I read this article about Avatar making people depressed, and I can say I’m one of them.  Not because I won’t ever go to Pandora, but because if they had spent 1/100th of their budget on a script it would have been even better.

Cards on the table, I really liked this movie, and thought it was very good.  One of the best movies I’ve ever seen? No.  To me, one of the qualities I like in a good movie is how every day after you’ve seen it, it makes you think about it more, and your appreciation for it grows.  Avatar just seemed to fade away, and I started thinking about the numerous issues I had with the script.  But I will say this, if you’re going to go see it, spend the extra couple bucks and go to IMAX 3d because it’s worth it.

The giant blue aliens were awesome, and since they were all muscular, beautifully toned physical specimens, of course everyone who watches them will have their imaginations wander about what it would be like… but guess what?  They’re computer generated images, just like Sharon Stone.  They might look good on screen, but they don’t exist in reality.

I walked out of the theater thoroughly impressed with the images I had just seen, but did I want to go to Pandora and live there?  Hell no!  EVERYTHING ON THAT PLANET IS TRYING TO KILL YOU!  There was not one “nice” inhabitant of that damn planet, JUST LIKE LIVING IN THE JUNGLE ON THIS PLANET.  If I were stupid enough to go and try to live in the jungle on Earth, I’d be dead within a week.  And in this case, I’m dealing with animals and critters and plants that are somewhat recognizable and I probably saw on the discovery channel at some point.

Oh, and what else does Pandora have?  FLOATING MOUNTAINS.  That’s right, they have entire island-sized hunks of stone that are FLOATING IN THE AIR FOR NO REASON.  And that doesn’t scare the crap out of you, because it does me.  If I ever saw a floating mountain above my house, you wouldn’t even be able to ask me if I wanted to go live there because I’d be too busy cleaning the poop out of my pants.

Good stories are supposed to transport you to the realm that they take place in.  When I read Lonesome Dove, I could practically taste the dust of the trail in my mouth.  Did I want to go be a cowboy in the 1800′s?  Not really.  Harry Potter does a fantastic job of creating its own world with its own rules and wonders, but I didn’t want to be a wizard.  Does this mean that I lack imagination or empathy or something that is making me less than human? Maybe.

At least I don’t want to commit suicide because the blue aliens aren’t real.

Or maybe thats just called balance.