Avatar

I finally went to see Avatar.

Even in typing that word 'finally', I realise that I've become part of a self sustaining loop of spectatorship. Needing to see Avatar has become a recursive part of its success. People go see it, so it becomes the most popular film ever, so if you haven't seen it you feel like you should, so it becomes even more popular...

Which is all by the by, because I really liked it. For some reason I wasn't expecting to. Partly, I suppose, there's a tiny film snob part of my brain that goes 'Well, if it's really huge and big budget and popular, I shouldn't like it, because I should prefer small scale, black and white, thoughtful films about people being sad in tiny locations.'

Also, I guess, there's something about mass appeal that excites the belief that I am somehow above all that nonsense, and thus superior to the millions of plebs who get off on (ugh) CGI and (ugh) 3D gimmickery. And, to be honest, this kind of stuff doesn't have the best precedent. The Phantom Menace still hurts, along with all the wannabe Lord of the Rings and Matrix CGIfests of the last decade.

But... well... it's really fun, isn't it? Big spaceships, massive aliens, giant beasty things that run at you in three dimensions... all packed in a straightforward story in an utterly convincing, brilliantly conceived environment. Surely the best pitch for any film should be 'Dinosaurs versus Spaceships - in 3D!!!'

So, I liked it, and will fight anyone who says that it is just big, dumb Hollywood entertainment. Not because it isn't big, or fairly dumb, or very Hollywood. But because of the word 'just' there. It's like saying 'this Twix is just a tasty chocolatey snack', or 'that song is just good for dancing to in the kitchen'. There's nothing 'just' about a big, beautiful cinematic experience.

Alright... I suppose you could say that its success has gobbled up revenue that might have otherwise supported smaller, more artful independent films, that favoured acting or storytelling or more complicated themes over cinematography. And you'd be right, and I'd wander off muttering to myself about how you wouldn't say that if a dinosaur was eating your face. But that's a bigger argument, that applies to a wide variety of equally dumb, but much less entertaining films. Oh, and, later, I'd remember and come back to you and interrupt whatever you were doing and say 'Yeah, well what about Benjamin Button eh? That was so called artful and clever and well acted and stuff, but it was as dull a three hours as I've ever spent in a darkened room'. And you'd say 'You are right, you have won.' Or possibly, 'That argument was three years ago. Why are you continuing it now?'

Anyway. It's all alright, because after watching Avatar, we went home and had a burrito, and talked about what it would be like eating enough food for two bodies every day, and how that would affect you psychologically. And then we watched 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' - a small scale, black and white, thoughtful film about people being sad in tiny locations.