AVATAR in 3D

I just got back from one of the most intensely beautiful films in a while!!!

Not to over-hype it, lol. ;P

But I totally get why everyone -- famous folks and friends alike -- are excited about James Cameron's Avatar!

First, this summer I got the sense of some online buzz about it, if only because James Cameron was back behind the camera. The man makes the highest-grossing film of all time, a film that everyone universally seems to love and hail, and then the cat disappears for the better part of a decade! Some might wonder if he had any more films left in him. Some might wonder if maybe he's afraid to make another movie -- after all, how do you follow up Titanic? We all knew the ending, and yet we all went to see it multiple times while it was still in cinemas.

I had a hint that this movie would probably be great, because I saw Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of Solaris, and knew that Cameron produced it. Not just produced it, though -- there are many, many levels of producers in Hollywood, and some of them are just business guys who took lunches on the studio's dime. Cameron was an active producer on Soderbergh's Solaris, and even did the DVD audio commentary with Soderbergh.

So I knew Cameron was up to something... I didn't have a clue what, though.

But, as I said, I figured it would be good. Here's why: Behind and beneath -- running throughout, really -- of Cameron's work is a soul, a beating heart. It's really the only thing that ties all his work together. Sometimes his soul is laid bare and stamped on every frame of his films, like The Abyss and Titanic. And sometimes the soul is masked by spectacle and/or comedy, like T2 and True Lies. But how else could you link works like Titanic and The Terminator? What other creative element binds them?

And when you watch Soderbergh's version of Solaris, you can see Cameron in the amazing visual effects (another creative element that marks Cameron's work) and you might be tempted to stop there. But I've seen enough Soderbergh to have sensed a more "spiritual" (for lack of a better adjective) quality in Solaris than in, say, Erin Brockovich or Ocean's Eleven. There are areas of the human condition that Soderbergh is interested in, and areas that Cameron is interested in, and Solaris appeared to me to be a blending of those two artists.

Still, even after seeing the first trailers for Avatar, I wasn't quite sold.

I mean, I knew it would be great, and I would have bet real money that it would be a better movie than I expected. I grew up with Cameron's work. I grew up on Cameron's work! One of my favorite movies of all-time is The Abyss! But the trailer didn't really show me anything that grabbed me, in particular. I mean, I LOVE blues and greens, so the blue people in the forest was definitely a plus. The trailer promised that James Cameron trademark action. And you've got to like a movie where a self-absorbed military ass is transformed by an aboriginal people into a deep, thoughtful person. (Which is what the first trailer suggested would be the case.)

But what really started to get my attention was when stars who aren't in the mvoie started talking about how excited they were about Avatar!

I mean, these people were doing press for these other films that they were in, but when they talked about Avatar, they sounded the same way my friends and I did in high school, when the release of a certain movie with a certain star or a certain director was a major event in our life! For that moment, they weren't stars, they were fans!

And how often do you watch stars turn into film geeks?

I mean, if you know them personally, maybe you see that a lot. But I don't know any personally. I see them in their work, or I see them promoting their work. Or on behind-the-scenes featurettes on their DVDs.

So it caught my attention when this started happening.

But that's not what sold me...

When my Gnomey and I got a chance to chat for a while week before last -- like really talk for a while, for the first time in some time -- she was all about Avatar! She loved this movie and couldn't wait for me to see it!

That's when I was 100% SOLD! My baby wants me to see it? I'm SO THERE!

The problem with seeing new movies for me, though, is time and money. I had already made a date with my li'l bro to see Sherlock Holmes on Christmas Day. That was time and money already spent.

I didn't know when the next time I would have both the time and the money would be, but I was determined that I would see Avatar AS SOON AS I could! I wanted to be able to talk to my baby about this movie that had so affected her.

She mentioned how good the music was, so I bought the soundtrack. And James Horner's score is awesome! :D But that's so substitute for the experience of seeing the film.

As it turned out, I got tonight (Sunday night) OFF! I had been scheduled to work straight through the rest of 2009, but just recently the other overnight op, for whom I was filling in, changed his mind and decided to work tonight!

AND, as fate would have it, I had some money!

In fact, the Alamo Drafthouse right next to me (so close that I've walked there before, though I didn't tonight because it's so frickin' cold in Austin right now) is showing it in 3-D!!!

Now, if you don't have an Alamo Drafthouse in your town (which is likely, since it's a local franchise that only recently started expanding to other cities) I need to describe the Drafthouse experience...

They don't serve popcorn, and overpriced hot dogs and nachos. They do serve overpriced candy, but that's not what most people buy there. At the Alamo Drafthouse, you can buy a REAL burger, or pizza, or some gourmet sandwich, and BEER. :) You can buy nachos, but they're not those cheapo cinema nachos, they're REAL nachos! Or you can buy Cheese Sticks or Jalapeno Poppers, if you're just looking for something light.

Me, usually I barely have enough money to buy the movie ticket. I usually don't eat when I go to the movies. If I can scrounge together enough money to get into the theater, that's absolutely good enough for me! :D

But tonight was an EVENT.

I woke up just before 9:00pm. It was too late to hope that my baby would be online, so I didn't bother. I did, however, check Fandango.com to see if the Drafthouse had a 9p-or-later showing of Avatar.

THEY DID!!! 10:00pm!

So I hauled myself out of bed, did some dishes (not apropos to the story, but they needed to be done) and headed to the movie.

I was already a little bit hungry, so I decided I'd shoot the moon and have me some Drafthouse food! This is a ridiculous extravagance for myself, but what the heck? It's that magical time after Christmas and before New Year's Day, when that magic of the Yuletide celebration is still in every breath you take! Plus, this was a magical Day Off! I was supposed to be working tonight, but magically, I wasn't! Plus, when I watched this movie, I knew I would be watching it with Gnomey!!! :D (I do most things with her, even though she's not with me physically at the time I'm doing them, but this was different; this was something she really wanted me to do, so that makes it even more special!)

Another fun aspect of the Drafthouse experience is that instead of playing boring-ass commercials before the feature, they fill the screen with wild & wacky pre-show stuff. Tonight as I was standing in line, or sitting and waiting for the movie to start, I saw the trailers for Return of the Creature in 3-D, Giant Gila-Monster and It Came From Outter Space in 3-D. Whether you can afford the food or not, a movie at the Drafthouse is a REAL movie experience! :D

For breakfast, I settled on this awesome Chicken Parmesan sandwich with REAL, steak-cut fries! You wouldn't believe the chicken patty, either! I've had a lot of Chicken Parmesan -- some from nice restaurants, most cheap frozen stuff you nuke at home -- and there was a subtlety about the seasoning of this Chicken Parmesan sandwich that I've only experienced in restaurants!

But none of this, the Drafthouse movie going experience, compared to the film!!!

Cameron has created this world for us that, at first, feels more or less like "typical" James Cameron... It's the future, it's high-tech, the military is all around... It's gorgeous! (You know, in that high-tech, gritty, futuristic sort of way.) And the way he used 3-D is GENIUS! It's not the old-school, stuff-poppin'-out-at-ya-because-this-is-a-3-D-flick shtick. Cameron uses the 3-D to thoroughly convince you that everything you see is real! And if it were real, THIS is how it would all look!

And starting you out in the gritty, militaristic, mechanized world is the PERFECT beginning for this movie! Because, very shortly, he introduces you into this world of organic, orgasmic beauty!!! A lot of filmmakers use special effects in films to take you to places you've never been before. (Cameron has done this in most of his movies. But, then again, EVERYONE does that now, lol.) But this film... It's all alien and beautiful, but most of the beauty can be found right here, on Earth! It's the beauty of a hike in the woods, or the look on your loved one's face!

Okay, I could get off on a tangent here about the gorgeousness of everyday life, but I'm not going to. It's all been said before, and when you see the film, you'll experience it for yourself.

And THAT is kind of the point of this movie...

I'm sure professional movie reviewers will comment on the "Green" themes or spiritual themes or whatever themes Cameron has woven into this amazing film experience, but what I am profoundly struck by about this film is the LIFE. This action-packed, intensely emotional, 3-D, mostly CG wonder that James Cameron has given us feels like living!

I don't know how to explain it better than that.

I'll put it this way: When I was a kid, the movies that I loved the most were the ones that made me immediately want to go outside and play. Like, after seeing Star Wars I wanted to go outside, gather the neighborhood kids and be Luke Skywalker (though I was usually Chewie, but that was fun, too). After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark the kids in the apartment complex and I ran outside and got as dirty as we could hurling ourselves off jungle gyms and the like. Superman: The Movie had me running around as fast as I could with my arms outstretched, imagining what it felt like to fly.

Tonight after the movie, I spent half an hour running around the parking lot, leaping from one car rooftop to another...

Just kidding.

But what I'm talking about is that really good movies (the ones I prefer, anyway) tend to make me intensely aware of all the tiny little components of being alive, all the millions of second-by-second miracles that life as to offer. When I was a kid, these miracles included being able to run fast, kicking up dust, leaping off things and crashing to the ground. As an adult, they tend to include the colors of things, the textures of things, a single breath of air. And always, one of the most powerful elements of life, when I was a kid and now, is the ability to feel emotion.

What an amazing thing, emotion!

The ability to be filled-up with this inexplicable sensation that can make you weep tears of joy! Or the ability to feel appreciation -- deep, profound appreciation -- for something you already have not something that you hope to one day attain)! How cool is that!

I'm getting all abstract now, which is probably my cue to move on, lol.

But Avatar is a great movie and great fun! If you don't experience a sense of awe when you see it, you might want to have someone check your pulse.

Know what else is amazing?

Sherlock Holmes!

It's awesome for a whole other set of reasons. A very different film from Avatar, but no less amazing!

I did get to see it on Christmas Day, before I went into work. I didn't get to see it with my li'l bro, however, because he was exhausted and couldn't keep his eyes open, lol.

It also has an excellent soundtrack, this one by the astounding Hans Zimmer! He greats this musical soundscape for Holmes that places you intimately inside his world.

Very cool!

Sherlock Holmes was so cool that I finally broke down and am reading the novels for the first time. I've read the collections of short stories several times each, but I've avoided the novels. So last night I picked up A Study in Scarlet (the story in which Watson meets Holmes for the first time) and am enjoying it.

One thing that amazed me about the movie was how faithful it is to the cannon! I've heard a few complaints, based on the TV ads for the flick, along the lines of "I like Sherlock Holmes, and that's not Sherlock Holmes." I was concerned about the same thing when I saw the first couple of trailers for it. It seems like the trailers are actually designed to make you think Guy Ritchie and company are raping the mythology, lol.

But I have 2 notes for anyone debating seeing the film because they're fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories:

First, in the first 2 minutes of the movie the filmmakers sort of explain to you why this more energetic version of the legend is going to work. (It's a subtle thing, but within the first 2 minutes, if you're worried that the visual style is going to violate Doyle's creation, you'll go "Okay, I get it!")

Second, whatever happens throughout the movie, by the last 2 minutes you'll discover that the filmmakers really weren't taking any liberties at all with the original.

Both of these will make perfect sense after you've seen the movie. Because there are times when, if you know Doyle's work well, you go, "Hey, wait a minute..." But then when the movie wraps up, you realize that the writer and director were toying with you and your expectations.

If you've seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels you know that Guy Ritchie is an amazingly clever filmmaker. And after you've seen Holmes you realize that he is the perfect artist to reinterpret the characters/world for a new generation!

Okay, I've actually been blogging for a few hours now, and I have a couple of things to do before I go back to work tomorrow. So I bid you adieu for now, and I hope you have a KICK ASS New Year!!! (I will be working New Year's Eve, but I'm taking the first week of 2010 off, so I plan to celebrate the birth of the new year in my own way.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

:D