Avatar (spoiler alert!)
- by Dave Yasko
This past weekend we finally saw “Avatar,” or as I like to call it “Dances with Smurfs.” It was rather light on the story, heavy on the message, and incredibly well done. The eye for detail is what blew me away, especially the visual distortion (presumably due to density) when the two atmospheres mixed. The only thing I thought they might have missed was why so many (presumably) mammals had 6 appendages (4 arms + 2 legs) and breathed through passages near their clavicles, but the Na’vi (sp?) didn’t have/do either. Also, James Cameron just loves to telegraph upcoming events: Riding the big red bird thing has only happened 5 times before – Sully is on the job. The tree is going to download dying Ripley to her avatar body – Sully is going to do that too. I’ve seen worse foreshadowing, but not in a long time. I give it 4 Papa Smurfs out of 5.