Friday, December 18, 2009

Avatar - The story of US


Day before yesterday:

Project submissions, Power point presentations,looming end terms,freezing cold,nothing stopped us from catching Avatar a day before its release, oh wait, except the theatre it self!


We thought we were the luckiest people on earth when we were told exactly 6 tickets were left for the show, miraculously in the back rows, in a continuous stretch! We settled in our seats,wore the 3D glasses and prepared ourselves for the experience of our life time. The movie started, we kept waiting for the 3D effects, but none came.soon it became apparent to me that we were watching a 2D movie,not a 3D. Somebody confronted with the manager and he confessed that there was a technical difficulty with the 3D version and they are running the 2D version now.
But even that version ran into glitches, so they are cancelling the show.

Hold on for a moment and grasp this. He actually distributed 3D glasses to audience,ran a 2D movie and hoped that no one will notice the difference.I mean, I am a huge believer of "Wishing reaaallllly haard" concept, but frankly, this is taking the concept to ridiculous levels.

So we got the money back and came back to IMT, marveling at the peanut brain of manager of Big cinemas.

Yesterday:

The watch is displaying the time 13:10. I was rolling lazily in my blanket contemplating whether lunch is worthy of getting out of bed(yeah, thats how i roll). I got a call from a friend. They are planning a second attack on the movie. This time there was no question of which is a better choice. We were in the hall by 13:50.

Okay, Mr. cameron. Mesmerize me!

And he did. For 160 minutes. When i read RGV's praise about the movie, i was suspicious, but he nailed it when he said cameron's world is more beautiful than the God's. But its pretty much redundant to talk about the technical brilliance of the movie. Unless you are in the Big boss house, you must have heard about it. What appealed to me is the brilliance of the story.

We have seen countless movies in where little green aliens come to earth because their planet is over populated or they need earth's resources. We have seen how earthlings manage to beat them and rooted for earth. Cameron just reversed the situation and made US the aliens!

Thinking from another perspective, this story is not so much lifted from science fiction as from history books. One thought that lingered in mind through out the movie was: This must be what happened when the English set foot in U.S ,or India for that fact. They came, they promised development, they taught us English, they thought they are making us civilized people, but ultimately all they wanted was our resources. All cameron did was to Change the setting from country level to Planetary level!

You see,from both the perspectives,Avatar is a story of US. And thats where lies its brilliance. People who say that the emotional quotient is not so great as Titanic, i can't disagree more. It poses many questions and makes us think about our actions,albeit undercurrently.Behind all the motion capture techniques,big explosions,and the dazzlingly beautiful effects, this is a film with a heart!

Today:
Just booked a ticket for the 3D version of the movie. Enough pondering over the story. Time to drool over the effects!

P.S: When the characters talk about each tree in pandora linked to another and the implications of those connections, i couldn't help but wonder: this concept of collective consciousness is knocking on my door wherever i go,in books, in films, in news paper articles. And each time, its getting more convincing....