Looks like this week'll be short & relatively fluffy -- they're starting the Christmas/year-end break with reruns Thursday night (coverage discussion in comments, of course). Here's the list, via the Late Night Talk Show Page:
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, Comedy Central
Mo 12/14: Sigourney Weaver
Tu 12/15: Ray LaHood
We 12/16: Hugh Grant
Th 12/17: Mike Huckabee (R 12/8/09)
THE COLBERT REPORT, Comedy Central
Mo 12/14: Katherine Reutter, Snoop Dogg
Tu 12/15: Alicia Keys
We 12/16: Tom Brokaw
Th 12/17: Lara Logan (R 12/10/09)
Sigourney Weaver is promoting Avatar, which RottenTomatoes rates a surprising 91% Fresh (46 reviews, avg. 7.7/10, and surprising because you've seen the ads too, yes?). Here's the synopsis:
Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters.
So you can see why I'm suspicious --could easily be a movie full of pretty cliches (or tedious yet sparkly cliches, perhaps). And actually, several of the review snippets posted at RT say things like "routine narrative" and "2-D characters -- but hey, it's in 3D, right? A lot of those positive reviews talk about the visual spectacle & technical achievements --an MTV.com article says:
Corny dialogue and trite plot points aside, "Avatar" offers a truly transporting experience, one immersive in a way that finally fulfills the promise of motion-capture technology.
Well, I've forgiven corny dialogue and trite plots before. Here's Cinematical:
... Cameron's latest is scary and exciting and entertaining as hell, even if it's far too early – and too conventional in too many ways - to herald it as any kind of masterpiece...
...The truth is that it's neither the best film nor the worst of the year, but it's certainly one of the most engaging, at least on a commercial level; Cameron seems to understand that great technological advances must be paired with familiar story structures in order for them to find a comfortable place as true game-changers or even favorites, and offers a wholly conventional narrative against which he exercises his considerable creativity as a technologist and forward-thinker in filmmaking.
What this means is that the movie acquiesces often – indeed, too frequently – to cliché when it should expand its visual and technical innovation to include storytelling itself. ...Cameron chooses both the military and corporations as his villains in the piece (as if neither would be sufficiently evil on their own), exploiting nature and indigenous people in equal measures to exemplify their nobility, and highlight human indifference to flora and fauna, to teach a pointedly overstated lesson about the environment and militarization and profiteering that feels worth ignoring whether you disagree with it or empathize emphatically. ...
Admittedly, Cameron has seldom operated in more than two-dimensional characterizations...At the same time, however, he often manages to uncover a few remarkable truths in spite of himself, elevating those otherwise obvious messages beyond their superficial revelations....
...Meanwhile, of course, the visual energy of the film is undeniable, and the CGI – its inability to really transform our current expectations aside – legitimizes Cameron's claims that he's on some next-level artistry. The final battle itself is destined to be one of those sequences that gets aped, imitated and ripped off ... the consistency of individual, pulse-pounding moments using different geography and characters is visually and emotionally overwhelming....
...Ultimately, however, I do think that Cameron's latest is a terrific movie, and I look forward to watching and examining it again, even if some of its shortcomings require no more than one viewing to notice....
Sounds about right.
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