It's the Titanic! But why is it so tiny? It was huuuuuuge in that James Cameron movie!
I just rewatched Titanic, the miniseries that aired worldwide on April 14 and 15 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, the four-part series offers a new take on the event from its many predecessors. Fictional and historical characters from every early twentieth century social class are depicted in a series of interweaving stories. Continue reading “A Post About Titanic, The So-So Miniseries Everyone Hated (Except Me)”
In the weeks, months after I saw Avatar just thinking about it threw me into a tizzy. This is the only movie that makes me so angry I want to throw things. It isn’t so much Avatar that aggravates me but everything it represents as a movie for the industry. I am so happy that the 3D hype is dying down. Maybe I can actually sleep through the night now.
At 2 AM I found myself in a familiar place – wide awake and thinking about Avatar.
This is how Avatar makes me feel
From about mid-January to until May I spent many sleepless nights pacing back and forth in my claustrophobic dorm room, ranting about James Cameron’s 3-D-palooza. Before you think I’m completely crazy, and you have good reason to because what completely sane person spends months hung up on one movie, in my defense I was completely focused on my senior thesis at the time. When you’re endlessly researching and writing about American identity and Neorealism, it is fairly easy to be sidetracked and, in my case, irrationally distressed by a movie that is the polar opposite of a Neorealist film.
Eventually, I moved on. I completed my thesis and the media craze surrounding Avatar died down. I didn’t have to blog about Avatar winning Oscars it didn’t deserve and I didn’t to worry about Avatar haunting my existence. (Except for one disastrous night this summer when Avatar was playing in a nearby park. Attempting to sleep while the sounds of the Na’vi are blasting is torture. But I digress.)
Then yesterday, Cameron had to announce that his next projects will beAvatar 2 and Avatar 3, scheduled for December 2014 and December 2015.
Considering how Cameron rails against anything other than native 3-D, that is movies that tack 3D effects on at the last minute to attract audiences rather than developing a film as a 3-D film from the start. (I like to imagine Cameron sitting through a screening of Eclipse and complaining about the special effects. Cameron probably loves the story since he can’t recognize a bad story even if it was right in front of him on a green screen for three hours.)
With the announcement, my absolute hatred of Avatar and all those feelings I successfully pushed aside months ago came flying back. I couldn’t sleep. I just kept thinking about Avatar and what story Cameron would push out. A civil war between the Na’vi? More of a terribly written, uninteresting love story? The possibilities are endless.
It is one thing to take the masterful technology, which is what 3D is and use it to make an interesting, thoughtful film that is not all about the sparkly things in front of your eyes. But that is exactly what Avatar does. The movie uses the guise of 3-D as a way mask the fact that what it doesn’t really have anything else going for it. This makes me cringe.
As long Pandora exists and is going to be revisited twice more, I don’t think I’ll ever sleep comfortably again.
Mark your calendars. Avatar has a release date and it is April 22 – Earth Day. For director James Cameron this date makes perfect sense because of the film’s “Save the Planet” message. But there is a catch. Avatar will only be available in 2D. The small screen certainly won’t benefit Avatar and having seen it in 2D, I can tell you that Avatar in 2D is easily one of the worst movies ever made.
How do you think Avatar will fare on DVD? Will it break DVD sales records as well?
And in case you haven’t seen this interview with James Cameron, he answers questions about Avatar and the future of 3D.
@Cinefille 