The Avatar Experience

Friday my wife and I went to go see Avatar in 3D. The line-up was huge and the theater was jammed. I didn't know what to expect as I have heard so many different takes on this movie. However, I had another objective for going.

I love musical scores. I am not going to sit around listening to them all day but a long time ago the Humber College music program offered a one semester course on film score appreciation. This class really opened my eyes to some great music I would have never known existed.

Last week I was a little surprised when I heard that UP won the golden globe for best original score. It was going against Avatar so hence my objective.

First I want to say I thought the movie was fine. From what I saw, the movie itself did what it set out to do. Make a movie in 3-D that is so good that one doesn't notice it's in 3-D while you're watching it. For me, objective completed.

Also, I feel the makers of Avatar wanted to blur the line between reality and fiction. Though at some points I was getting some heavy "Return of the Jedi" vibes, I did catch myself thinking the blue guy with the tail was more real than the paraplegic war veteran. For me, objective met.

But the score was lacking. It did deserve to lose to UP. There were some very emotional moments in Avatar where the music could have finished me off but I didn't even get misty eyed. For me, James Horner did not meet the objective. UP had me watching its movie in bleary-eyed-3D-vision less about 5 minutes into the movie, and at least one more time near the big finish.

Avatar will go down in history as a game-changer. This movie has probably set the standard for 3-D animation by which all others will be judged. I'm glad I saw it.