Oscar

In case you're wondering, yes I did see The Hurt Locker. A work friend of mine who is former military lent me her copy a couple of months ago after telling me it was one of the best war films she's ever seen. So after putting it off for a couple of weeks, I finally popped in the dvd one night while I ran to some final table on pokerstars or something until 4am, and I watched the whole thing with about 98% focus. And guess what?

It sucked.

I guess I should qualify that. I went out and saw Slumdog Millionaire last year after it one all the acclaim at the 2009 Oscars. It's rare that Hammer Wife and I both are really interested in a seeing a movie in the theater, so when that does happen we tend to make it happen, and Slumdog was just such a film. So I went, with the high expectations of a man who knows he is about to see the Best Picture of the Year. And, like most other people I know, Slumdog reallly underwhelmed me. It's the kind of movie that you leave and say "That was good". But that's about it. Nobody but nobody left that theater saying "Wow! That movie's gonna win Best Picture this year for sure!" Nobody. Just like nobody left "Up in the Air" saying that. Because it was good (at best), but definitely not great. Same thing with Slumdog Millionaire. They both may be just the kind of movie the Academy who decides each year's Oscar winners loves to glom on to. But ultimately they're both about a 6.5 out of 10, and not more. Period.

And now it's the same thing with The Hurt Locker. I know it's just the kind of gritty, documentary-style war movie that the Academy loves to shoot their wad all over. I especially know that it tackles the war in the middle east which is a topic that not many others have tried to capture in a mainstream movie as yet ("Three Kings", anyone?), which gets the Academy hot and bothered all over again. But you know what? It's a 6.5, just like last year's Best Picture, and so many others over recent years.

The Academy got what it wanted on Sunday night with the Oscars. So did all the faux intellectual types out there so desperate for others to view them as artistic, cultured and refined. But just as in past years, we all know what was the actual greatest movie of the year. It may not be the Best Picture, but we all know the best picture when we see it.

More on Avatar

So the recent movie I keep hearing Avatar compared to out there over the past couple of weeks is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. As I may have mentioned yesterday, in my opinion Avatar succeeded brilliantly in almost every spot where every LOTR film failed.

Ultimately, the recent LOTR trilogy basically boils down to Peter Jackson whacking off and ejaculating all over himself for about 10 full hours. I mean, this guy never saw a scene in his life that he wanted to cut. So he took a story -- admittedly, a long one -- and stretched it out into 10 hours of incredibly slow-moving, dragging-along action. Sure, he made a real spectacle out of it, with the costumes and the fight scenes and all, and those aspects of the movie were good. But you can't change the fact that I must have looked at my watch 20 or 25 times during the first movie in the theater, and I never even bothered to go see the second or third until they came out on tv and I could watch them over a couple of months which is how long it takes to get that much time together in one place to watch an epic like the entire LOTR trilogy.

I hardly remembered I even had a watch while Avatar was on. Although 2 1/2 hours is still a long movie, for another spectacle piece like this it's not too bad, and it moves very fast. You're just learning so much, experiencing so much, and really feeling like you are part of the action thanks to the filming and the 3-D effects, it's a more active moviegoing experience in a lot of ways than ever before, and the 150 minutes blew by except for maybe some parts as the last hour built towards the conclusion. In LOTR I couldn't watch an hour of that garbage without flipping the channel onto something else, just to get some fast-moving action. If Avatar was on tv right now, I would punch you if you even tried to pry the remote from my clenched hand.

The costumes were another comparison point between Avatar and LOTR from what I am hearing, and again, as incredible as this was in LOTR, ultimately I just don't see how using real people and real clothing and real costumes can compare to what we can now create using computers and cutting-edge technology to synthesize directly to the reel. This certainly was the strong point of Jackson's LOTR trilogy, and again he did a fine job with it, but can you really compare the way Pippin or Frodo or even the dwarves or elves looked, with how the Navi looked in Avatar? How can you? The Navi didn't even have to look, or move, or do anything like real people, whereas everyone in LOTR except for maybe Gollum and a few of the monsters was still restricted by the chains of reality, of humanity. The Navi could be anything. The CGI technology has finally gotten so realistic with Avatar that they created an entire planet of aliens and animal-like creatures that seem 100% as real as if they were real life things being filmed by a real life camera crew on real life Pandora. I mean, just this past weekend the first of the new Star Wars flicks came on Spike at night, and I watched a good hour or so of it in the background while I did some work and played some poker. And you know what? Not only is Jar Jar Binks annoying as shit with that idiot voice, but the animation really isn't that good. It's fine and all, but it's a bit like going back and watching the first Terminator movie now -- Jar Jar really kind of bounces a bit awkwardly when he walks, and there are multiple scenes where you can tell the other actors are really talking to nothing, and that Jar Jar was simply added to the scene later by computer. There was none of that in Avatar, none that I noticed anyways. Through a combination of the very latest in cameras and cutting edge computer and 3-D technology, Avatar comes off to the viewer as if you are right there in the thick of the action going on all around you, and like it is totally and completely real. LOTR? Not even close to the same thing.

On the overall creativity scale, Peter Jackson's take on LOTR once again falls woefully short of James Cameron's effort in Avatar. Although this would have been a golden opportunity for Jackson to set himself apart by taking some unique or particularly interesting takes on what has been done before in at least two other movies of the famous trilogy, instead Jackson pretty much stuck right to the script, including making characters pretty much the same way as they have been portrayed before without adding a whole lot in the way of true ingenuity or original conception. LOTR would have been a great opportunity to throw in things like the shiny-tail bugs or the wisps from Avatar -- they could have been all over the place, really, but that's not really what LOTR was all about the way that Jackson cast it. Jackson's attempt to recreate every scene from the book in more or less sequential order comes off just like that -- an endless 10-hour progression of scenes, each one done up to the nines as far as costumes and such, progressing towards a conclusion in the mountains of Mordor. And even the ending of LOTR would have been a great opportunity for Jackson to give his own vision of Hell, Evil, Satan, whatever you want to call Sauron, but I like most people I know was underwhelmed by the attempt. There wasn't much of anything in Avatar that was not depicted with the utmost of originality and flair. From the floating mountains, to the choosing of the bird-things, that early scene on Jake's first night on Pandora, etc., it was all just done on a level above and beyond LOTR. Frankly I think that is a tremendous insult to Avatar and a tremendous understatement of the level of ingenuity and detail that went into creating the best movie in over a decade.

As I think I mentioned yesterday, I think a much better analog to Avatar is 1999's The Matrix. Now there's a movie that rocked people's worlds like Avatar is. There's a movie I might have seen twice in the theaters. There's a movie I literally still talk about with regularity among friends and colleagues. Who the fike talks about Lord of the Rings? Other than you D&D loving, chain mail-wearing, King Richard's Faire-going dorks that is. Like Avatar, The Matrix is visually stunning, including fight scenes and chase scenes pretty much better than any movie before it. Both movies are captivating on a level not approached by any other normal movie, and I chuckle at the thought of anybody sitting in the theater back in 1999 watching The Matrix and continually checking their watch to see when the thing was going to be over. No way. I looked at my watch more than the screen when I saw the first 85-hour movie of Lord of the Rings!

Like Avatar, The Matrix also employed new technology and new direction with camera angles and such as compared to everything that had ever been created before it. As such, it changed movies forever, as since then about 30 movies have been made using the same floating-wire technology to enhance their own fight and chase scenes. It, like Avatar, was a completely unique piece of direction, something which a movie like LOTR cannot possibly say. LOTR was down-to-the-detail done-up, that is for sure, but it didn't really push the boundaries or send movies off in a new direction at all. It just did the same thing that had been done before, but on an extremely mega and detailed scale. Avatar and The Matrix, however, were as I've said, completely unique. The Matrix used wires and a new perspective on shooting to create the coolest fight scenes ever made. James Cameron invented his own camera technology and 3-D to place you literally right in the thick of the action in Avatar in a way that has simply never even been approached before.

As I said yesterday, I don't think there is any reasonable argument that Avatar is not the best movie of the past decade-plus. I think The Matrix back in 1999 is the last movie to come along that really can make a good argument to be as good or better than Avatar. It's definitely not as visually stunning as Avatar is -- ultimately not even close, really -- but the uniqueness, the originality, and just the awesomeness of that story surpasses the plot of Avatar for sure. It will always be difficult to compare a visual movie like Avatar to a drama like Shawshank or whatever genre you would call The Matrix, but in my mind there is no doubt that Avatar ranks among the top examples of films ever made by humankind.

Hands Down The Best Movie In Years

I'll be honest with you guys -- I have about four posts already mostly written, at least in raw form, waiting and ready to be posted about various topics. The large amount of poker I have played over the past few days. A recent trip to Atlantic City to the 1-2 cash tables. Another big weekend of NFL playoff action. But something happened to me this weekend that I just had to sit down and start writing about right after it happened, almost in an attempt to extent the experience for myself as much as to share it with the rest of you out there. What did I do you may ask that had such an effect on me?

I went to see Avatar.

Now, if you've read here for any considerable period of time, then you will know that I am generally a very harsh critic on movies. I don't like mostly any of the drivel that comes out nowadays, mostly because movies today for the most part only get made if they are expected to turn a profit, and in order for a big studio to expect to turn a profit, they have a certain formula, or "mold" if you prefer that term better, that they compare every screenplay they see to. If it fits the "likely to turn a profit" mold, then they make it, and if it doesn't, they generally pass. The result is that most of the movies that hit the theaters today are designed not to be great or to stir up your emotions, but rather, ultimately, to make money. They just target different segments of the population from which to profit is all.

But every once in a while, a movie comes along that seriously challenges the status quo. I mean, a movie that you would not consider going to the bathroom during, one that not only has you breathless all the way throughout, but has you buzzing with excitement for several days afterwards. The kind of movie that even regular joes like myself would be willing to see twice. In the theaters. At $20 a pop. That, my friends, is Avatar.

I will not give any specific spoilers at this point here in case anyone out there has not yet seen this movie. But suffice it to say -- and this is coming from a guy who has to this day steadfastly refused to ever see Titanic -- James Cameron is a stark raving genius. Avatar has finally made that obvious to me beyond all doubt. I have really liked some of Cameron's movies in the past -- Terminator 2 and The Abyss come immediately to mind as great examples of his directorial prowess, in addition to all-time top-grossing film Titanic which as I mentioned I have to this point in my life proudly and purposefully skipped. But I never thought of him in that absolute upper echelon, up there with the Speilbergs and the Scorceses, the master storytellers of their time. But at this point, there can be no doubt. James Cameron is a mad scientist of movies.

Where can you even begin to describe what Avatar is to the institution of movies. No matter how hard I try, words cannot describe that certain je ne sais quoi that Avatar has. Ultimately, I think it comes down to creativity. There has most definitely never, ever been anything like this in the history of life on earth. Nothing even close, really. It's not so much that most of the characters in the movie are computer-generated and yet move, talk and interact amazingly exactly as if they were real actors. And it's certainly not the 3-D, which is very cool and certainly something that helps push this movie over the edge of all-time greatness, but in the end the 3-D is actually quite understated compared to other 3-D movies and experiences I have seen in the past. I would estimate the 3-D is only about 5% of the coolness of Avatar, despite the technology being wielded extremely skillfully by Cameron as he weaves the story of the world of Pandora into the pop culture of the earth around forever.

No, it's not really the incredible, best-ever computer animation, and it's not the 3-D that make Avatar so special. And it's not the plot either -- the plot that I had heard from several sources was the weak link of the movie, a trite, many-times-over told story as predictable as the day is long. The plot that had me with such painfully low expectations going in to this movie, just like I usually have and am most often vindicated for. But not this time. The plot of Avatar is actually pretty good. It's not stupendous. The story itself isn't going to literally change your life forever on an emotional level like going to see Shawshank Redemption or The Matrix did. But it's good. It's interesting, and it does the job in a big way, having been executed pretty much flawlessly by an absolute perfectionist in James Cameron. Truth be told, the plot pretty much is the weak link of the story, but that is only because the plot is probably roughly a 7 out of 10 while the rest of the movie -- the execution of the movie -- is the closest thing to a perfect 10 I can remember in a long time.

Which brings me back to what that special something-something is with Avatar: creativity. That's what it comes down to. Did you ever see The Fifth Element? For true science fiction fans, The Fifth Element is to me about as truly original and creative of a flick as we've seen since the 1970s brought us Blade Runner and the beginning of the Star Wars saga. So many new ideas, so many new-looking aliens, with new powers and new outlooks. It's a thrill to watch every time it comes on TBS or one of the pay stations, and I rarely turn it off whenever I happen upon it during my surfing. But Avatar clearly surpasses The Fifth Element in the originality department -- both in the way it is shot but even in just some of the little details as well that the great directors are famous for covering so adeptly. Some of the "animals" (for lack of a better term) that we run into on Pandora are simply incredible, even right down to whoever thought up the idea for them in the first place. For those of you who've seen the movie, I'm thinking for example of those wisps that look like forget-me-nots that cover the main character at the beginning. Or those spiral flowers that all disappeared their entire stalk to quickly when he touched them at the beginning? Or what about that incredible bug we saw a few times that, when touched, erupted its tail in a brilliant spinning sprial of light? What they thought of to make the world of Pandora seem real, and alive, and yet completely alien, is truly amazing, really, like absolutely nothing I can ever recall seeing in my lifetime.

And it was more than just the visuals that Cameron worked so hard, and in fact waited for several years for the 3-D and other technology to catch up to the vision he has had for Avatar for the better part of a decade, that make Avatar the brilliantly original film that it is. The movie is just as rich in interesting and truly creative ideas as it is in visuals. Again, for those of you who have seen the film, but without giving any real spoilers, I'm thinking of the whole notion of linking the pony tails in their hair with the animals. Or the Tree of Souls. Or the whole Matrix-like use of avatars to begin with. As I keep saying over and over to anyone who will listen since seeing this movie this past weekend, you have most definitely never seen anything like this, period. Until now, no one has pushed the envelope quite this far in terms of what you can think of and then portray on-screen.

And I would be remiss if I did not as well mention specifically the way this movie is shot. If you read that link I had up above, it describes how James Cameron not only waited for years for 3-D technology to catch up with his vision for Avatar, but he also personally developed a new camera that shoots in hyper-realistic images directly to the human eye. Between that, the 3-D factor, and Cameron's impeccable taste for shooting all different kinds of scenes in just the right way, sitting back and watching this movie is like a huge palatial feast for your rods and cones. It's that simple. The fight scenes are tremendous, sort of combining the best of Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Evolution and The Matrix if that makes any sense at all, and the imagery, the characters, really everything are an incredible combination that you just don't see in movies today.

I think I've said all I need to right now about the specifics of the movie, but would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the movie if you've seen it in the comments. Hammer Wife and I are still talking nonstop about Avatar after more than 72 hours since leaving the theater, and we are already planning to drop another $50 to go see it for a second time in the IMAX theater, which will mark the first (and I bet only) time Hammer Wife and I have ever seen a movie twice in the theater, or even remotely considered doing so. But there is just nothing in the world today like seeing this movie, plain and simple. I don't think there is any doubt that Avatar is among the top ten movies of all time, although I think I will give it some time before I try to figure out where exactly to place it in the all-time pantheon of cinema. One thing is for crystal clear sure though: Avatar is not just the Best Picture for 2010. It is hands-down the best movie in at least ten years. The Matrix in what, 1999, definitely gives Avatar a run for its money, interestingly for many of the exact same reasons that make Avatar such an incredible and amazing gift to the human race. But I'm just thinking back to the films that have won Best Picture since 1999 -- Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, the third Lord of the Rings, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Departed, No Country for Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire, and having seen all of those but for Crash, it is honestly hilarious how badly Avatar. destroys them all. I am sure you will agree, if you don't already.

Please go see Avatar, James Cameron's gift to humanity.

Just make sure you have the $20 a ticket you are likely to pay to get in.