Avatar

It's interesting coming home and seeing what has changed since you've been gone.

Of course, some things never change. My dog still plays cute to every human lady, equating those who cook to those who can feed him. My father still spends hours on the computer looking at online shopping bargains on slickdeals or woot, resulting in a modern-day version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. (lalala...on the fourth day of Christmas, my father bought for me... four DVDs, three vinyl bags, two ceramic mugs, and a Movado watch -- apparently it's luxuryyyyyy!!)

But it's a little jarring to realize that time has continued moving once you've left. For instance, I grew up with Long's Drug Store nestled squarely in the neighborhood plaza a block away from my middle school. Now? I still can't get used to the bright red "CVS/pharmacy" sign. The Chinese restaurant next door to it? I don't even know the new name; I still call it by the name it's had since I was in kindergarten.

Then there's my tennis coach, who dropped a bombshell (or make that an asteroid capable of wiping out the dinosaurs -- might be a more apt description) on us when we went out to eat lunch with him and SC and her mother. Somehow, in the past few months -- even before I had left for Taiwan, even with all the private lessons my brother has had with him since I've been at Duke -- he had neglected to mention the fact that not only does he have a girlfriend, but that said girlfriend is six months pregnant. You imagine the scene -- my coach shows up at BJ's an hour late (somehow, he thought we were meeting at Benihana's and waited there for more than a half an hour). When he finally appears with the mysterious girlfriend he'd mentioned he was bringing, we see a beautiful five-foot-eight blonde visibly pregnant and wearing high-heeled boots (how she managed THAT is beyond me). My mother couldn't stop staring at her pregnant belly; I couldn't stop staring at her hands to see if there was a ring.

What else has changed? In the past, I almost never watched movies while they were in theaters. My ever-frugal parents would always say, "What? Three stars out of four? Wait until the DVD comes out and borrow it from the library! Save money!" And now, two weeks since I've been home, I've watched in THE ACTUAL MOVIE THEATER (gasp!) The Princess and the Frog, Up in the Air, and Avatar -- and more than likely, I'll be watching Sherlock Holmes and Nine at some point before I head back to college. Of course, my parents take me and my brother out to watch these movies early in the morning when the tickets are the cheapest -- but hey, a movie is a movie.

While we're on the topic of change, let's talk about Avatar, which is supposed to change the world of filmmaking as we know it.

This was actually one of those movies I felt obligated to see, not because I was dying to see it. It felt like everybody I knew had already watched it or had planned to watch it but couldn't because tickets were sold out for the next two days. Or at least, that's what my coach said. I'm guessing he didn't bother trying to watch a morning show.

In certain ways, I have to say that the film lived up to its hype. I'm not sure if James Cameron came up with the story all by himself, but I am very impressed by the depth to which the Na'vi culture was developed in the movie. The whole funky hair connection with animals and plants? The psychedelic flora and fauna? (Pokemon can dream all they want -- they're never going to evolve into creatures as badass as those in Avatar)

The actual storyline, on the other hand? Somehow, I feel like most of the two-and-a-half hours was dedicated to showing us the culture of the Na'vi, which is fascinating and all but left me feeling dizzy (probably due to hunger) by the time we got to the second hour, which was already past my usual lunchtime. I could probably spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it, but I won't -- not that it matters, anyway. I already knew it was going to end somewhere along the lines of Tarzan -- forbidden love across species/social strata/whatnot would be cleanly resolved with one lover assimilating into the other's culture, the bad guys who resort to gunpowder and violence would die, and Mother Nature would live to endure the onslaught of civilization another day. Whoops, did I just give the story away? My bad.

Tarzan and Jane... in blue?

Neverthless, I have to say that it really is one of those movies you're obligated to see. Otherwise, when the one you've been crushing on stalkerishly for months (and who is totally aware of it -- the crush part, not the stalker part) finally has the balls to go up to you and say with romantically tinged poignancy, "I see you," and you go home weeping about how lamely invisible you are that someone has to announce triumphantly you that he "sees" you, and then months later when you finally get around to watching Avatar because your local library finally processed the DVD, you realize he was trying to proclaim a starcrossed love for you akin to that of Jake and Neytiri and that you completely bludgeoned your chance since your only response had been to look at him dumbfoundedly with horrified despair...

... don't come crying to me.