Avatar Review

Last one before our big surprise.  If all goes well, it should be up some time late tomorrow or Tuesday.  So lets dive into Avatar, shall we?

Avatar is James Cameron's(Titanic, The Terminator) newest film that follows paraplegic marine Jake Sully(Sam Worthington) who, after hearing of his brother's death, decides to sign up to head of the planet of Pandora to take his brother's place on a research team.  When he arrives on Pandora, he meets his Avatar, a genetic mix of his DNA and the native humanoid race on Pandora. From there he enters the body of his avatar and learns about the Na'vi from Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi that rescues him from what I would call the bastard child of the animal headed monster from 9 and an iguana.  While Jake learns the Na'vi way of life, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) becomes impatient with the Na'vi and begins attacking them in an attempt to find more land to mine.


First let me say one thing: Only see this in 3D.  I saw it in 3D and I can say that it really made the film look amazing.  Not to say that 2D wouldn't show you the same beautiful scenes, but trust me on this one.  Now on to the dissection!


As I said the movie itself looks amazing.  Everything is bright to the point where even at night the forest glows like a woodland rave party.  Even the various animals and even the Na'vi themselves look incredibly realistic in not just how they looks on screen, but how they move and act.  The down side to all this beautiful art is that all the characters seem one dimensional.  You have the humans lead by Colonel Quaritch that represent humanity and the idea of Manifest Destiny that we've become used to.  The Na'vi and Neytiri represent the people that don't want to move and have done nothing wrong but according to our own agenda, we have to remove since they're savages without reason.  Sound familar?  I didn't think so till I remember the movies that came before this one with similar plots....

I think you got some 'splainin' to do James....

This is quite literally what made the movie almost better for me.  I almost expected Neytiri to start in with "Paint With All The Colors of the Wind" as her and Jake went through the forest at night.  Avatar really keeps true to both of these movies in the end though.  Here's a break down of Avatar for you:

-People show up to foreign place.  

-They try to take over because they want to "make things better" for the savages that lived there first but really want something valuable (gold, wood, unobtainium) 

-Savages don't like it and fight back with help from one of the settlers.

-Good ending, guy and girl kiss and live forever.

-Bad ending, John Smith dies in Neytiri's arms while Robin Williams as a bat makes horrible puns about the forest.

So, with the easy to predict plot and characters that are one dimensional (though shown in 3 dimensions), is it worth it?  Yes it is.  The sheer beauty of the film is worth it but even if you know what's going to happen you still want to see it happen.  On a final note, I will say that the 3rd act makes up for any boring moments or parts you wished would have been sped up through this almost 3 hour epic.  It's like James Cameron took Michael Bay's wet dream and put it in film before Bay could.


Rating: See It


Till Next Time,
Mike




P.s.  Really James Cameron?  The ore they want so bad is called UNOBTAINIUM?  LOLSOCLEVER I'd never figure out it's hard to get at and that's why the military has to destroy the Na'vi's home to get to it.