DVD Review

Avatar***

Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver Michelle Rodriguez

Avatar is awesome. Not “awesome” like a early-nineties surf dude describes some waves, or “awesome” in the blandly positive sense of the words that could either sarcastically or sincerely describe an uninspired tuna melt, though.
I mean awesome in its truest sense – as in something that inspires awe. Gob-smacking, jaw-dropping, grab the arm of the person next to you awe.
Now while I’m far from suggesting that Avatar is anything akin to a religious experience, or even the sort of film that will make any real impact on your life – unless you make your money selling 3D glasses – there is alot about Jim Cameron’s technically brilliant flick that inspires a deal of smack-gobbing and drop-jawing.
You have never seen anything like this before. Ever.
By flawlessly merging live-action film with computer generated environments and characters, James Cameron has opened up a world of new possibilities for filmmakers where, realistically, their imaginations (and budget) are the only things that will limit their cinematic vision.
But unless you’re loaded and have a 3D cinema in your home or have already stumped up for one of those new-fangled 3D TVs, you won’t be enjoying that particularly distracting dimension of Avatar’s charms and, without that novelty, the actual story and script come into a slightly sharper focus than the cinema experience might have put the film under. And those aren’t really aspects of the film you want to be focussing on.
For anyone who has only recently returned from the moon and is unaware of the highest grossing film of all time, Avatar is a loosely-veiled eco parable set in the future about an army of mercenaries running a mining operation on Pandora, a lush forested planet.
In order to cope with the dangerous Pandoran jungles and better get to know the planet’s inhabitants, the N’avi, the soldiers temporarily transfer their minds into vat-grown versions of the natives – 10 foot tall blue catlike creatures – and wander around.
The fun, moralising and extended animated scenes begin when Jake Sully, a newly arrived trooper is sent to spy on the Na’vi but goes native,  falling for both their way of life and one of the tribe’s princesses.
What  follows is a poacher-turns-gamekeeper story that is as preditcable as the fate of a kitten trapped in the path of an articulated truck driven by a vengeful dog.
Stripped of its spectacle, Avatar’s hackneyed, preachy story shows through far more obviously and the 30 minutes or so that could have been trimmed become all the more screamingly obvious. It’s still a great bit of craic to watch but the cold light of rewatching it strips much of the original lustre.

The Road ****

Directed by: John Hillcoat
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael K Williams, Robert Duvall

If you are going to watch The Road make sure you have someone around for the end of the film so you can get a hug. Or a cup of tea. Or both. As militaristic, mercenary and stripped of its connection with nature as James Cameron’s vision of the future is, director John Hillcoat’s, in interpreting the work of novelist Cormac McCarthy, is about as relentlessly miserable, bitter and harsh as anything one could think of. It’s even more grim a prospect than getting caught in a fallout shelter with Harvey Norman himself on the day he has some bargains he HAS TO TELL YOU ABOUT!
Set in a post-apocalyptic world where some unnamed disaster has killed the world’s plant and animal life and sent civilisation spiralling into fear, mass suicide and cannibalism, The Road follows an unnamed father and son (Mortensen and Smit-McPhee) as they trudge towards the coast in the hope that the proverbial grass there will be greener.
The Road is another truely awesome film, both in its performances and the images it puts on screen but the soul-crushing hardships the pair endure as they make their way to the sea can make it more of a “cinematic experience” than the sort of thing you’ll watch over and over.
That said, there is little to fault here. Mortensen is excellent as the haggard dad, barely holding on to his health while Kodi Smit-McPhee is innocent and hopeful without succumbing to film-kid syndrome.
Rounding out the flick is a cast of co-stars that are all resoundingly well chosen for their parts and convincing in their performances.