Avatar (2009)

Now that Avatar is officially the highest grossing movie at the world-wide box office of all time, there are some things I should like to stress:

1) we are not counting inflation (that is, money is worth more now than 80 years ago)
2) we are not counting people, but money (this, with the above, would make Gone with the Wind the highest seen film ever)
3) now we have world-wide distribution, something that only happened in the late 70s (and Avatar is still behind Titanic if we count just the American market, although another week will do for that probably)
4) almost everybody who saw Avatar paid twice ticket price (because of 3D), so to compare with other movies we should divide Avatar's earnings by half.
5) so, less people saw Avatar than Titanic
6) to be fair I have to stress that Titanic was before DVDs and internet, so much of the late money-making of Titanic was people who saw it on cinema two or three times. Now nobody will see Avatar twice on cinema, because they can download it or buy the DVD in two months time, so this gives credit to Avatar.

This being said, I copy here my review, written on the opening weekend in mid-december. I saw it in 2D (yes I did!, so what, a movie is not just the effects, for that you should see every movie on 70mm, IMAX and 3D put together, and if they put the smell on the movie theatre as they tried on the 50s then the better!!). I am not against 3D, but c'mon, when you buy Avatar's DVD you will see it on 2D also, and then I want to hear if it's that spectacular!

Well, here goes (I was right about the thousands part!)

"Ok. Seen it today. Cameron delivers what was expected. A boring visual stunning cliche. So lets see. Visual and special effects: fantastic, over the top, really great. Action: classical blockbuster in good Cameron tradition (but took 2 boring hours to come about). Storyline: Worn-out formula of Pocahontas, New World, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, etc (and does not have a pseudo-environmental message that the above do not also have). Dialogue: getting worse by the minute, Cameron's achilles heel, a bunch of boring army and love scene-save the world cliches, reminding us of awfull lines from "True Lies" and "The Abyss". All in all the movie is only worth watching for the effects. But is it really worth two and a half hours of boredom for great imagery and the action at the end? Even so, Cameron proves yet again to be, much more than a master technician, a master of marketing. I bought my ticket, and as well will thousands. A summer blockbuster, nothing more, with great efects and a totally unoriginal screenplay, in good Cameron style. Good entretainment for a saturday night though. But not the epic that is being sold around the news."