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Originally Posted by sanctus What do you think of it? |
Stylistically, I liked the use of color – sepiatone, under-saturated color, and, in the end, over-saturated color. I’d say this is the film’s most sophisticated feature.
As a movie about gaming culture, I think Avalon’s unremarkable and unoriginal, as speculative fiction about actual VR or gaming, unserious.
As an experiment in epistemology and phenomenalism, I think it’s pretty good, and nicely subtle. Despite the wild success of
“the Matrix” (1999), this is not a very popular genre, as demonstrated by X-files creator Chris Carter’s quickly canceled TV series
”Harsh Relm” (1999).
Though stylistically very different from David Cronenberg’s
”eXistenZ” (1999), when I saw Avalon (1999), about a year after eXistenZ, my mind made an immediately connection. While nowhere near as esthetically pleasing, I slightly preferred eXistenZ to Avalon, for its pace, plotting, and fun. Cronenberg’s surely a weird and disturbing guy, but I usually like his film vision. Comparing him to Mamoru is essentially comparing soft & wet (eg:
”Videodrome” (1983)) to hard & dry (eg:
”Ghost in the Shell” (1995)). I like them both a lot.
1999 was some year for movies about immersive VR, eh?
Cronenberg vs. Mamoru 
