I feel like there's an interesting divide in the Avatar reviews. Most of what I've heard has been positive, but there's a range within that positive that I'm trying to understand. The, for woeful lack of a better term, "gaming generation" seems to err toward the higher end of that aforementioned range while "parents" lean more toward the lower end. Everyone agrees the graphics are pretty. There's some discussion about the merits of the third dee and what it really adds that a mere two dees can't handle. The biggest factor seems to be how reviewers weight the story.
Adam Sessler of G4TV has a podcast ("Sessler's Soapbox" released 1/13/10) that I like in which he defines immersion as "the impossible made viable" in a world in which one can feel lost, but still understand the logic, the physics, and the fun. Gamers--despite the plural I mean me--constantly seek that world, that experience that's alien, but familiar.
I wonder if this helps explain how the eye-candy movies do so well despite relatively scant story. Have I predisposed myself to accepting sub-par storytelling after years of programming my brain to just stop thinking and accept the coding as fact? I don't think so, but I have a vested interest in that outcome.
I don't know the answer, and it probably doesn't matter, but Sessler's comment got me thinking. My friends (all gamers) seemed about as enthusiastic as I was while the two...umm...traditional? adults I know that've seen Avatar are less enthused. Perhaps the significant difference is gaming.
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