Avatar

Forgive me, I'm going to jump from professional to fan boy for a while here. I haven't had the jitters after a film the way I've had for Avatar in quite sometime. James Cameron's Avatar is the most entertaining and enthralling cinematic experiences of my life. It is incredible, simply put. What Cameron has done here is the most passionate film project put out since Steven Spielberg released Schindler's List. His attention to detail and his zeal for pushing the envelope is so admirable to any filmmaker or actor who will ever do another film from this point on.

Avatar is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine, who replaces his brother on a secret mission to infiltrate the Na' vi, the colony of beings that sit on the planet of Pandora, where there is a precious ore, that sells at a ridiculous amount. When Jake learns the ways of the Na' vi, his feelings and learnings will put him and the people he trusts in dangerous jeopardy.

The performances here, in the sense of reacting, becoming, and understanding what Cameron has written are astounding. Not to be confused with a sensational bravura performance from some of the centuries best such as Marion Brando, Tom Hanks, or Diane Keaton; these actors along with the director inhabit these visual transformations with special effects as if they are have lived these beings all their lives. This is all based on character movements and reactions. Sam Worthington, as Jake Sully, is an actor who's on his way to becoming a star. Though he has problems with his Aussie accent often enough in the film, he gets the job done. Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri, a Na' vi huntress, is thrilling and electrifying. Stephen Lang, as the rock hard Colonel Miles, takes on a villainous turn to a new level in science fiction. He offers actual emotion and emotes evil to the audience and gains our hatred easily. Sigourney Weaver as the beautiful Dr. Grace, is sufficient enough to have on screen again teamed with Cameron. She lives inside her role with effortless ease, but suffers from some of the typical James Cameron cheesy lines.

Narratively the film works perfectly on the cinematic level. The first forty minutes or so require patience and hope as it is the weakest part of the film and offers some dreariness, but when the second act takes off, it's sky high with no limits for James Cameron. Avatar delivers the best action sequences put on film of all time. That is the boldest statement I have ever made in all my years of criticism. I sat on this for two days before charging it out, but I mean it. It is the best visual experience of my life, period.

Other than those visuals, the film pops with all the other technical aspects thrown into one. Art Direction is killer as the two worlds blend in perfectly for an acceptable time. The Film Editing is the crowning achievement of the film as it also offers the perfect blend of the two worlds, enticing the viewer and shifting us around. Mauro Fiore is the threat for a Cinematography Oscar this year. It was if the viewer sat down in a chair, put on glasses, and was literally placed on Pandora, spaceships, and floating mountains. The viewer can feel so engulfed by the imagery, you feel like you can smell the leaves from the trees. Avatar is utterly hypnotizing. James Horner's score is some of the best work done in his career. It offers a variable of devastation that moves the viewer to near tears. It goes back to his work on Titanic, where the musical instruments lifted the material immensely. The entire sound team is also locked and loaded for Oscar recognition as the feeling of animals, machines, and arrows buzzing by your head leave you imprisoned in Cameron's exquisite film.

James Cameron has come back home ladies and gentlemen Cameron is back, bigger, badder, and mature in his crowning work of his career. Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic do not even compare anymore. This is the film that can blend the fans of those two films together and lock Cameron into your heart. He's a definite spoiler for a directing bid for the Academy Awards. You have admire the raw, natural talent the man has. How could you ever conceive such an experience and put that much effort and work into it and have it pay off? The box office success will surely keep him in the minds of voters for various critics' awards. His screenplay, leaps and bounds better than 1997's Best Picture Winner, is primed, developed and ripe for the taking. Though, you do acquire the tacky and atypical dialogue you expect from a science fiction director of this caliber, you can appreciate the effort and the honesty of it all. James Cameron is everything Michael Bay wishes he was, to put it bluntly.

Avatar will bring also great actors putting their best foot forward such as Giovanni Ribisi, who is as underrated as they come. Michelle Rodriguez who exudes sexy like any woman starring in a sci-fi epic. Joel Moore, showing his range outside of his comedic work in Dodgeball: An Underdog Story. And the classy veteran actors, CCH Pounder and Wes Studi, who just simply don't work enough.

Avatar is one of the best films of the year. The most exciting, thrilling, and superb work you'll feast your eyes on in any theater this century. Cinema, forever, will remember the benchmark that James Cameron placed not only for himself, but for any man, daring to change the game, the way Cameron did. Avatar is a movie experience to be remembered, and please experience in a movie theater first.

***½/****

Although I was not too bothered about seeing Avatar as a film, I felt it was a bit foolish to let this milestone of cinema go past me – particularly when the thing it is hyped for are the effects and being the first "big" film to utilise 3D technology to this degree. It just seemed that watching it on my TV in about 9 months on DVD with a basic stereo system would be missing the point. Unsurprisingly I was right because Avatar is technically a brilliant film that deserves to sweep the Oscars in terms of awards for visual effects and other such categories.

If we ignore the 3D for a minute, the actual effects look great and I imagine that it will still be impressive in 2D. The landscapes and world of Pandora are imaginative (ironic since how dumb the name of it is) and very vividly created to the point where you forget that they are effects when you step back from them. Likewise it is so easy to forget that the Na'vi are not actors in quite brilliant outfits and makeup because they look so real and move so naturally – it is a million miles from the films such as Spiderman or Indy 4 where you can see where the real person ends and the jumping/swinging special effect begin. There were points in the film where I found myself wondering how on earth they managed to get a particular shot and where the camera was, only for my brain to kick in a second later to remind me that what I'm seeing is entirely virtual. OK the fantastical visual aspects are clearly creations but I was startled by how accepting of it all was and, in 2D I thought that the effects were pretty seamless.

In 3D it doesn't quite hit the same mark for me. The "look it's in 3D" shots are not as obvious as some of the other films (where stuff comes out of the screen for no reason) but it is still a little distracting when the 3D forces your focus or has stuff where it doesn't aid the scene. Of course the world of Pandora looks great with things moving around in front of you and the final battle sequences are great – the money is all there to be seen. Thing is, the reason I was able to think about "how did they do that shot" while watching the film is because the technical aspects of the film is really all there is to engage with. The plot is basic and obvious – others have talked at length about the rights and wrongs of a story where the white man comes to the aid of the indigenous people, so I'll not add to that debate. The problem for me is simpler than that, it is simply that the plot is weak and the script is just as weak. My girlfriend laughed out loud when the name of the mineral on Pandora was named as "Unobtainium" and there were plenty of things like this. The dialogue between the characters is full of needless plot exposition and thus doesn't ring true. Of course all this is helped by the action and the effects but the narrative and writing weaknesses are all I can think of when I have to listen to people tell me how Avatar is the best film ever.

The cast manage to do solid jobs considering how easy it is for them to get lost in the effects (see the modern Star Wars films to see this happen). Worthington is stuck with some awful dialogue but he is a good presence even in his Avatar. Saldana's performance is good, again despite some of her expressions and dialogue. Weaver is "so-so", Moore is pointless, Ribisi is miscast in a character that is so clichéd that it needed a decent casting to make it be more than it was. I liked Lang a lot and his OTT badass character worked well. Rodriguez seems like she is there because someone important likes her and her character doesn't add a terrible lot. Voice work from Studi, Pounder and others is good.

Overall Avatar deserves to be seen for its technical importance and how impressive it is but the degree of praise for it needs to be put in context by considering how it plays as more than just a special effects milestone. In these terms it is not as good due to a poor plot and script that hurts the actors more than the effects do by handing them some awful dialogue. That it works is testament to how impressive the effects are but there is not a terrible lot to gush about beyond these.

When I think of James Cameron, I only feel excellence. After all, he has been one of the most acclaimed and diverse directors. He has surprised audiences with various genres, although science fiction has always held a special place in his heart.

When I went to see this film in theaters more than 15 years ago, I didn't know what to expect. Until then, I had never had a great experience with 3D or anything visually stunning. When I left the theater, I thought (and it's a feeling that persists to this day) that I would never have such an audiovisual experience again. And indeed, it never happened to me again, not even with its 2022 sequel. Some might say that "Avatar" is just "Pocahontas" with blue people instead of Native Americans, and that it's not an original series.

In my case, I found a heartfelt story, deeply rooted in environmentalism, because yes, the "Avatar" films are environmentally conscious!

But it also boasts a heavy dose of action, adventure, special effects, and everything else a story of this kind should have. From beginning to end, it's impactful, keeping you tense or amazed, or both, but above all, it's a part of cinematic history...it's no wonder it's the highest-grossing film of all time.

Unfortunately, I think Cameron, after this, fell so deeply in love with this franchise that it resulted in a sequel with a dreadful script and only decent special effects.

Will this third installment, set to premiere in a few weeks, return to its roots, or will it just be another soulless copy? We'll have to wait and see...

I am sure my comment will be lost in a sea of blue but anyways here goes...

Just attended the Advanced Screening at my local "Event Cinema" BCC in 3D

Now this movies graphics are gorgeous, everything is so real, the 3D just adds to the effect beautifully without distracting you.

From a technical standpoint this movie is amazing, just the detail on the Navi's faces are amazing, they feel more real then their real life counterparts!

Without giving anything away about the story, the plot itself is very solid, very character driven and perfectly executed by Jim, safe to say this is his best original story since "The Terminator" and "Terminator 2" and is definitely one of his best movies, so good it ties with T2 which is my most favorite movie of all time...

So for those of you who have not seen this yet... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

5/5

It's been 12 years since we last saw James Cameron's visionary directing on the big screen. He previously graced Our Cinemas with the Likes of The Terminator, Aliens and the rather popular titanic. The latter went on to gross more than 1.8 billion dollars worldwide and bag 11 Oscar's. Now he's back with another epic, Avatar. It's been 12 years in the making, now it is being realised in glorious 3-D.

The story is set hundreds of years from today on the distant moon of Pandora. The planets a lush, vivid place full of beautiful and deadly creatures. The population that inhabit this planet are the Na'vi, they are big, very fast and athletic with a knack for not taking the humans lightly. The film centres on Jake sully (Sam Worthington) a paraplegic marine who is offered a second chance at being a soldier. He is asked to fill in his recently deceased brother's boots and head to Pandora. The First thing you will notice about this film is that it looks incredible. Every single blade of grass has been fully detailed. The motion capture technology brings the Na'vi to life, with every emotion being realised. This is truly from a visionary point of view, a work of art.

You are transported to the Moon of Pandora and it's a marvel if you are seeing it in 3-D, as intended. You are then introduced to the main characters of the film. First you meet the rather joyful and impressive colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) He gives a stand out performance as a stereotypical American Grunt, a rather over used cliché by the Canadian director. You are then introduced to Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who has affection for the Na'vi, and looking for a way back into the indigenous population's community.

You will notice through the film that there are many references to James Cameron's previous work Aliens. There are a few small similarities' and one big, Aliens is arguably Cameron's best work, so it's not a negative. The role of Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) will remind you of Carter Burke, the slimy all business Executive from Aliens. The score by James Horner, who also worked with Cameron on the 1986 hit leaves a familiar taste in your mouth. Cameron originally wanted Michael Biehn to play the role of Quaritch but thought the audience would get confused as Sigourney Weaver is also in the movie.

The introduction of neytiri (Zoe Saldana) is powerful and exciting, You get the impression that she knows how to handle herself, This is a trait of all Jim Cameron's heroines. She introduces us to the Na'vi culture, and in the process, we start to care for and understand the advanced race.

The film flows well; it can drag at times, especially in the middle act of the film. This could have been improved with an extra RDA encounter, to further mount the tension between the Na'vi and the inpatient humans. The Action in the film is amazing, real hard hitting stuff. But it is in no way mindless. Every scene of action has been carefully crafted, by the trusty hands and eyes of James Cameron, Who has a knack for getting the audiences, pulse racing. The final battle lasts around 40 minutes long and it is defiantly a sight to be seen.

Final Thought's: On a technical level the film is a triumph with moments of wonder, the action is top notch to boot. The script and story can let it down at points, but that is no reason not to see the movie.Avatar is like a beautiful painting. What you see is what you get, and what you get is nothing short of epic.

A moment of brilliance: The final battle scene is as good as they come. The last time you had Goosebumps like this, was when a well known farm boy, destroyed a death star.

Reviewer: Joshua Roberts