A Risky Diss on Avatar

Avatar got nine Oscar nominations. This is fine. I think I might even get it. But is this a bad time to admit that I didn’t really enjoy it all that much? And am I alone in my indifference?

Now really – don’t get me wrong. I didn’t hate Avatar, and I in no way view it at all as an abomination of Twilight proportions (I may have to blog my Twilight views later) but was it really THAT great? What did I miss?

I would like to start by saying that the idea of body swapping was awesome. I did like that part. Very clever as far as gimmicky things go. Also – I LOVE Michelle Rodriguez so really any movie with her in it gets a bit of a thumbs up from me because she’s awesome. But come ON! The plot of the entire movie was completely uninspired and predictable. Fail Blog actually posted the idea that the writers had got hold of the script for Pocahontas and just changed the names a bit. Yeah….that sounds about right…

But was everyone else expecting it to be so cartoony? I thought the whole point of the movie was supposed to be how incredible the special effects were – I thought special effects and making-it-look-real were supposed to go hand-in-hand. Maybe my expectations are a little warped…

Then I heard on the radio the other day that one of the perks of buying the dvd is that a Blue People (sorry I can’t remember what they were called) mating scene is included in the bonus features. WHAT??????? WHY????? Why do we need to witness the procreation of this alien race? And seriously – who decided this was a good idea? Sure – it seems that grownups are going moggy over this movie too – but isn’t the biggest consumer demographic that of your ten-to-twelve year olds? Surely it’s the kids who are soaking up Ben 10 and all those other weird shows that are loving Avatar the most? Am I wrong? In a few months time we are going to have hundreds of thousands of little kids begging their parents to add the Avatar dvd to their shopping carts and while most parents tend to ignore the PG13 sticker on the back, I am quite sure they’re not considering the fact that they’re possibly exposing their children to alien pornography! Every time my eight year old goes on about the movie all I can think is, “I’d love to buy it for you, but I’m not entirely sure that shagging habits of giant blue zebra people is entirely appropriate for your innocent little eyes…”

I really don’t dispute Avatar as a “must see” movie. But does it really deserve every second person claiming it as their “favourite movie ever”?

Maybe it’s just me…