My Thoughts on James Cameron's Avatar

This is not a review for the James Cameron film, Avatar. I have never seen the movie Avatar and I really have no plans to see it. Most likely I will, when it is on cable or maybe one day my daughter will drops off the DVD.

I have no doubt that it is a good movie. The estimated costs of the film are between 230 million to 310 million, so it better be a good film. It is beyond me to think someone could spend that kind of money and fail miserably (remember the American abomination called Godzilla)! Avatar is, I'm sure, entertaining since we know James Cameron can tell a yarn.

The film is close to three hours long, Maybe I'm getting old, but that's a long time to sit in a theater.

I keep hearing something along the line of “You have to see it in the theater for the special effects”. I don't care about special effects. I'm sure they are excellent but they don't impress me anymore. I watched the first Transformer movie and that had great effects that put me to sleep.

This film is being show now in 3D with added scenes in iMax theaters. I find 3D a distraction that ruins a film for me. It is nothing more that a gimmick and doesn't interest me. The iMax theater? I am not sure about that yet. I've never seen an actual film in one yet but if I remember when I saw a film about The Grand Canyon in once, it was hard to see the entire screen all at once. Anyway, if I need and over sized screen and dorky glasses to enjoy a film, it is not worth my time.

I still completely enjoy watching John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, which I've seen 50 times, on my 25 inch TV, in black and White and mono sound. Will that same be said for Avatar years from now? Who knows. I know I watch Titanic once and never had any desire to view it again.

I have read that over 150 million was spent on promotion! That's crazy.

You know, making a good film with over a quarter of a million dollars to spend, with great actors and the best special effects men in the business doesn't impress me. DO you know what impresses me? I independent filmmaker, with no budget and amateur actors who makes an entertaining film. Now that is a challenge.