Auteur James Cameron's magnum opus Avatar continues to break records by winning the weekend box office race for the sixth consecutive week. The film, the most expensive movie ever made to date, has grossed well over one billion dollars worldwide, eclipsing the previous top grosser, Cameron's other little movie called Titanic.
The question is, why? I found nothing particularly ground-breaking about the movie, not to mention the fact that it was an hour too long and not all that entertaining or that original. See Dances With Wolves, Last of the Mohicans, and read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books.
The answer is, that Cameron is able to gauge the audience's likes and dislikes and tap into what exactly they want to see. He accomplished that with Titanic and to a greater degree, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The Terminator was a good movie in and of itself (and also not that original, see author Harlan Ellison's Outer Limits episodes, "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand"), but Cameron built upon that idea very skillfully by turning the killing machine that is the Terminator and making him a good guy, thus capitalizing on everybody's favorite action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. A brilliant move that paid off.
Why did Titanic succeed so greatly? Teenage girls, mostly. They kept going back, week after week, to see Leonardo DiCaprio fall in love and die. It was that simple.
So, why did Avatar top that? Because science fiction is popular again. Because geek culture is in (as evidenced by the resurgence of comic book-based movies). Because much of the movie going public today hasn't seen Dances With Wolves, Last of the Mohicans, or read anything written by Burroughs? God, I hope not, but there's probably a lot of truth in that, too.
Cameron knew he could never make a sequel to Titanic or any sort of follow-up to that film. So, he created his own new world or universe to play in, as unoriginal as it may be, and will reap the benefits pretty much forever. A smart man? Definitely. A good filmmaker? Certainly. An innovator? Perhaps (although Avatar's "groundbreaking" special effects were already achieved in 1999's Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace).
I wish I had a definite answer to why Avatar has become the phenomenon it has become. Unfortunately, I don't. I just wish the movie had been better.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
"The Book of Eli" Review
The Book of Eli is the long-awaited return by filmmaking siblings, the Hughes Brothers, or is it? Albert and Allen Hughes have not directed a movie since 2001's terrible From Hell, another failed attempt at adapting anything Alan Moore (bearded comic book writer and co-author of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
I had totally forgotten about these guys, except when I catch their entertaining documentary American Pimp, and ode to all things "mack" on late-night cable television. The Hughes Brothers are talented, nonetheless, and after seeing the trailers for Book of Eli, I was somewhat excited to watch the movie.
The Book of Eli is the story of Eli, a wandering warrior heading west in what appears to be a post-nuclear war-torn America some three or four decades from now. Eli is carrying the eponymous book, a tome so powerful that it is coveted by the sinister Carnegie, the self-styled and self-appointed leader of one the few civilized towns left in the U.S.
Eli won't give the book up and Carnegie plans to kill him to get it. What ensues is a fairly fast-paced action film with some fine battle sequences and shoot outs and an ending reminiscent of star Denzel Washington's earlier Man of Fire, if you get my meaning.
Speaking of Denzel, he gives another damn fine performance in The Book of Eli, and has finally achieved a level of effortless acting, where we, the audience, completely buy into his ability and the role he's playing. Denzel was also in top form in last year's Taking of Pelham 123, but I felt that The Book of Eli and its title role suited him much better.
Gary Oldman, the definitive James Gordon, was also great as the megalomaniacal Carnegie. Oldman can still play a villain like nobody's business. In fact, I just saw him today in True Romance on Blu Ray, which I highly recommend, as the slimy Afrophiliac pimp Drexl. This guy gives a tour de force job every time he's cast in a movie, and Eli is no different.
Mila Kunis plays Solara, a young woman who allies herself with Eli against Carnegie. Solara is only memorable at the end of the film, but Kunis is not hard to forget. She is incredibly beautiful and gets a little better looking every time I see her on screen. Jennifer Beals is Solara's mother, the blind Claudia and Carnegie's paramour. Beals doesn't look all that different from her heydays of Flashdance, and that's definitely a good thing.
The Book of Eli is a good, solid post-apocalyptic action-thriller in the vein of and The Road Warrior and Escape from New York, but not as good as either of them. As a guilty fan of Waterworld, I wouldn't put it up there either, but it's still a fine addition to the genre, and a nice return of the Hughes Brothers to the world of filmmaking.
Three out of Five Stars
I had totally forgotten about these guys, except when I catch their entertaining documentary American Pimp, and ode to all things "mack" on late-night cable television. The Hughes Brothers are talented, nonetheless, and after seeing the trailers for Book of Eli, I was somewhat excited to watch the movie.
The Book of Eli is the story of Eli, a wandering warrior heading west in what appears to be a post-nuclear war-torn America some three or four decades from now. Eli is carrying the eponymous book, a tome so powerful that it is coveted by the sinister Carnegie, the self-styled and self-appointed leader of one the few civilized towns left in the U.S.
Eli won't give the book up and Carnegie plans to kill him to get it. What ensues is a fairly fast-paced action film with some fine battle sequences and shoot outs and an ending reminiscent of star Denzel Washington's earlier Man of Fire, if you get my meaning.
Speaking of Denzel, he gives another damn fine performance in The Book of Eli, and has finally achieved a level of effortless acting, where we, the audience, completely buy into his ability and the role he's playing. Denzel was also in top form in last year's Taking of Pelham 123, but I felt that The Book of Eli and its title role suited him much better.
Gary Oldman, the definitive James Gordon, was also great as the megalomaniacal Carnegie. Oldman can still play a villain like nobody's business. In fact, I just saw him today in True Romance on Blu Ray, which I highly recommend, as the slimy Afrophiliac pimp Drexl. This guy gives a tour de force job every time he's cast in a movie, and Eli is no different.
Mila Kunis plays Solara, a young woman who allies herself with Eli against Carnegie. Solara is only memorable at the end of the film, but Kunis is not hard to forget. She is incredibly beautiful and gets a little better looking every time I see her on screen. Jennifer Beals is Solara's mother, the blind Claudia and Carnegie's paramour. Beals doesn't look all that different from her heydays of Flashdance, and that's definitely a good thing.
The Book of Eli is a good, solid post-apocalyptic action-thriller in the vein of and The Road Warrior and Escape from New York, but not as good as either of them. As a guilty fan of Waterworld, I wouldn't put it up there either, but it's still a fine addition to the genre, and a nice return of the Hughes Brothers to the world of filmmaking.
Three out of Five Stars
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)