Avatar

[Predator1428]

Avatar Review
So after all the hype, media coverage and mouth watering trailers has James Cameron out done himself?....In a word yes. The king of the world has done it again in such a beautifully crafted piece of work it blurs the line between reality, fantasy and sci-fi and moulds it into one of the finest and most magnificent movies to grace the silver screen since Terminator 2.

The word previously mentioned in this review is masterpiece and yes that is the word for this film, because this is the gamer changer, the benchmark in cinema history that will forever be remembered. It’s hard to believe that this film truly does live up to the excitement and surpasses it in one of the most breathtaking and mind-blowing films I have ever seen.

Although some may argue the real stars of this movie are the special effects I would disagree to say that the two leads stole it and created such a magical chemistry and heart it was astonishing. It’s apparent that Cameron has used skills taken from various other films most notably Titanic in casting two leads with such chemistry it carries the film along single handed. Of course another skill Cameron has mastered with his movies heavily centred on romance is hiring one of the strongest female singers in the world to headline the soundtrack with a powerful ballad. After Celine Deon created one of the most memorable things about Titanic Leona Lewis more than sets a perfect mood and atmosphere for the film.

Clearly Avatar will sweep up an army of awards in the near future and not just for the phenomenal special effects which display the many years of work Cameron has spent on them. This is a film which if you plan on watching you have to do so in 3D to fully experience the glory that is Avatar. The world of Pandora is so beautifully constructed right down to the tiniest detail it is such a delight to watch it in 3D and feel as though you are setting foot in this wonderful alien world.

Avatar is the first film I have ever watched that doesn’t have a genre because it blends a mix of fantasy, sci-fi, romance and war so well it would only take a master like James Cameron and that is why he deserves his nickname ‘King of the World’. Camerons view on the world and mankind if reflected heavily in the subject matter here which shows us to have fundamentally drained our own planet of resources which leads us to look else where to Pandora.

Now its time to talk about the actors and I find myself trying to find where to start. After the lacklustre Terminator Salvation some questioned Sam Worthing’s ability to carry the most anticipated film of all time on his shoulders despite the fact that he was the best thing about that movie. After Avatar I’m convinced and look forward to seeing a lot more of Sam Worthington in the future. After he not only maintained his American accent alot better in this movie he has the rare ability to create the innocence and charm of adolescent but at the same time the heart and courage of an action hero.

Arguably Zoe Saldana deserves more of the credit for this movie than Sam Worthington for her role as Neytiri, the latest in Camerons long line of strong leading female characters after Sarah Conner, Ripley and countless others. She delivers heartbreaking dialogue and could bring the audience to tears in some scenes for she is the heart and soul of the film and an Oscar nod wouldn’t be too far to speak.

The relationship between our Jake Sully and Neytiri is one to rival the legendary Decaprio and Winslet romance with a strikingly familiar love scene obviously inspired by the car scene in Titanic. Indeed the love of these characters will live on forever as will this film and hopefully will not age as bad as Titanic has. All hail James Cameron for this masterpiece and the biggest milestone in cinema history, Avatar.
5/5 Stars

[MisterTwister]

To be honest, I was disappointed.

The story is very similar to Dances With Wolves but doesnt do it anywhere near as well. In the first half of Dances, you grow to love the Native Americans, so that in the 2nd half, when they are attacked by Yankees, you root for them. In Avatar, you dont feel anything like the same about the Navi, which totally undermines the 2nd half of the film.

The problem is that the Navi characters have no depth at all. Aside from Zoe Saldana's Navi character, Natiri, the rest of the Navi are given no character. Without any depth they are not credible, and so you dont sympathise with them. At the big battle at the end of the film, the only character you are concerned for is Natiri. Cameron tries to get the viewer to fall in love with his Pandora world instead of the characters. This is a mistake. Pandora is beautiful but not drastically different from Earth.

Overall, the film is not at all original. Aside from similarities to Dances With Wolves, the script is very cliched and predictable. At times the dialogue is very cheesy, even cringe-worthy, and its sad to see that whooping, "YEAH!ing", and air-punching still plague modern films. The Pandora world is not very imaginative either, with all creatures just being a slightly different version of an Earth creature. Humans but blue and taller, horses with 6 legs, teradactyls with 2 sets of wings. There is nothing really imaginative for an alien world.

The effects are very good, but not revolutionary. In these days when we are overexposed to omnipotence of computer effects, they dont wow. Effects movies nowadays are a bit pointless. So Im not sure what took 5 years of Cameron's life. He should have spent more time working on the storyline.

[hawktheslayer]

Fast becoming the highest grossing movie ever made, Avatar is taking the motion picture business by storm – and rightly so.
The anticipation while queuing the length of the cinema foyer was akin to that when queuing for a ride in a theme park. Almost everyone within earshot was recounting 3D movies or theme park experiences they have had. This led to a particular, although orderly rush for prime seats.
The trailers gave us a taste of the 3D experience. An excellent move as it does take time for your eyes to adjust to the depth of view. It also gives you a chance to get used to wearing the glasses. No flimsy cardboard for this, properly produced plastic glasses with decent lenses were handed out – and, yes, you do have to give them back.
And so, on to the main event: As a movie, this stands easily alongside James Cameron’s other excellent sci-fi output. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) joins up for a deep space army mission in place of his recently deceased twin brother. Jake has been offered the chance to go because his twin had been trained in the expensive duty of piloting an Avatar: An Avatar being a physical body that can be controlled remotely from the mind of the pilot with matching DNA – hence the need to use Jake Sully. The extra twist to Jake’s story is that he is in a wheelchair. The mission is to infiltrate and aid negotiation with the inhabitants of a far off planet, Pandora. Pandora holds valuable fossil fuels and the indigenous people need to be moved from their land in order for this to be mined. It is very clear that, should negotiation prove unsuccessful, the land will be taken by force.
Jake’s recklessness or rather eagerness to utilise his new found movement and freedom lands him in hot water on may occasions, but it also brings him to the attention of a tribe living on Pandora. Jake then engrosses himself in learning the tribe’s ways whilst simultaneously remaining focused on his objective regarding the mining.
For the few of you, judging by the box office takings, that have yet to see the movie, I won’t spend anymore time explaining plot. My final comment, before moving onto the 3D experience, is that in my opinion, this movie will still be a great movie when watched in 2D. The plot and characters have enough about them to keep you engrossed and involved throughout.
Which brings me neatly to the 3D experience: To put it simply, it’s mind blowing. At first it’s a little difficult to take it all in and some of the shots are a little disorientating. The great thing is that the movie does not overuse the “things appear to come out of the screen” aspect of 3D. Instead, the movie offers a depth of perception unlike anything I have ever seen on screen. There are no gimmicks and no specially chosen segments of 3D for the audience to wow at – the movie has the wow factor throughout.
Cleverly, as Jake finds his Avatar self to become reality and his own self to become dreamlike, so do we. Cameron uses the stark interiors of a military base to make things seem clinical and cold. Whereas, when out in the jungles of Pandora, there is a whole plethora of sights and sounds to take in. With a depth and richness of colour that makes it seem so much more real.
The attention to detail is staggering. The indigenous people, the plants, the animals and everything in between have a level of detail that makes them seem real. And this level of detail exists throughout. There are no blocks of fillers used. It seems as though indigenous tribe member 121 at the back on the left has as much detail and character as one of the main characters in the foreground.
Cameron has certainly set the bar high in terms of quality throughout and he has achieved that with aplomb.
To say that the movie is absorbing is an understatement. The high quality story and it’s excellent execution makes this a must see movie.
I feel like I have seen a piece of cinematic history. This movie will stand out as the benchmark for any other movie made in 3D. I’m not sure that even with this movie to use as inspiration that this level of quality will be matched or surpassed for quite some time.
This is the dawning of a new era.
My Rating 5/5

[fortunesfool]

Its' one of the most extraordinary Kids movies ever made. Cameron has made an old-fashioned (read: derivative) fantasy/sci-fi fable which will leave a new generation of movie goers wide eyed with wonder at the sheer possibilities of cinema.

The first hour, despite some clanging dialogue is mesmerising. Once the shock and awe wears off though you're left with on overly familiar and unoriginal tale which can test the patience a little; it doesn't help that Cameron stretches the story very thin.

There is however much to enjoy and come the last act - a typical Cameronesque multi-layered battle sequence, you're eyes will be on stalks and you'll leave the cinema grinning like a sugar addled child.

So. A flawed narrative with some clangingly flat dialogue - surprising really since Cameron's dialogue is usually punchy and quotable - but visually extraordinary. Probably the most gob-smacking Hollywood blockbuster in a decade as far as technical merit is concerned. It really shows up the gaggle of young wannabee's (JJ Abrams, Peter Berg etc) for the clueless TV hacks that they really are.

Jim Cameron is back in business but he needs to clean out his ears and/or get a writing partner again to help whip his screenplays into shape. Still, it's all relative, compared to the idiotic Star Trek/Transformers 2/Terminator Salvation drivel we've been suffering lately, Avatar is like Lawrence of Arabia.

[morris]

Originally Posted by fortunesfool

It's all relative, compared to the idiotic Star Trek/Transformers 2/Terminator Salvation drivel we've been suffering lately, Avatar is like Lawrence of Arabia.

This is the saddest thing I have read in a long time. Even sadder if it's true, which it might well be.

I'd hope Lawrence of Arabia had a better script though.

[fortunesfool]

Poor script issues aside, it's one of those very rare 'Blockbusters' where you actually feel like the film-maker understands how to make a film and has thought about each shot and how it's going to cut together.

Spielberg aside, I can't think of any other big budget director around just now who doesn't just shake a camera about and then cover it all up in the editing.

[horizonblind]

The word on everyone’s lips (apart from those cynics of you out there) at the moment is Avatar, James Cameron’s first feature film (aside from numerous documentaries) since that little number about a boat, which most people haven’t heard of. Cameron claims to have started work on Avatar as early as 1994, and instills that cinematic technology had not begun to synchronize with his epic visions until recently with breakthroughs in the capabilities of C.G.I. This film is entirely indebted to computer generated imagery, although it is not its sole achievement, it is by no means a one trick pony in that the performances, the craftsmanship, the direction, the story, the music, in fact almost every aspect of this true modern masterpiece is so meticulously and beautifully fashioned that is impossible to be without awe of such creative production. Cameron has obviously more than proved himself in the past as up there in the elite club of Kubrick, Scott, Lucas and Spielberg with the likes of Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss & Judgment Day to name but a few.

The ‘blue man group’ world of Pandora sets the stage for the latest slice of Cameron’s imagination, where we follow Aussie newcomer Sam Worthington (from Terminator: Salvation) as Corporal Jake Sully, a disabled marine who upon his brother’s death enters the Avatar program, which allows a human being to be physically and mentally transformed into a synthetic version of the native Na’vi tribe. The film is set in a completely fictional world of 2154 in which humans are desperately attempting to conquer other worlds and find a new home. The Na’vi represent a problem for the expeditions necessary to human resources and so conflict becomes inevitable; the Avatar program is designed to set about diplomatically negotiating a solution. However, as we learn things aren’t what they seem, and Cameron takes us on a wonderful journey of exploration that is quite unique in both its inception and deliverance.

Support comes from Cameron’s Aliens muse Sigourney Weaver, The Fast and the Furious’ Michelle Rodriguez and the terrifying Men Who Stare at Goats star Stephen Lang as the principle antagonist. All of which, offer solid performances that although over-shadowed by the sheer aesthetics of Pandora, still ground the story with a much needed display of humanity in a very alien situation. Avatar has now officially beaten Cameron’s previous 1997 Titanic which was the world’s most successful film ever made. No other film-maker in the history of the medium has ever been more bankable than James Cameron, to have two films that together finance the surplus for the industry alone is unheard of and yet has happened, and yet completely and deservingly so. It is all too easy to be cynical and jealous of such extreme success, however, it is conjured and embodied in such an audacious mix of fun and sheer amazement that people cannot help but be cast by its spell, as the number of bums on seats and made evident.

To try and dissect Avatar or even really review it, is quite a hard task in itself as so much of its charm lies in the subjective experience of what you see. It is unlike any other film, in that it is the visual experience that is most exciting and yet it has enough gravity in emotion and philosophy that it creates a perfect equilibrium and social dichotomy. It can be seen as an American critique of imperialism and as a comment on global warming. It can be put in a historical perspective and be seen as a look at both America’s bloody genocidal past and that of any other Empire. It is reminiscent of Mel Gibson’s Brave heart in parts in that it invites the audience to advocate the underdog and play upon the other side of the story, the persecuted. However, it is never too judgmental and preachy, in that it is first and foremost a science-fiction film, an adventure, of course subject to a metaphorical nature but at its heart just a grown mans computer game.

Avatar is up for numerous Oscars as well as already having received various awards internationally, it seems it’s a commercial studio film of the most mammoth kind that is digestible for both critics and audiences alike. There has been little criticism, and if any usually of a very infantile nature as there isn’t really any fruit in negativity towards this remarkable expedition in what film making is capable of. Film is first and foremost a medium invented to expand our horizons and possibilities of suspension of disbelief, that instinctual necessity to require a story, from the raconteurs of cave-men around a fire to the studios of C.G.I multi-billion dollar Hollywood, at the end of the day we just want a damn good story, lots of highs and lows, lots of oos and ahhs, characters to believe in, people to champion, heroes to emerge, we want to cry and laugh, we want to be impressed and ultimately we want escapism. Cameron is now the master of escapism, the single reason the cinema has survived if not profited from the recession and will continue to prosper.

Avatar is quite simply brilliant, if you have no time for science fiction, blue people or any kind of computer trickery, than you are pretty much on your own out there, there is so much to this film, the whole family can gain something from such an experience, it is heart-warmingly funny and will ignite that childish charm and excitement by making the hairs on your arms stand to attention. It is some of the finest action sequences every cinematographically crafted, using truly the latest technological achievements to their fullest abilities, a world away from the likes of Godzilla. It has a career changing performance from Sam Worthington; it is revolutionary in its transition from 2D to 3D film viewing, and its creation in a new realm of C.G.I acting. It has a solid and compelling story which everyone can relate to, it sustains enough emotional investment for it be multi-layered rather than an elaborate computer outing and yet there is something totally unique and amazing about the fact that they pulled it off and that is has the effect is has. If at first you are skeptical, just watch it and keep quiet, as for those 162 minutes you will become Avatar.

[fortunesfool]

The nine extra minutes don't amount to very much.

A 'buffalo hunt' scene is a welcome and spectacular addition and gives the soggy mid section a well needed kick up the butt.

A nice scene showing the devastation after the Na'vi retaliate for the destruction of the tree of souls shows the dangerous side them that was glossed over in the original cut.

Tsu'tey gets a proper send off at the end too which is a really nice scene (although it did appear that Jake was anally violating him a bit)

The rest is nice to see but fairly pointless. Only a clanking bit of VO exposition from Jake about why the mountains float stands out as a particular howler.

Other than that, I'd forgotten how amazing it looks on the big screen in 3D. After a few bluray viewings it was a revelation seeing it 'properly' again.

Not likely to convert anyone who hated it first time round. If, like me, you can overlook Cameron's often atrocious dialogue though it's still a sight to behold and well worth catching on the big screen again.

[11pecar]

belive the hype avatar is the most colourful
and astonishing film i have ever seen
bring on avatar 2

[Ancient One]

belive the hype ( no, its all hype) avatar is the most colourful (Blue)
and astonishing ( as in how the hell did they get funding for this ) film i have ever seen ( well, better than the other one )
bring on avatar 2 ( So I can broaden my film tastes )