Glitz and size can't compensate for imagination
- Source: Global Times
- [23:21 January 10 2010]
- Comments
By Tian Wei
Illustration: Liu Rui
It has been an exciting opening week for 2010. Avatar, the most expensive movie in history, opened, as did the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
Like everyone else, I was impressed by these miracles.
The Burj Dubai is 828 meters, twice as tall as the Empire State Building. It boasts panoramic views like those from an airplane. At its inauguration day, a crowd of 400,000 people gasped in amazement as fi reworks erupted and searchlights beamed from every platform of the tower.
Meanwhile, in movie theatres around the world, another miracle, Avatar, is creating fantasy through motion-capture technology and a newgeneration 3D process.
It is already the second highest-earning movie of all time, pulling in $1.1 billion worldwide, second only now to another James Cameron movie, Titanic, and the box office is still climbing.
Obviously, there are different interpretations of the movie by the audience. To me, it is a story similar to either the previous hit movies The Last of the Mohicans or Dances with Wolves. To my friend who works as an economic journalist, it is a story about the success of an alien "nail house" against the bulldozers of real estate developers from the Earth.
Though we differ as to the content, both of us agree that the story was the least impressive part of the movie. Avatar confi rms the death of story-telling in blockbusters through a clichéd story, awful dialogue, and giant plot holes.
But who cares? The allure of an extra dimension makes it so attractive that the crowds in China fought the snow and opened their wallet like never before. Even a cynical video-rental fan like me had to watch it in theatres twice, once in 3D and the next time in Imax 3D.
Compared to the shallow Hollywood blockbuster, the Burj Dubai is much more sophisticated, or at least so the creators claim on its website.
Speaking in the voice of the building, they write, "I am the power that lifts the world's head proudly skyward, surpassing limits and expectations. Rising gracefully from the desert and honoring the city with a new glory, I am an extraordinary union of engineering and art, with every detail carefully considered and beautifully crafted."
However, the Empire State Building had a message for the Burj.
In the New York Times, Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State Building, said, "From our perspective, it's not a size thing, it's a shared expression and emotion that we have with the countries or cities or people who have put up these great buildings."
