Furries or Cannibals? You decide! Or I will. Cuz I decided to not really review “Avatar” so that I could talk about “The Road” instead.
I think I’ve seen more movies in November and December than I have in all of the rest of 2009. Looking back on it, it’s kind of ridiculous. I suppose that I’ve finally managed to find an abundance of free time, which coincides with all of the holiday releases for this year. I refer to, of course, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, James Cameron’s Avatar, and finally The Road. The first two you got some reviews for already, so I won’t say anything more about those, but I am going to get into (some) detail about the last two.
Avatar. James Cameron’s Avatar. What can be said, other than the meager review I want to give you before I can move onto the more interesting movie The Road? Not too much, I’m afraid. Two things come to mind; (1) Dances with Wolves demonstrated the plot “message” better without all the fuss and bother of being IN SPACE (and with less awkward hanky-panky), and (2) I honestly thought that “unobtamium” was a joke. Like, really. See it in 3D if you must, but if I have to have a pick of the year, then it will be far from my mind.
The Road. Now the real review begins…
Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, The Road stars Viggo Mortensen and a bunch of other actors that I don’t really know very well in an interesting and fresh take on the apocalypse. Not to say that the movie is about the apocalypse, because it isn’t. I would not have enjoyed it so much if it had been so cut and dry. No, it was about the fight to survive fought bravely by a loving father and an adoring son.
To quote my good-friend and partner in crime Ben Berumez (LLC), The Road isn’t just a movie or a flick, but a film. A true, honest to goodness film. It entertained me, engrossed me in its world, and was able to hold me by the scruff of my emotions. There are several reasons for its success, which are attributed to just having a cast and crew which knew how to make a good film.
Everything the movie tried to do, it did right. Even though most of the movie consists of the father and son just walking around, something wasalways happening. When things had been too peaceful, the story would up the ante with an encounter with hostile survivors. When your heart is about to burst forth from its cage, then things calm down and you can enjoy the journey. If they’re walking through a nameless town, then important expository dialog is shared between the two. If no one is talking, then the settings and visuals told the story without dialog. The child wasn’t an annoying imp, screeching like Dakota Fanning in The War of the Worlds. The suspense was the sublime sort which I prefer, the fear of what can’t be seen as opposed to what can be. Every angle was covered, and every second was filled with something meaningful.
The Road is not for the faint of heart; with all food supplies having disappeared from the Earth, humanity has taken to intense scavenging and even cannibalism to satisfy their hunger. The act is never shown on screen, but there are a few associated scenes that I do not care to see again anytime soon. However, they added a reality to the world that a lawless and foodless world that humanity is put through. Hobbes’ Leviathan and Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” both come to mind. Also, the writing and acting makes emotional connections with the characters easy to develop. If you usually get deeply invested in characters in a movie, then the ending lap of the movie may jerk some tears.
However, amidst all the darkness and despair Viggo Mortensen and whatever that kid’s name was provided a strong a case of the enduring nature of the goodness in humanity. The Father and Son take the harder road of scavenging for food rather than digressing into mindless cannibalism. Why do they do this? According to the Son, the two of them are “the good guys.”
Of course, like any fight for survival, the Father and Son are faced with tough decisions. Sure, from time to time, they don’t help out the odd survivor or the revolver-assisted act of defense. But, as time goes by, things seem to become a little more gray than just being the good guys. How the Father and Son reconcile this, however, I’ll let you go see the movie to go find out.
If you can handle it, then I suggest you go see it. It was one of the better movies of the year, even though I’m not sure I want to experience again any time soon. I hope that the movie does well, so that Hollywood realizes that intelligent, thought-provoking movies are good and should be rewarded.
But, to quote the great philosopher, theologian, and manicurist Dave Barry, I wouldn’t bet on it.
- Tyk-Tok
i read the book, and i didn’t like it too much. of course, it IS viggo mortensen, or whatever his name is. too lazy to scroll back up.
I’ve heard that McCarthy’s writing style in The Road is very avant-garde and non-standard, making for a hard read. Then, depending on your personal tastes, the subject matter alone can make it a hard read. I’m on the fence on whether or not I should go and read the book now. I’m satisfied with the movie, though I think reading the book would do no more than further depress me.
And Viggo did make it very good and interesting. It was good for a laugh at some points, though not in a bad way. There’s this one scene where, before the unexplained cataclysm, you see him with a brown horse. I turned to my friend and whispered “Brego…“
Never judge a book by its movie.
But what if it’s a good movie?
Then I guess you can just forget about the reading the book.
“Seen the movie, it’s good, whew! don’t hafta read the darn book now!”
The book is written in a way that really forces you to put your own emotions into what the characters are saying and the horrors they face. In that sense, it can be depressing, but that’s not the point.
I know, but that would happen if I read it, I think. Being unoriginal, I like to read books that entertain me and don’t make me feel really sad.
But I respect McCarthy for what you said, I think the mark of a good writer is when you can make a genuine emotional connection with the characters presented. It’s something I strive for in my own work and I get jealous when I see it done well in the works of others.
Avatar was FAAAARRRR better than you say plus the graphics were FAR better than anything else! the fact you don’t like it makes me doubt your input on anything ever again and avatar was waaaaayyyy better than district nine
I love having a blog…
I loved Avatar because of the visuals. I freely admit that. Watching Avatar was like looking at a finely-crafted painting that changed shape. Reading up on it, the technology involved in creating those visuals have been ground breaking and history making. The standard set by Avatar in terms of special effects will be a guide by which movie productions of any genre will follow for at least the next decade, if not longer.
But, I’m afraid that I do not analyze movies for the sole purpose of visuals alone. I am a storyteller, or at least try to be. Stories are important to me in a movie, and the story in Avatar didn’t appeal to me. Now, I can go into great detail about the plot points that turned me off, but I’m not going to get sucked into that argument. Opinions are never changed in an argument, so I’m not even going to try.
The important part is that I enjoyed Avatar. I really did! I enjoyed it for different reasons than you enjoyed it. And I always feel that when you compare two different movies relative to each other, it short-changes them both.
HAHA – I can’t believe that guy got you that angry… The fact that you answered him with like 20 times the amount of words he used…. just brilliant.
Marvelous I say Marvelous! This Film is basically Pro-humanity and Anti-Bad things…
THATS what you should have said…
*shrug* Could be!