As I sat a watched the majesty that is Avatar, I had the eerie feeling that I had seen this movie somewhere before. Hmmm….
James Cameron is a genius, if for no other reason that he can put Leo DeCaprio in a film and make it tolerable. Not to mention the highest grossing movie of all time; that is, before Avatar showed up. Cameron spent an alleged $500 million and nearly 10 years making Avatar and it shows in the graphics, the colors, the set designs, and the multiple creatures he created. I did not risk permanent neural damage by watching the film in Imax 3-D; that’s simply too much sensory input for my mind to accommodate. I bought the DVD this past weekend for the Wal Mart “rollback” price of $15.94. (What did we do before Wal Mart?) I watched it at home on the big screen and enjoyed every minute of it. It is visually stunning from beginning to end.
But as I watched it, I became aware of the feeling that I had seen this movie before. And I had never seen this movie before! And then it came to me; I have seen this film before. It was entitled Dances with Wolves. Now stay with me a minute people. For those of you that have seen DWW, you will quickly understand where I’m headed with this train of thought. I wrote off the theory as silly and that the visual effects of Avatar had completely sapped my brain f the ability to reason. Typical. But then I decided to do a comparison of the two films.
The male lead character of both films is a soldier sent to a remote outpost
The lead character befriends the local natives
Lead character falls in love with and mates with local native woman
Lead character becomes a member of the native clan and fights against his former commanders
Lead character befriends the native wildlife
Do you see any similarities? In short what Cameron gave us in visual effects; he certainly shorted us in storyline. This particular storyline has been written and re-written multiple times. As I thought about it, I was uncertain as to whether I should be confused, angered, or apathetic. I chose apathetic because it’s not a real stretch for me. The movie made untold millions, if not billions worldwide for nothing more than its special effects. And that’s fine. I’m cool with that, but come on James! We should expect more from a magician such as you! Must we go to the Downtown West 8 to get an original script or one that hasn’t been regurgitated? Avatar is a good movie, but it could have been a great movie with a better plot.
Thus endeth the lesson…………
