movies & tv

Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker

The first time I watched Avatar was about 2 months ago and I watched it online while working so I wasn’t really giving the movie 100% of my attention. I am not a big fan of Sci-Fi movies, but being the huge movie fan that I am how could I not watch it at some point? Especially considering that Titanic is one of my all time favorite movies that I have probably seen at least a dozen times. (Avatar and Titanic were both directed by James Cameron.) I thought Avatar was really good and I didn’t even get to enjoy all the special effects in 3D. The scenes with the blue people, the Na’vi, are so colorful and interesting that you don’t even notice that the movie is 2 1/2 hours long. I won’t go into what the movie is about because it can’t really be told in short form, just check out the link above. I knew that as soon as the movie came out on DVD I would rent it and watch it with Ken.

Then I watched the Oscars. I was completed shocked that The Hurt Locker won over Avatar!! How could a film about a guy that disarms bombs win over the highest grossing movie of the year? Then I read that the Hurt Locker was the lowest grossing movie to ever win an Oscar. Not to mention that The Hurt Locker cost about 20% of the amount of money that was spent to make Avatar. I immediately added The Hurt Locker to my Netflix queue and waited for a night when Ken wanted to watch it with me. I assumed that the movie must be amazing.

I can understand where many people would feel a much deeper emotional connection to the movie The Hurt Locker. The movie is about something very real, war in Iraq. While watching the movie I was caught up in the suspense of all the bomb disarming and interaction between the soldiers. All the while watching you can’t help but think about how this must be what it is really like for the men and women away at war fighting for our country. At the end of the movie though I was thinking…this is it? Like there was no real storyline, other than the bomb disarming and the soldiers trying to stay alive. Despite the fact that Jeremy Renner did a pretty good job with the lead role, I never felt any emotional connection to him or any of the characters. Even the special effects were pretty lame compared to other war movies that have been released over recent years. I think Saving Private Ryan had better more realistic scenes in it than this movie. I expected a lot more from this movie. Ken thought the movie was good, but he said he would never care to watch it again. My opinion is if you really love a movie, you can’t wait to watch it again!

The DVD release of Avatar isn’t until April 22nd, but a friend of ours had a copy that he shared with us. Ken and I watched it last night and I have to say WOW…the movie is so much more impressive when you actually watch the entire thing instead of just listening. LOL! I was bummed that the kids didn’t watch it, but I know it’s a pretty long movie for them to stay interested in. They would watch a few scenes and then leave and play and then come back, etc. (Andrew wasn’t home, he had already seen it at the theater anyway.) Seriously though… Avatar is one of those movies that you just have to see because people will probably make reference to it for years to come. It’s kind of like E.T., everyone over 30 knows who E.T. is. Then again what do I know, I’m just a 30-something mom who watches A LOT of movies who also happens to be geeky enough that I knew the subtitles in Avatar where in Papyrus font.

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