My wife pointed me to this article in which Owen asks "Did anyone else find Avatar’s storyline as lacking as I did? And, maybe more to the point, how much does story matter in a visually driven contemporary blockbuster? Does it matter less than it used to? And, if so, is that a good thing or a bad thing?" True to my description at the top I'm not going to register to answer his questions, but I'll answer them here.
The short answer is yes the story does matter. Without a good story you don't have a good movie. With a good story you have a chance for a good movie.
However the story is not everything. You remember that movie with a great story, but terrible acting and cinematography? Me neither. I do remember a great movie with a good story, and great acting, but had no special effects. The movie was "12 Angry Men". In it the acting was so good that you don't even realize that the whole thing was done in one room.
In a way that movie was the opposite of Avatar. Avatar had stunning visuals while 12 angry men didn't. Both had a decent story. 12 Angry Men had great acting while Avatar didn't have access to that level of acting. Both movies were entertaining, but in different ways.
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Avatar More
Earlier I mentioned that Avatar made me think of "Dances with Halo". The post was real short and I feel like you need a little more explanation.
The "Dances with Wolves" thing comes from the main character being left in enemy territory alone and becoming a member of the enemy tribe. There are some other aspects to the story that set it apart, but that's the main story.
The Halo reference comes from the idea of marines in space. Also the way the technology looked advanced, but not too very far advanced from what we use today reminded me of Halo. In Halo and Avatar the characters were using bullets instead of energy weapons of some kind. The vehicles were not using some anti-gravity field to move around. I could imagine the military using battle suits like the ones shown in the movie for this type of thing. They look lighter than tanks, and I would suspect that legs wouldn't come off the vehicle like treads do sometimes. The downside to this is that they look taller than a tank which means that they are easier to hit.
The graphics were good enough that I couldn't tell that they were graphics.
The "Dances with Wolves" thing comes from the main character being left in enemy territory alone and becoming a member of the enemy tribe. There are some other aspects to the story that set it apart, but that's the main story.
The Halo reference comes from the idea of marines in space. Also the way the technology looked advanced, but not too very far advanced from what we use today reminded me of Halo. In Halo and Avatar the characters were using bullets instead of energy weapons of some kind. The vehicles were not using some anti-gravity field to move around. I could imagine the military using battle suits like the ones shown in the movie for this type of thing. They look lighter than tanks, and I would suspect that legs wouldn't come off the vehicle like treads do sometimes. The downside to this is that they look taller than a tank which means that they are easier to hit.
The graphics were good enough that I couldn't tell that they were graphics.
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