Avatar

Avatar is possibly the biggest film ever. It's long, it's expensive, it pushes the boundaries of what's visually possible, it's a technological tour de force and single handedly justified the push for 3D visuals in absolutely everything. It also made a simply preposterous amount of money.

It's also not that great.

This isn't to say it's bad, necessarily. It's highly polished, tightly plotted - it's to its credit that it's almost three hours long and also rarely boring - and comes with those visuals. The visuals are a celebration of the power of CGI, creating landscapes and geography that is completely impossible but nonetheless breathtaking. From floating mountains to detailed phosphorescent landscapes, the film is a fountain of visual imagination. The closest one can get to criticizing the view is that they are quite reminiscent of more than a few JRPGs - I'm sure I visited every location in FFXII - but they're so vividly realized that it doesn't matter.

Unfortunately, the visuals contain the only imagination. The story itself is a clichéd environmental allegory. The story's center is Jake Sully - Sam Worthington, who cannot maintain an American accent and show emotion at the same time - a former Marine who can't use his legs. With the death of his twin brother, he's directed to become part of the Avatar program, where he controls a big blue dude to interact with the Na'Vi, the indigenous population which has a connection with nature - literally, with some sort of hair USB cable - and is a not very subtle lift of magical Native Americans who show up in these kind of things. He's directed by trigger happy space marine Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and weaselly corporate guy Norm Spellman (Joel Moore) to get intelligence about the place the Na'vi live, so they can blow it up and mine some stupidly named "unobtanium". Unfortunately, he falls in love, with the Na'vi culture but mostly with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and decides that he's got to protect them forever. Also present are Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the gruff scientist with a heart of gold, and Michelle Rodriguez, playing a Michelle Rodriguez role. Guess what happens to her!

The characters are a grab bag of old ideas we've seen before a million times. The plot develops predictably, every plot development is predictable from the moment the film starts, and not one surprise happens in the three hour running time. The sole unique factor for the big battles is the switch between avatar and human, and how it affects the characters' reactions. The big bad just wants oi...I mean "unobtanium" - was there seriously no better names? - and that concern overrides. There are some less than subtle digs about colonialism and US foreign policy, the army guy just wants to blow stuff up and looks for flimsy excuses to do so, and in spite of the vibrant visuals the film is stock black and white - there is good, there is bad, and nothing in between.

It's a case where it's possibly the best film of the type possible - sorry, Fern Gully, you've been eclipsed - and it is so pretty it's tempting to just ignore the number of flaws in the picture. It's such a technological tour de force that it's easy to ignore that it has nothing unique or interesting to say. It's all visual, and while they're good visuals, there's more to film than that.

Galaxy Quest

In one of the special features to one of the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg films (I do bring those two up a lot, don't they?), they mention that their parody is out of love, not out of derision, and that might be why it connects. They have a point, because in their films, you can tell they love the material, which allows people who also love the films they mock get in there and enjoy it just as much. Which brings me to Galaxy Quest, a Star Trek parody, which is also made out of love, and also happens to work.

I say Star Trek parody, but it's not simply a parody of the series, but the strange obsession that comes with it. Tim Allen is William Shatner, errr...the arrogant, scene-stealing captain, Alan Rickman is the second in command who believes the whole thing is beneath him, Tony Shaloub seems kinda stoned, and Sam Rockwell thinks he's the obligatory redshirt. Sigourney Weaver is the token hot chick and Daryl Mitchell is the token black guy. Together, they go to conventions and visit obsessive fans, and quietly beginning to dislike each other and their lack of career.

Suddenly, some childlike aliens don't understand that it's a TV series and believe that it's all real, so they take everyone off to space. The collection of washed up actors have to go save them, and discover that they're just like their characters after all, and they save the day, and everyone is happy.

People who are Trek fans will recognize the silly psuedoscience, the stock characters, the silly writing, the ship based on goofy writing before logical design, and the various clashing personalities, and the sheer arrogance of the captain. Moments are pulled from Trek lore and legend, which make the characters familiar and amuse the fans. People who aren't fans can appreciate it anyway, because it's an entertaining piece of science fiction, with good action and a funny script. It works simply as a movie, but for fans of the parodied material, it works on another level.

It also helps that the cast is fantastic. Tim Allen is somewhat underrated as an actor. I'm not sure if he's necessarily versatile, but his slightly arrogant actor/captain is perfect. Everyone else is believably sick of him, and they do function well as a unit that is generally sick of each other and their lack of success.

More than that, you can tell that the people behind it recognize the value of the series and what it means to people. Yes, there's something a little ridiculous about the production values, the scripts, the day being saved by ridiculous deus ex machina and really the whole thing. But the series is more than just a bunch of actors pretending to be in space. It means something, the values it presents are worthwhile, and by the end, you can recognize the value of series' like this, even if they might be silly to some eyes. Galaxy Quest is a highly amusing adventure, but it's also a good movie, and you know, it does mean something in the end.

Like all properly good parodies, it's a good movie full stop, but if you get the jokes, it becomes that much better.