There was a lot I didn’t like about Avatar when I first saw it. That whole going native story take straight from A Man Called Horse and Dances With Wolves. That whole ecological story lifted from Fern Gully and Battle for Terra. Those damned robot suits stolen from Mech Warrior that look just as fake here as they did in Matrix Revolutions. And the worst name for a mineral EVER-unobtainium.
But for all its countless faults, Avatar is still a damned good movie. Watching it, you forget the hokey special effects and goofy movements of the CGI giant cat people and you really do get involved in the story and the lives of the characters. You can even forget the fact that a space faring race could wipe out a planet bound race without breaking too much of a sweat.
So I watched the Avatar Collector’s Edition at The Brother in Laws place on his large flat screen tv with his nifty surround sound. There were something like an extra 16 minutes over what was shown in theaters. I would be hard pressed to say, where exactly, those 16 minutes are. There was an added scene at the opening, but otherwise the story was much as I remember it.
Like most sci-fi movies, you need to suspend disbelief for Avatar. The movie is amazing while I am watching it and it is only later that everything seems way too far over the top. I don’t think Avatar is better than Close Encounters, 2001 A Space Odyssey, or Blade Runner. I’m not even sure if it’s better than Children of Man or Serenity. But as a fan of Science Fiction I have to love Avatar if for no other reason than it made a bazillion dollars-and that means more Sci Fi movies wil continue to be made.
