Film, life and everything in between
Weekly Review -- The unseen hours
Paranormal Activity (2007) -- Low-budget horror seems to have become a bastion for needy fans in recent years, each release offering different things for different tastes. Starting with The Blair Witch Project, slicing and dicing through the torture porn trend and ending with Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity, these films -- some good, some pure exploitation -- have shown that the demand for non-CGI scares is alive and well. What Peli's film also shows, though, is the beauty of minimalism within the expansive realms of imagination. Student Katie (Katie Featherston) and day trader Micah (Micah Sloat) would be enjoying a comfortable life in suburban San Diego, were it not for a pestering supernatural force that literally keeps them awake at night. In order to try and get rid of it, they enlist the help of a psychic and record the nightly goings-on, but the entity keeps getting more powerful... Peli manages to create a high level of suspense using few props and a story based on the unknowable, while it is the candid chemistry between Featherston and Sloat that makes the proceedings relatable. The documentary style works well in displaying an ordinary couple's growing frustration and helplessness in the face of mystifying evil, making the film feel like a home movie from hell. The demonic presence is portrayed in a subtle and organic manner; there are no loud music innuendos or overacting bravados to announce it, only old-fashioned bumps in the night and details that somehow do not fit into the general picture of happy suburbia. I also liked the fatalist element of an apparition in a character's life, since it added another dimension of the inescapable to the story and distinguished it from various other cinematic hauntings. Paranormal Activity is proof that imagination does not hinge on a big budget and that, in fact, huge resources can potentially overwhelm a story that is best told through the usage of bare necessities.
8/10
Weekly Review -- A planet of hope
Avatar (2009) -- There are numerous films that grab your attention with an earnest story and excellent acting. Some utilize their visual potency to get under your skin, rendering you speechless and making you regret the eventual end of the experience. Others yet use the power of their film's metaphoric message to convey emotion, that elusive entity that reminds us why we are cinemagoers in the first place.
James Cameron's new film, the gorgeous Avatar, does all of the above and more. It took a decade to bring this wonder to the silver screen, since Cameron never intended to diminish his vision through inferior technology. The filmmaker has actually spent this time playing an active role in the development of computer techniques that would be on par with what he had imagined in the screenplay, the initial draft of which he had reportedly completed in the span of two weeks.
The verdict? Every second of the decade was worth the wait.
Sometime in the future, paraplegic war veteran Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) accepts to replace his deceased twin brother in a mission to Pandora, a world inhabited by the alien race Na'vi. The assignment involves humans interacting with the Na'vi and exploring Pandora within genetically engineered bodies called avatars. Jake soon learns that his tasks are divided up between three factions: the gun-toting aggressor, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his army unit, whose main task is to assert human superiority among the natives; the corporate honcho, Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), whose goal is to extract immeasurable quantities of unobtanium, the mineral considered priceless on Earth, whilst destroying the Na'vi denizens and culture without scruples; and the project's leading scientist, Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), long frustrated by Selfridge's greed and Quaritch's shoot-first-ask-questions-later stance. In the process, Jake falls in love with alien princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and starts questioning his values, realizing that he has possibly found a new and noble cause to fight for.
The film is a sight to behold. From Pandora's lushly hypnotic flora and fauna to the expressive beauty of the Na'vi, each image is more marvelous than the last. By adding another dimension to the narrative, Avatar invites you into Pandora's animated paradise of colors and brings you to the front lines of the action sequences. I do not think that this film was created for 3D technology; I believe that this film re-invents it. You need to see it in 3D, simply because Avatar can only truly exist as an extraordinary audio-visual adventure, a feast for the senses that the usual cinema visit just cannot bring fully to life.
The cast is perfectly chosen. Worthington is endearing as a former marine who finds himself in what seems to him the unlikeliest of places to do so, while Weaver is a joy as a passionately uncompromising scientist at odds with corporate gluttony. Saldana is a sublime force as Neytiri, while Lang and Ribisi fare strongly as villains on opposing sides of soullessness. The voice actors who play the Na'vi warriors are also compelling, in particular C.C.H. Pounder as Mo'at, the clan's spiritual leader. The ensemble shares incredible chemistry, infusing the writing with humor and poignancy, and creating an empathetic rapport with the audience throughout the events unfolding before us.
The story is timely and relevant. Some have criticized the idea, comparing it to other films and complaining about a "lack" of originality. Sure, we have seen some basic fragments before, but that is where any comparisons to other films end. The story of Avatar is an all-encompassing tale that blends fantasy and reality, one that occupies a unique space in the socially and politically charged era that humanity is currently facing. The themes explored are Zeitgeist epitomized. We could all learn a lot from Pandora's inhabitants, which is certainly the film's wish; in fact, Cameron's usage of this very name contrasts the mythology of the history that humans have constructed for themselves, showing hope for our world on the filmmaker's part.
Avatar is a message, delight, lesson, revelation and an intoxicating masterpiece. Talking about it does not do it justice. This is one of those times when the term 'visionary' can be translated quite literally. See it now.
10/10
Paranormal Activity (2007) -- Low-budget horror seems to have become a bastion for needy fans in recent years, each release offering different things for different tastes. Starting with The Blair Witch Project, slicing and dicing through the torture porn trend and ending with Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity, these films -- some good, some pure exploitation -- have shown that the demand for non-CGI scares is alive and well. What Peli's film also shows, though, is the beauty of minimalism within the expansive realms of imagination. Student Katie (Katie Featherston) and day trader Micah (Micah Sloat) would be enjoying a comfortable life in suburban San Diego, were it not for a pestering supernatural force that literally keeps them awake at night. In order to try and get rid of it, they enlist the help of a psychic and record the nightly goings-on, but the entity keeps getting more powerful... Peli manages to create a high level of suspense using few props and a story based on the unknowable, while it is the candid chemistry between Featherston and Sloat that makes the proceedings relatable. The documentary style works well in displaying an ordinary couple's growing frustration and helplessness in the face of mystifying evil, making the film feel like a home movie from hell. The demonic presence is portrayed in a subtle and organic manner; there are no loud music innuendos or overacting bravados to announce it, only old-fashioned bumps in the night and details that somehow do not fit into the general picture of happy suburbia. I also liked the fatalist element of an apparition in a character's life, since it added another dimension of the inescapable to the story and distinguished it from various other cinematic hauntings. Paranormal Activity is proof that imagination does not hinge on a big budget and that, in fact, huge resources can potentially overwhelm a story that is best told through the usage of bare necessities. 
