Avatar!

I just saw Avatar which I was predisposed to hate. Because James Cameron is such a huge corn ball.  While the some of the aesthetics are annoyingly Maxield Parrish, the dialog dreadful and the world-view thuddingly Manichean, I came away marveling and touched.  You can read the reviews over at moviereviewintelligence, but I was struck by two comparisons that I haven't seen anybody else make.

First, Hayao Miyazaki.  There are many Miyazaki tropes: fantastic flying machines, fully realized imaginary animals, luminous floating seed-pods, ecological apocalypse.  The forest reminded me the one in Princess Mononoke.    Cameron's film lacks the moral complexity and generosity of the anime masterpiece.  But he shares Miyazaki mastery of action and motion.  In fact, with Avatar, Cameron joins the ranks of Miyazaki, Peter Jackson and Kurosawa in directing large action sequences.

Second, Wagner.  Really, Wagner really can't be staged.  If only someone would give Cameron or Jackson or  Guilermo del Toro $200 million to produce the Ring, I'd be very happy.

The thing I liked most, in a way, was seeing Segourney Weaver in her Avatar body looking like a 19 year old college student with dreads and a little red "Stanford" t-shirt.  The promise of art is deathlessness and this giant popcorn entertainment delivers a strange jolt of rememberence.

It's sexy too.