Avatar

I don’t see the big deal with James Cameron’s Avitar. Granted, it is visually spectacular, but movie is much more than visual imagery. Avitar’s plot is completely predictable and the dialogue is unbearably clichéd. The final battle scenes don’t even make sense to me. Why doesn’t military unit finish the natives in their first attack? They are clearly winning. The only plausible reason is plot convenience – to give the underdogs time to regroup, band together and act heroically. How many times have we seen this kind of finales before?

The Young Victoria

Like Cheri, The Young Victoria does not appeal to the sensibility of most male critics in this country. Granted, it is not as stylish and well executed as Cheri, but still it is a more decent movie than given credit for. As the title character, Emily Blunt is as lovely as ever. After his fantastic turn in Cheri, British actor, Rupert Friend, further establishes him as THE perfect leading man in a period drama. Only if those teenage girls had known of the existence of his movies, they would have found out that he is even better looking and more dreamy than Orlando Bloom.

The Messenger

During this award season, The Hurt Locker has garnered a lot of attention and is the front runner for an Oscar this year, but my personal favorite war movie is director Oren Moverman’s directorial debut, The Messenger, which he also wrote the script for. It shows yet another side of the war that has not been depicted on the big screen until now. Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson play two soldiers whose job is to inform the families of killed soldiers about their death. The army has a protocol book about the procedure, but nobody can regulate human emotions and the movie indiscriminately shows how war crashes ordinary people’s lives. The film does have some flaws – mainly its two big emotional scenes do not work. They feel contrived and forced onto the audience. I enjoy much more the subtle undercurrent among the characters. Messenger touches me much more than Locker, but maybe those are the two side of the war – addiction and aversion.

An Education

An Education poses an interesting question that people have pondered on for centuries: Why do women need an education? In our current society where we espouse that everyone is equal, this perennial question is actually still very relevant. The film animatedly shows many different perspectives about women getting a higher education, but in the end it doesn’t offer a satisfactory answer. It may be a question that can never be easily answered, but in the film, if the young heroine (played by an Audrey Hepburn look-like, Carey Mulligan) had married an honest older man with wealth, then would it have been OK that she does not pursue a higher education because she would have very well taken care of financially? It may not be the filmmakers’ intention, but financial security and independence seem to be the overwhelming motive in this movie for women to get a higher education. One’s own happiness is quite irrelevant.

Precious

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is a realistic drama about inner city America. Precious (played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) is an abused, illiterate teenager mom who has borne two children by her biological father. I am sure it is eye-opening for most middle class Americans to see right in New York City there is a place no better than the worst developing country outside the States. Critics have commented how Precious’ fantasy sequences have brought some emotional relief for this heavy drama. In my opinion, they have made the film even more heartbreaking – watching a young girl dreaming of a future that she will never have. Director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher have tried to give the ending a more upbeat feeling. That may be the only unrealistic part of this movie.