Directed by: James Cameron
The highly anticipated sci-fi epic is finally here and that is exactly what it is… EPIC!
There isn’t much else you can say about James Cameron’s long awaited Avatar apart from that it is visual masterpiece…
The year is 2154 and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) a wheel-chair bound ex-marine has been hired for a special project on the planet Pandora. Pandora is a planet covered in a enormous and lush forest and is also inhabited by a number of very dangerous creatures which include the Na’vi, a tribal humanoid race that stand about twice the height of a regular human and do not take kindly to outsiders. A huge independent mining company called RDA are looking to excavate a very rare and expensive mineral called Unobtainium (yes…. It must be very “unobtainable” huh…get it?….) The RDA however are experiencing a bit of grief dealing with the Na’vi who all live right on top of a huge deposit of Unobtainium and aren’t looking to move away anytime soon. Being the twin brother of a scientist that was recently murdered, Jake becomes the next best candidate (due to him having the same DNA) for the Avatar project, which to put simply places a human mind into the body of a genetically modified hybrid Na’vi body. The purpose of the Avatar project, from the scientist’s point of view, is to gain the trust of the Na’vi and learn about them and their culture as well as their intricate and vast environment. From the RDA’s point of view the Avatar project’s purpose is to simply convince the Na’vi to move to make way for the bulldozers and drilling machines. Jake is secretly approached by Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who commands the Mercenary security of RDA, to infiltrate the Na’vi and find out their weaknesses in case that they need to force them away from their home.
Whilst on his first outing into the forest Jake is separated from his group and is reluctantly befriended by Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) a Na’vi local. The Na’vi clan decides to take Jake in to learn their ways and become one of them. As become more involved with the Na’vi, Jake then becomes torn between the two worlds that he is now part of as the ever-growing threat of destruction comes to the home land of the Na’vi.
James Cameron has really done himself out this time. Avatar is truly a remarkable and beautiful film that proves that you can still go all out with CGI and special effects but also tell a remarkable story. Cameron is living proof of this and so many big budget directors could learn a thing or two from him (not mentioning any names… *cough cough*… michael bay… *cough*). The CGI work is definitely the best I have seen to date… the Na’vi are shot using real actors and then they are animated over (or something like that) doing this makes the Na’vi characters totally realistic all the way down to the slightest facial expression. By the end of the movie you don’t even realize you that what are looking at isn’t even real. The environments are grand, lush and full of color, anyone who watches this movie won’t be able to help themselves but look in awe of some the outstanding scenery of this movie. You can tell that every detail has been crafted ever so carefully into the look, feel and personality of the wildlife with the plants and creatures all having their own original look and design.
To be honest, the story isn’t very original, I kept thinking of scenes from Fern Gully as I watched, but this doesn’t really matter because it is written so well. The dialogue is straight forward but is delivered perfectly, thanks to the brilliant casting which includes Cameron veteran Sigourney Weaver as well as Giovanni Ribisi and Michelle Rodriguez. But Sam Worthington is by far most well place cast member, he really delivers a raw and heart felt performance and his acting shines right through all of the CGI. As I said before the story isn’t very original but the concepts introduces into this film are completely out of this world… apart from the big robot suits that are very similar to the ATV’s from The Matrix: Revolutions, but who cares… I’m a big of the whole ‘mecha-suit’ thing anyway
The only down point to whole movie doesn’t even really have any thing to do with movie itself… it was that fact that the cinema’s surround sound didn’t work at all through out the entire movie, so you could only hear it from the front speakers!… it was a massive letdown.
Besides that though this movie is definitely one of the best movies this year and for once actually lived up to all the hype that surrounded it.
Give yourself a pat on the back James Cameron; you’ve really done it this time…. I’m giving it 4 stars
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