Avatar and Star Trek

Let me begin by saying something that my brother recently brought to my attention. No, I have not seen When Harry Met Sally. I just thought the name sounded cool. Whatever.

On to the main topic. I will be assuming that for some reason, you have seen neither Avatar nor Star Trek, and are debating which sci-fi epic you should rent. I am also assuming that you took the time to watch the trailers that I provided in my previous post, so you have a vague idea of what I am talking about. If you (like me) are one of the people who uses rottentomatoes.com to help figure out which movie to watch, I will help you out by providing links to the top critics here and here. You may be saying to yourself, "Wow, both of these movies are incredibly well reviewed. Which should I pick?" And that's where I come in.

Of course, one of the first things you have to think about when picking a movie is time. How much time do you have. Avatar is more than half an hour longer than Star Trek. If you have an extra half an hour to spare, skip this step. If you only have two hours to watch a movie, then your decision is made for you, unless you plan on watching in multiple installments. (Not always a bad idea.) Another important factor when picking movies is who you will be watching it with. Alone? With friends? Family? Strangers? These things matter. Trust me. I'll go into each scenario in more detail, but this is something to keep in the back of your mind. Also, for most movies I would tell you to figure out what time of day you will be watching, but for these particular movies I would say that it doesn't really matter. The last thing you should bear in mind relates to my opinion of these movies. I saw both of them in an Imax theater, (Avatar in 3D) which is the best possible condition to watch a movie. Of the two, Star Trek is the only one I have seen on the small screen.

One final note before I tell you which one you should watch and why. Avatar is one of the most hyped movies of all time. I don't usually get to hung up on hype, but it's worth mentioning in this case, given the box office numbers that Avatar put up. Don't let the hype or numbers make your opinion for you. If the movie is good, it's good. If it's not, it's not. If someone gives you a reason for why they like or dislike it, that's one thing. If your reason to see it is because everyone else in the free world has seen it, that's another. Ok, moving on.

So which should you see? Star Trek. Here's why.

Both plots are ok. Avatar's plot is Pocahontas with aliens. Pocahontas was a great movie. The songs kicked ass. The plot was touching. But that was all it was. Simple, understandable, and a little bit racist. But all of that is fine. Star Trek, on the other hand, is quite complicated. Not because there's any particular twists or multiple character lines to follow, but because of the nature of JJ Abrams. If you have ever watched Lost, then you know. If not, you'll see what I'm talking about soon enough. I prefer Star Trek here because it is more likely to stimulate intelligent conversation. After Avatar, no one was left saying, "But I don't get this." There were definitely people who did not fully understand the plot mechanics of Star Trek. This allows people to talk about it, and try to explain why certain things happened and others didn't. Avatar does not allow for this, because the plot is so linear.

The acting is where Star Trek begins to separate itself from Avatar. The acting in Avatar (with the exception of Sigourney Weaver, who is the shit,) is terrible. As I always tell my friends, Sam Worthington is the second worst actor in Hollywood. (Stay tuned for when I reveal who the actual worst actor is.) His accent changes midway through the film. It was kind of jarring. My dad noticed this as well. We both were confused, and I was disgruntled. There was no reason for it to happen, but it happened anyway. The only other above average performance was turned in by Zoe Saldana, but this was wasted because you never actually saw what she really looks like. But as far as vocal performances go, she was pretty good.

Conversely, the acting in Star Trek is rather good, which is an even more impressive feat given the fact that all the characters are already known by fans of the series. The fact that the actors had to work within the confines of roles that had already been filled by previous actors (and some pretty good ones, if you ask me,) is quite impressive. The film is carried by its two leads, Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock. While neither performance is even worth mentioning in Oscar talk, for what they are, (sci-fi action heroes,) they kick ass. If you've seen Smokin' Aces (which I highly recommend) then you know how good Chris Pine is. (He was one of the Tremor Brothers. Yeah. I know.) But this is clearly a breakout role for him. He is funny, cocky, and cool under pressure in all the ways that Shatner was. Here's to hoping he doesn't end his career as the new Priceline Negotiator. Zachary Quinto turns in a performance that is so similar to Leonard Nimoy's Spock that it's kind of weird. However, even you have never seen a Star Trek episode or movie in your life, I think that you will be hard pressed not to enjoy the performances turned in by these two actors. The supporting cast is also quite good, most notably Zoe Saldana, (noticing a theme here?) Karl Urban, and Bruce Greenwood. Karl Urban especially. He's just the man. If you like him, check out The Bourne Supremacy and Doom. Yeah, I said Doom. It's a pretty dramatic role difference, and he pulls it off like a champ.

When it comes to special effects, both of these movies clearly put a lot of time, effort, and money into making sure they looked as stunning as possible. And they both succeeded. However, I found that despite all of the bells and whistles, neither of these movies were the most visually impressive of 2009. (District 9 was.) That being said, they both looked incredible. The 3d effects in Avatar were truly unbelievable. The level of immersion into the world was unlike any other movie. Ever. However, I felt that the world of Pandora looked slightly cartoonish, and it was difficult for me to buy into the setting. It was like I was watching Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, except with more explosions and blue people. This was a major turn-off for me. If they spent so much time on the effects, couldn't they have made the aliens a little more, well alien? (Again, see District 9. The aliens in that movie will rock your socks.) While Star Trek boasted no 3d effects, I found it to be visually impressive enough that the difference between it and Avatar is pretty much negligible. The explosions rocked, the aliens were cool, the ships looked like the kind of thing that's probably going to be rolling off of assembly lines in Michigan circa 2100, and the whole thing felt very seamless. Unlike Avatar, there were rarely moments when I looked at the screen and said to myself, "Well that just looks silly." (Exception: The scene on Delta Vega.) So while the visuals in Avatar were more technologically advanced, I had an easier time believing what was going on in Star Trek based on the effects. What can I say, they just seemed more real.

Star Trek is also much easier to watch with a group of people because of its comedic elements. Avatar is a very serious movie, and when watching it, it is best for everybody to remain silent for all 160 minutes of it. Star Trek is sure to evoke a few laughs along the way, so it won't dampen the mood in the way that Avatar will.

So if you are deciding between these two films, I have to recommend Star Trek. It's simply a better movie. You get a ton more bang for your buck in terms of time. If you are in the mood for a sci-fi action epic, (as I usually am,) Star Trek is definitely the way to go.

All this being said, you should definitely watch Avatar at some point. It is worth seeing once. It will be remembered as an important milestone in filmmaking due to the technical achievements in 3d technology. But don't believe the hype or the Oscar nominations. I would rather see Star Trek than Avatar any and every day of the week.

Boldly going where others have probably gone before,

Harry