Avatar

Just went to see the new film, Avatar.  Wonderful special effects, excellent 3-D effect, and very  nicely realized fantasy world.  It was so long, I found myself saying to myself, “C’mon now, move it along, get to the final fight of the good guys and the bad guys…“  I feel like I’ve seen the story before in westerns and sci-fi movies galore over the years.  The bad invader who goes native and switches loyalties – wasn’t that what Dancing with Wolves was all about?  The interesting new twist was the incorporation of the eco-green-enviro-religiosity:  the innocent forest people in tune with the sacred wellspring of life,  a sort of Ygdrasil, the holy tree; the bad earthlings who killed the green part of their world and are willing to destroy this new one, Pandora, for a metal, Unobtainium – I like that comic touch of the name because I’ve been helping my son with chemistry lately!  If it had been 60 minutes shorter, I would have enjoyed as a piece of brilliantly done entertainment fluff, but it was soooo pretentious and predictable.

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