Avatar: Movie Review
James Cameron decade long production of Avatar finally came to the big screen on Friday. With the cutting edge technology and 3D special effects, Cameron tried to bring the alien world of Pandora from his mind’s eye to the movie theater.
The story is nothing new. Basically, it is Dances with Wolves meets Alien. Well, not exactly, but you will get the idea. Humans are attempting to rape and pillage a peaceful, beautiful third world world of vital mineral deposits. The planet is toxic to humans, and therefore the evil human capitalists (starting to see a thread here) try to infiltrate the natives to help them obtain the valuable resources. To do so, they use an Avatar; a system by which a human can control a native Pandoran’s body.
The main human protaganist, who is a paraplegic, becomes immersed in the alien world…and learns to value their native culture. And thus develops the core of the story. Much like The New World and many other stories about Western intrusion in Native American lands, the story revolves around how the evil modernists look to ruin the proverbial Garden of Eden.
The artistry is beyond beautiful; it is stunning. This is the first movie that I can truly say takes true advantage of 3-D. The problems is, the story is utilitarian at best. There is 2 1/2 hours of cutting edge cinematography, and not one minute of cutting edge drama. As a science fiction movie, it achieves its goal; as a story telling vehicle, it falls just a little bit short.
The movie is a must see, for the special effects at least. The story overall is rudimentary, but passable. Every sci-fi junkie, like myself, should take the time to see this movie on the big screen in 3-D. There is no question that Cameron has met the expectations of geeks everywhere. But for the rest of the general audience, they will enjoy a beautiful, decent (but not great) movie. But at least go for the 3-D…it is a level of stunning beauty that we have never seen in a movie ever.
UPDATE: On January 7th, Avatar passed The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for second place for all-time worldwide gross, trailing only previous James Cameron film Titanic. Of course, this is dollars, and number of tickets, but still quite an achievement.
UPDATE #2: I saw Avatar for a second time, this time on IMAX. The first time, I saw it on simple 3-D. The IMAX experience is superior, and I have to highly recommend it.
As for the story…I have to say it is growing on me. Maybe this is one of those movies that the story grows larger with time? I don’t know. The first time it seemed very derivative…the second time, it still had those characteristics, but the overall story seemed to work, somehow, better. Additionally, the first time I watched this was opening day, with all the associated hype. Now, with the space of time, I feel that I was better set to appreciate the film in its totality. I don’t know…maybe I will have to see it again (I know, just another excuse!).
Thi movie is Science Fantacy, not Science fiction. It is no more than a “Gimmick” and one of the two movies I have ever walked out on(Howard the Duck) being the other one. I predict after a great opening weekend(how could it be otherwise, it’s opening on almost ebery theatre sceen in America) it will die a slow lingering death.
George Taylor
I agree with you..good review. I will see it again several times on big screen, just wish it was at IMax here in NE Ohio
GEORGE, for some reason I dont think you saw any or walked out of this movie. Howard the Duck was stupid but had some humor. If you walked out, it was probably like the rest of us, when it was over.
To not give a movie some time to develop is pretty impatient.
Write back to this site WHEN you see the whole thing..
First of all, don’t expect that the story is going to be revolutionary and blow you away with characterizations and deep deep meanings, but do expect to be blown away by the visuals, the level of details, and mesmerized by the character animations. This is the first time that I actually felt for the CGI characters, surely if you analyze it visually, you would find faults and inadequacy VS. a real human performance but damn it I was amazed that a non existing character could deliver so much. The character effects made the leap over the uncanny valley, it may be still suspended in midair over the abyss of the valley but it made the jump, it moved the whole industry standard up a notch. This is the the staple of the next gen., the forerunner to what’s to come in CG.
I personally have to disagree with this review. The simple story is what (I believe) made it even better. There are no confusing twist or things that will make your head hurt trying to grasp it. Has this type of story been told before? Yes. However, just about every movie/book/story/play/ etc has been done before. I found Camerons new way of telling it to be simple, and beautiful. As for there being no drama, were you asleep? Just when your mind starts to wander away from the movie, Cameron pulls out something new to attract you. (warning-spoilers!!). IE)- the beginning of the movie, first 20-30 minutes brings you up to speed and gets you in. Your mind starts to wander, then Jake is put into his Avatar. Later the manticore like ctearture, the love story, the taming of the E..?? (flying creatures. Plus the last 45 min-hour is chalk full of action, romance, and sorrowful drama. I liked this movie so much I went to see it in theatres twice, which is something i’ve never done before. I give it 9.5-10 stars out of ten(and i consider myself pretty strict on judgement usually, so it’s that good!). The animation was indeed beautiful, but it’s not the sole reason to go see it. It adds to the story/feel. I wasn’t even aware i was in a theatre-i was in Pandora. My only complaint is that some of the less important characters could have been developed more (to get more attached to them). Anyway, it’s a must see!
Avatar was the most amazing movie I have seen in a long time. My husband was murdered on Duty as a South Afrcan Policeman in 2007. since then my son and I go each friday to watch a big screen movie as a special treat, This movie touched me with it’s spiritual message of the connection to nature and one partner. The scene when they make love touched me to tears – as I know that is what my husband and I had – now he is gone. it’s excellent … the message of how man is destroying the forests to put up homes and malls. This movie will help people see we have to stop destroying this earth we live in – it’s all we have.
Global awareness
Thank you
Tracy Meyer
South Africa
I am sorry for your loss…
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