It took a while to discover the ‘in your face’ simple plot. It had the traditional ‘cardboard cutout’ hollywood villains. The demonic corporate executive. The brutal dumb cop. This time dressed as an x-marine. It glorified primitivism and nature worship while damning capitalism and is filled with ‘political correct talking points’.
It had story conference fingerprints all over it; executed with an Orwellian manipulation, punctuated with ‘mash and bash’ to keep the audience mesmerized. It was a fantasy— and that’s all — a fantasy on Red Bull.
When I was ten I rode the Lagoon roller coster for the first time. At the crest of the first hump I looked down to the bottom of the track to certain death, but I survived. In junior high I went with friends on consecutive rides each time holding my hands higher and higher above my head until the fun was over. The theme park industry has beat this common malaise by building rides higher and higher, faster and faster, and steeper and steeper.
Avatar is making a lot of money. There will be many clones, each one will have to be higher and higher, faster and faster, and steeper and steeper.
The ride is over. How easy it is to forget. The one thing sticking in my memory is morphed jelly fish floating in front of my nose.
Yesterday, I was blindsided. My wife took me to a movie that ‘word of mouth’ said was good. The movie poster looked like it was about football. It not about football.
It is about what Matters.
No ‘cardboard characters’ here.
No ‘axes to grind’. A good story well told.
I thought about the movie all last night and again this morning and will think about it from time to time the rest of my life. That’s why I’m writing this.
The roller coaster on Coney Island is scheduled to be torn down. Soon, that generation of roller coasters will be gone and their thrill passé . Soon, Avatar will be dated and go the same way.
Years from now The Blind Side will still be current. It’s story is universal and it made me feel good. It is worth remembering and seeing again.
From my tub to yours,
Rex Roadunner
Is Avatar a Flash in the pan?
READ:'Avatar': Backlash Builds Against Film and Filmmaker James Cameron
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