Guest Post: Avatar Review

Avatar is supposed to be one of the greatest movies of our time. Billed as the most expensive movie ever made at $300 million I can see what they used the money for. The most amazing special effects. Ever. Well...that and ripping off Fern Gully's storyline. Seriously. Think Fern Gully, add in some CGI and 3D and a little difficulty deciphering between what's real and what's not and you have yourself the whole premise of Avatar. When I read that it took James Cameron 15 years to film the movie I thought I was going to see a cleverly written story put to life through graphics like I had never seen. Instead I realized that it took Cameron 15 years to build the technology to film a ripped off storyline.

The character development was enough to make you feel attached to the main characters, but the crappy writing was enough to make me turn to my neighbor and comment on the cheese factor. Also notable is the less than subtle push that humans ruin the Earth and we must take advantage of what we have. While at times hollow and and overblown, the movie keeps its audience captivated and involved with its grandeur. The Na’vi are the most intriguing cinematographic creations to date, with a mix of human features and then features of Cameron's imagination.

My recommendation? See Fern Gully 3, oops I mean Avatar, in the theater. It's worth spending the money to see the special effects because they're amazing and I don't think they'll translate the same way on your tv screen the way they do on the big screen. Is this Cameron's next Best Picture Oscar winner? I highly doubt it. I give the movie a B+.

--Caroline McLean

Movie Matters: Jason Statham: The John Wayne of Our Time?

First a few facts. John Wayne, the Duke, starred in over 170 films , won an Oscar, and received the freaking Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is an American institution and in a league of his own.



Now to my point. John Wayne often played the good-hearted outlaw; yeah, he'd kill if had to, but you always knew he would protect innocents. With highly entertaining turns in this year's, The Bank Job and Death Race, Jason Statham, a 35 year old Brit, has continued that tradition in a slightly more muscle bound and expletive punctuated way. Whether it's robbing a bank to give his family a better life or killing every death row inmate for a chance to raise his daughter, Stratam plays the quintessential Dukesque movie hero by consistanly doing the wrong things for the right reasons.



There is nothing new or innovative about the films Statham stars in and therein lies another connection he has with the Duke; stick with what works. Wayne starred in over 75 westerns and you knew what you were going to get when plunked down your two bits. Similarly, Statham primarily appears in adrenaline drenched, crime inspired, explosion accented films that rarely fail to satiate my appetite for improbable action sequences. After walking out of his films I'm rarely disappointed.

And ultimately that's what a great movie star provides an audience, consistency. Statham will never win the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but I believe the Duke would acknowledge that the two of them were cut from the same ragged cloth.