollars for five people to see this movie - and that was with the military discount - just for tickets! IMAX ain't cheap!), at least be sure to see the film in 3-D.