photo from tag_mclaren's at flickr.com

Avatar won for Best picture at the Golden Globes last night.  While I haven’t seen the other movies, I would have to give them the edge in terms of story.  But I guess story is secondary as long as you have CGI and 3D effects.

I went and saw the latest CGI lovefest Avatar.  I went to see it with my wife and a couple of friends.  This is nothing more than telling the story of Native Americans allegorically and since it’s fantasy, Cameron gets to end it the way he wants.  It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise how it does end.  At the end of the movie, my friend asked me what I thought of it and I answered with three words, “Dances with Smurfs.”  That’s all this was to me.

Now, I do wish American history concerning Native American treatment was different, but Avatar adds only two things: the CGI and the ending.  I knew how this movie was going to end 5 minutes into it and had to sit through 2 hours and 30+ minutes to get where I knew we were gonna go.  That’s not entertaining for me.  I want a movie to teach me something, a new idea or new way to look at something.  Avatar offers no new perspective, no new idea, just a lot of CGI.  CGI does not a movie make.