I See You

I watched Avatar and 3 idiots like everyone else in the fourth week of December 2009. Enjoyed watching both. But procrastination led me to write about them in the third week of January!

James Cameron's movies have always had the 'something else' quality to them. His last movie, Titanic is one of my favourite movies. (I can watch it innumerable times.)
And Cameron, it seems, holds 'I see you' close to his heart.

Rewind to 1999, first half of Titanic, the scene on the deck, where Rose thanks Jack for his 'discretion' the previous night. (The previous night Rose was hanging off the stern of the Titanic, contemplating suicide and Jack convinced her not do it. She had slipped but Jack had managed to pull her back and save her. When people asked about what happened, Rose made up a story,wanting to keep her suicide attempt a secret and Jack went along, not giving her away.)
Here Rose pulls his art book and starts flipping through his sketches and remarks, "This is exquisite work." and then goes on to say, "You have a gift Jack, you do. You see people."
Jack replies, "I see you."
Rose asks, "And...?"
Jack says, "You wouldn't have jumped."

To Avatar,
Avatar, in terms of visual quality and 3D effects has set different standards altogether. It has its share of I see you's too, I see.

The ruthless quest for 'unobtanium' (quite significantly called so) has a strong anti war message. Also the movie strongly endorses non violence, sapience and harmony with nature. The underlying ideology was consistent with the idea of our relationship with our ancestors. See http://shailysahay.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-traditions.html.
I found the visuals perfectly enthralling. The lush, blue and bioluminiscent Pandora flora reminded me of lovely underwater videos shown on the Discovery and National Geographic channels, so one could connect with the alien world. The movie's cinematography seamlessly weaves fantasy into sci-fi.
However, apart from the strong messages, beautific cinematography and special effects, I found Avatar's story simplistic. Enjoyable, yes, but it suffers from the stereotypical 'good guys - bad guys' storyline. Also the second half could have been crisper. The war sequences were quite long.

Admittedly, the 3D experience was amazingly in line with the cliche 'living the movie'! Even in its 2D form, Avatar was entertaining, futuristic and fantastic.

Mr. Cameron, I (hope to) see you (soon, again)!