I am seriously puzzled by this video. The amount of work that went into this is astounding. Whoever created this basically pulled off every visual effect trick that has created Avatar to be such a stunning success. For example, painstakingly real facial animation that had to be mo-capped in some way as well as a pretty damn good job of composting to polish it off. Who made this!? Juice it.

Let me just start by stating the obvious: Avatar is visually stunning.  The amount of detail and smoothness of its integration put other movies to shame, including those made as soon as 5 years ago.  Place on top of that a 3D technology that is fairly defect-free, and you’re in for a pretty amazing experience.

Now, having said that, Avatar, as purely a movie, is not good.  Stripped of its eye-popping grandeur, it is nothing more than another bad science fiction movie.  Tired plot.  Forced lines.  One-dimensional characters.  Deus ex machinas.  It’s all there.

But why even be concerned with it?  Why not just soak up the sights and have fun, like I would with say, Transformers?

The answer is in this NPR clip:

MASTERS: There is. There will be 10 nominees instead of the usual five. The Academy, I think, was hoping to drum up some excitement, because in the last few years, we’ve had things like “No Country for Old Men,” which may be worthy pictures, but not exactly huge hits. And they’re hoping to get more popular movies into the category, and therefore there would be some rooting interest, which would bolster the ratings for the Academy Awards telecast.

INSKEEP: Oh, my gosh. This is going to be as controversial as the Bowl Championship Series in college football, I would imagine. So quality films are crowding out too much of the attention. They want to make sure that a couple of blockbusters get in there, is that what you’re telling me?

MASTERS: Yes. Last year, the feeling was if only “The Dark Knight” could’ve been nominated, then more people might’ve watched. But…

(Soundbite of laughter)

MASTERS: I’m not making it up, Steve. This is the truth. So there’s a question now as to whether the telecast is sort of the tail wagging the Oscar dog at this point.

INSKEEP: Well, I’m just curious. You are a movie viewer, as well as someone who covers the movie business. Do you think there are 10 movies out there worth an Academy Award nomination?

MASTERS: Well, listen, in reality, every year when there have been five, there’s usually three, maybe, that people think are contenders and the other two that kind of get the courtesy nomination. So this year, it’s going to be only more so. So already, we kind of know not only which movies are the top contenders, but possibly even – based on my Oscar watchers that I happen to like – which one’s going to win. But then the good news for the Academy is the one that seems to be the frontrunner right now is going to be a very large hit. Can you guess?

INSKEEP: “Avatar”?

MASTERS: Yes.

Avatar deserves every award on Earth for any technical movie making category.  There isn’t another movie this year, maybe even this decade, that even comes close in those categories.  But make no mistake, great visuals and groundbreaking techniques are not a replacement for good characters and a compelling story.

There are fun movies, and then there are good movies.  Sometimes they overlap; most of the time, they don’t.