Thursday, December 24, 2009

Now Playing at Clearview Cinemas - Avatar in 3D!


Hoboken Clearview Cinemas


Location: 409-415 14th Street Hoboken, NJ 07030
Phone:(201) 710-5581

For the most up to date Showtimes click on this link below:

http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes-tickets/theaters/10061-clearview-hoboken-cinemas/

At Clearview Cinemas in Hoboken the following excellent movie is now playing in 3D; Avatar by James Cameron who also did the Terminator and Titanic films. Here is the trailer for the movie. My review of the movie is below:






Just on its technical merits alone Avatar is a must see movie or cinematic achievement that yet again sets the bar combining technology with innovation, and most importantly artistic vision. Director James Cameron has simply outdone himself this time. The visuals in this movie are for lack of any other word, breathtaking. The imaginary world of Pandora is brought to life via CGI and stop animation techniques in a way that has never been done this good before.

Fantastic creatures, phosphorescent plant life, mountain cloud islands, an intricate and neural eco-system as well as the details and features of the indigenous Na'vi make this movie a paradigm shifting visual treat. There is a compelling environmental and an anti-capitalist/colonial message as well. For those of you influenced by the anti-environmentalist rabble that is Glenn Beck, this message is not overdone but rather makes a compelling case for preserving the magical way of life that the Na'vi live, albeit fictional. At the end of the movie, because such a good job was done showing how special their relationship was with the land, I couldn't help but find myself rooting for the tall blue creatures by the middle of the movie at the expense of the ore coveting human antagonists.

For those of you who are history buffs, some of the issues about exploitation of indigenous peoples shown in the movie against the Na'vi remind me of the plight of Native Americans by the U.S. as portrayed in the book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. Here is a brief excerpt of the book on Wikipedia below:
  

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee expresses the American Indian perspective of the injustices and betrayals of the US government in its dealings with the Indians, which seemed continued efforts to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life of the people.

The book begins with the statement that Christopher Columbus had named the Native Americans "Indios" and with the differing dialects and accents of the Europeans to come, the word became known as Indians. Life as known to the indigenous people of the Americas would never be the same from the point of Columbus' arrival in the Americas in 1492.

Another movie the plot reminds me of is Dances with Wolves where Kevin Costner's character starts out as as a Union soldier but ends of up siding with the Native Americans in the end. In this movie the result is a little bit different. I'll stop here so as to avoid being a spoiler.

History lesson, environmental parables, and anti-colonial allegories aside, Avatar is a stunning cinematic achievement both visually and emotionally that will probably compel me to see it a second time. If you don't want to endure the long lines to the very large IMAX screen in Manhattan stay local instead and see it at Hoboken Clearview Cinemas. The sound and video were more than adequate to handle the demands that this movie brought to the screen. The 3D effects which were tastefully deployed in no way subtracted to the movie as one might have experienced with other 3D movies in the past.  I give this movie a grade of an A-. ◦
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