Its 3:30 in the afternoon on Christmas eve, only a few hours until family and friends come over to the house and join us for food, drinks and conversations that will eventually turn borderline inappropriate and here I sit about to review James Cameron’s Avatar. Why now? Why not, I have a couple of hours to kill and I’d rather write a bit then get sucked into the void that is holiday television, so then lets get on with the main event.
Mostly everyone knows the story behind Avatar, a movie 10 years and 500 million dollars in the making. A film that has been stewing in Cameron’s mind for the past decade as he waited for technology to catch up with his vision, Is it the masterpiece we have all been waiting for that will redefine what cinema is or is it a let down of epic fail proportions? The simple answer is the first one of those.
Yes make no mistake Avatar is a masterpiece is fantasy/science fiction story telling in the way that we all hoped the Star Wars prequels would have been. A blend of flawless (well mostly) computer animation and a fun (if not entirely original) story help to create a world that viewers can get lost in and thanks to the advances in 3-D technology become much more immersed in. As a matter of fact I found myself reacting at several of the 3-D “gags” even though I believed I couldn’t be fooled by such thing, I found my head moving out of the way of gas canisters flying at my face and even attempted to look past small yet annoying nat-like insects much like the kind that swarm baseball fields on muggy hot summer days here on earth but I was not on earth I was on Pandora.
Pandora was one of the most awe-inspiring worlds ever created. A world covered in beautiful Bioluminescence life, filled with creatures of every size and shape, 9 foot tall blue cat people and the floating Hallelujah Mountains. It’s as if Cameron took the 12 years since Titanic and was able to actually visit the planet, which could be quite possible seeing as how in the film it takes 5 years to get to Pandora from earth and Cameron is a rather secretive guy.
The story is your typical outsider who needs to infiltrate a group he doesn’t belong to only to fall in love and realize he is doing wrong and then has to battle with his own people. If you’ve seen Pocahontas you get the idea. That’s not to say it’s bad, its just familiar but there is nothing wrong with familiar especially in Avatar’s case. Not to mention its not Indians and Spanish settlers its Futuristic military with mechs and tall blue glowing cat people, if I had a choice between the two I’ll take the aliens every time. I don’t feel the need to go to much into specifics since I think the trailers do a good job of showing you the story and the ending is pretty easy to guess but there are some curve balls thrown in that I wasn’t expecting and wont spoil here.
Acting wise we Sam Worthington gets another chance to perfect an American accent and does a far better job then he did in Terminator Salvation but you can still catch the occasional Crocodile Dundee slip up. I liked Worthington more or less, he may not be the most charismatic but in the roles he’s had it doesn’t call for it, I feel he plays his character as it was written and meant to be. Zoe Saldana is the best actor in the movie, when her character emotes you feel it, when she’s angry your angry and when she cries you feel for her which I suppose speaks a lot about the technology involved in bringing her to life. The rest of the cast all do there jobs very well, Stephen Lang playing the “Bad Guy” is great, you hate him and you want to jump through the screen and kick his ass (which probably wouldn’t happen even if you could due to the act that he’s pretty jacked) and that’s what you want in a villain, you should hate him. I enjoyed the whole cast with the exception of Michelle Rodriguez, the movie tries so hard to make you try and like her but I didn’t fall for it, you here me Avatar! Try as you may I just hate her, never liked her in anything I’ve seen her in and Avatar doesn’t change that. But hey if she’s your cup of tea I’m sure you’ll enjoy her even more then usual.
At the end of the day Avatar is a visually breathtaking film (which was promised) and the 3-D is the best I’ve ever seen implemented in film (again promised to us). The characters and story are enjoyable and the action is top notch classic Cameron. The film runs two and a half hours but doesn’t feel like it, I could have easily sat and watch another hour and a half easy, I just never wanted to leave the Pandora. Is it the movie that will revolutionize the motion picture industy, it defiantly is the first step toward something but what that is only time will tell. A beautiful and moving movie starring giant blue cat people whose hair plug into the various flora and fauna of their planet.
Go watch it, in 3-D and in I-Max if you can. Sit back and become a part of the world. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Final Verdict
8 out of 10
Sinatra likes Avatar
