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So I finally got around to watching Avatar, the movie about blue furry people not the airbender, and I had a few thoughts about it. It’s worth mentioning that I watched it on a rented DVD on a 27” non-HD TV. This important because it really brought out some of the movies flaws.
Let’s back up a bit, Avatar, if I understand correctly, was meant to be a technological masterpiece, displaying all the new and innovative techniques in movie making available. I imagine the majority of the budget was spent on 3D rendering and so forth. As an engineer, I absolutely respect Avatar for that goal and I see the movie as a success for being the poster child of 3D and HD and so forth.
But when I watched it on a diminutive system, all of that effort and technology was wasted on me. My entire experience was the story. This is where Avatar fell because as I was watching the movie, I kept thinking: “Is this scene meant to forward the plot in someway or is it just a 3D showcase?” I can imagine that if I was watching Avatar in all its glory, such thoughts would not plague my mind. And when it came down to it, the plot was rather simplistic and I compared it to a story meant as a bedtime story for a child.
Let me bring a car into this, the Bugatti Veyron. Just as Avatar was, the Veyron was made as a technology exhibition. It had 1000 horsepower and could go 400 kph. But in the end of the day, when you took the insane specs out of the equation, it was rather a poorly performing car for the price. It was much too heavy and expensive to be a contender on the track as well as too unequipped to contend with the born and bred luxury cars. Avatar is exactly this, very expensive, pretty to look at, amazing specs but underneath it all its just a demonstration piece.
