Coming out of Avatar I was thinking this is what 1939 audiences must have felt coming out of the Wizard of Oz. I knew it was how I felt in 1977 after seeing Star Wars at the UA 150 downtown Seattle. I had a similar feeling four years later after viewing Raiders of the Lost Ark. Avatar, as you surely must know by now joins the small list of films on the Game Changer list. So I am not going to spend much time here yapping about it’s fantastic look. But since this is the first 3D movie I have seen in fifty years (that’s me to the right in my 2009 3D glasses – they are not tri color anymore) I will add — even though the color is washed out a bit — Jim Cameron’s new 3D look is so good that after 20 minutes the look and view becomes normal.

So lets get to the plot.

It’s an old fashion, done hundreds of times before story, cowboys and indians battle — this time with an interspecies boy meets girl spin. Boy falls for girl, girl falls for boy at the rodeo, her family begrudgingly over looks religious differences when he converts, etc. It’s a simple, easy to understand, story — told with mostly trite dialogue — with a lot ecology extremism thrown in. In fact, I was wondering, while watching the movie, how long it will take the Right-Wing politicos in this country to pick up on, and become outraged about, the super “tree-hunger,” anti-establishment, one world government, view being propagated by writer-director Cameron.

Despite the hokey story and tiresome redundant battle scenes (However, I never sensed the almost three hour length was too long) Avatar is a movie that should be seen. Just because it will be on that short list of films I mentioned earlier. [ RT ]

Other reviews . . .

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A New Eden, Both Cosmic and Cinematic

With “Avatar” James Cameron has turned one man’s dream of the movies into a trippy joy ride about the end of life — our moviegoing life included — as we know it. Several decades in the dreaming and more than four years in the actual making, the movie is a song to the natural world that was largely produced with software, an Emersonian exploration of the invisible world of the spirit filled with Cameronian rock ’em, sock ’em pulpy action. Created to conquer hearts, minds, history books and box-office records, the movie — one of the most expensive in history, the jungle drums thump — is glorious and goofy and blissfully deranged. ● More from: Movie Review – NYTimes.com

Tony Kornheiser Doesn’t Like “Blue People”

I am going weary of Kornheiser’s radio show shtick of being an old guy who can’t work Google, being close minded about most anything modern, etc. I wish Hornaday had challenged his tiresome stick-in-the-mud attitude. Listen: Kornheiser talks to Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post about Avatar

‘Avatar,’ ‘Young Victoria’ offer vivid glimpses of other times, cultures

“The Young Victoria,” a sumptuous period drama starring Emily Blunt as the teenage girl on the verge of assuming the British throne in 1837, will swan into a couple of art houses Friday, just as “Avatar,” the multimillion-dollar special-effects extravaganza thundering our way for more than a decade, will swamp the nation’s multiplexes. “The Young Victoria’s” producers include film royalty (Martin Scorsese) and actual royalty (Sarah Ferguson), but “Avatar” was made for a king’s ransom: Its budget is reported to be anywhere from $230 million to $300 million, not counting marketing costs. And its writer-director, James Cameron, has promised that its seamless mix of live-action, computer-animated and 3-D technology will redefine cinematic grammar. ● More from: Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post

Mark Kermode, BBC Radio One

Listen: Kermode’s Review of Avatar

At The Movies’ Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott talk about Avatar

A Couple’s Sojourn To See Avatar

I never did catch their names or locations.

‘Avatar’ takes $27 million in its first day

Best opening day for a Fox film outside of summer

Opening 12 years, almost to the day, after his behemoth film “Titanic,” James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi spectacle “Avatar” drew a strong $27 million in its first day at the box office from 3,452 theaters. ● More from: Variety

Can ‘Avatar’ sweep the Oscars? Expect up to nine nominations

“Avatar” has already won over film critics, fan boys and many Hollywood awards, scoring best-picture nominations from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Movie Awards. But how will “Avatar” fare at the Oscars?

My guess is that “Avatar” can score up to nine Academy Award nominations: best picture, director, art direction, film editing, music score, song, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects. ● More from: Gold Derby | Los Angeles Times

Oscar Watch: Critics take a surprising side in “Avatar vs. Nine

Three months ago, it would have been hard to believe that Rob Marshall’s star-studded movie musical “Nine” would be opening on the cusp of being an Oscar pretender and that James Cameron’s much maligned “Avatar” would be soaring to critical acclaim and, perhaps, Oscar gold. And yet, as both films prepare to debut in theaters that’s exactly what’s happened.  Perhaps some examples will help explain each film’s critical fate.

Can you figure out which New York Times review quote matches the reviews for “Nine” or “Avatar”? ● More from: HitFix.com

Stephen Lang Interview

Kris Tapley and Anne Thompson go nuts over Avatar.

OSCAR TALK podcast Ep. 14

Oscar experts predict best-picture race (Part 3): ‘Avatar,’ ‘Precious,’ ‘Invictus’

Gold Derby continues to recruit the latest best pix predix from reigning Oscarologists. Following up on our first two batches (here and here), check out the views of Lane Brown (Vulture, New York magazine), Paul Gaita (The Circuit, The Envelope), Dave Karger (Entertainment Weekly), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Nathaniel Rogers (Film Experience), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone). ● More from: Gold Derby | Los Angeles Times

Going Native

James Cameron’s “Avatar” is the most beautiful film I’ve seen in years. Amid the hoopla over the new power of 3-D as a narrative form, and the excitement about the complicated mix of digital animation and live action that made the movie possible, no one should ignore how lovely “Avatar” looks, how luscious yet freewheeling, bounteous yet strange. ● More from: The New Yorker

James Cameron’s Avatar opens on December 15th. 2,100 screens in 3D with another 1,200 in 2D.

James Cameron’s Avatar has been long awaited. It opens on December 15th. 2,100 screens in 3D with another 1,200 in 2D. Tonight the first reviews have arrived.

Variety’s Analysis Of The Movie Avatar

The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in “Avatar,” and it’s very much a place worth visiting. The most expensive and technically ambitious film ever made, James Cameron’s long-gestating epic pitting Earthly despoilers against a forest-dwelling alien race delivers unique spectacle, breathtaking sights, narrative excitement and an overarching anti-imperialist, back-to-nature theme that will play very well around the world, and yet is rather ironic coming from such a technology-driven picture. Twelve years after “Titanic,” which still stands as the all-time B.O. champ, Cameron delivers again with a film of universal appeal that just about everyone who ever goes to the movies will need to see. ● More from: Variety’s Analysis Of The Movie Avatar

Avatar — THR Film Review

Bottom Line: A titanic entertainment — movie magic is back!

A dozen years later, James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world.

As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, he brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is “Avatar.” And he did it almost from scratch.

There is no underlying novel or myth to generate his story. He certainly draws deeply on Westerns, going back to “The Vanishing American” and, in particular, “Dances With Wolves.” And the American tragedy in Vietnam informs much of his story. But then all great stories build on the past ( “Avatar” premiered Thursday in London). ● More from: hollywoodreporter.com