Avatar – Review
December 20, 2009 in Movie Reviews, New Releases, Sci Fi
For the first viewing I saw Avatar in Digital 3D.
My review for the movie itself is as follows…. Brilliant! The only real negative thing I can say about the film is predictability… the massive advertising campaign and leaked footage contributed hugely to this, giving away a large chunk of the story and it’s characters. That being said, there was so much going on visually, that the predictable story telling was easily forgiveable. In a nutshell, we’ve seen the story a dozen times, but this film was not necessarily about the story, but more about the presentation or experience. Each and every detail of Pandora (the world) and it’s inhabitants is fleshed out meticulously, giving the viewer everything they need to understand and feel the plight of the Na’vi. The characters are equally fleshed out, both human and Na’vi, breathing life and emotion into a fully and digitally realized world. The scenes on Pandora are beautiful and the blending between real and digital is almost seamless (the best we’ve seen to date). The film runs at about 2 hours and 45 minutes, but you don’t feel it. Avatar is one film you don’t want to miss!
Related posts:
OK, if you don't know who Joss Whedon is, then you probably shouldn't be on this site. Joss Whed...
Best known for Hitman and and the somewhat controversial Frontier(s), Xavier Gens brings in a te...
In some circles, one would say Troma has a definite winner here when compared to prior releases....
JD Arcand
Visit Today : 12
This Month : 3544
Wow, Schumacher, really, the man who single handedly destroyed the Batman franchise and hasn’t really done a memmorable film since Lost Boys. You’re putting him in the same boat as Bay and Cameron?
’nuff said.
I watched the IMAX 3D version last night and the best I can give it is a 4 star. The 5th star being what I would assign to the story, pacing and development.
The story really sort of achieved a Disney level of simplicity that only really bothered me when it resorted to cheap antagonistic garbage like the human army basically ignoring all the work that Jake accomplished (with viable evidence of progress I might add which everyone admits, not that the scientists were truly swinging with monkeys), and bulldozing the tree the second after Jake gets the ok to negotiate with them once he becomes part of the tribe. The Sargent really isn’t presented as a blood thirsty type wanting to whip the planet away either. He’s a professional, career solder who enjoys the job more than he probably should. That doesn’t mean waiting one more day is not an option for him. His character was nuanced and laced with a lot of depth, the least of which was a wreckless nature. There are a bunch of better ideas that would result in a final battle. This whole issue was totally force and uncharacteristic.
Are we also expected to believe that Jake, who seemed so resourceful and intelligent in a “jungle smarts” way, couldn’t have come up with a better ground assault than running meat in the shape of alien horses at giant mech warriors?!?! Once they started charging I assumed I’d see some cool plan unfold, but it didn’t. I mean WTH? Didn’t they just pelt a gun ship with arrows while it blew up the great tree?!?! Didn’t he just plead to them to run and hide because death was going to rain down? I can only assume Jake had succumbed to some tribal warrior pride syndrome that made him stupid just before planning battle strategy. Couldn’t they have used the rinho creatures themselves? Couldn’t the ground battle we won by the tribes who know the forest and have the upper hand in a hostile environment? I mean Jake takes one wrong turn and he’s attacked by everything in the jungle, but the humans and waltz right in after all the Sargent’s warnings.
I guess I’ve just grown the hell up and have no clue why gifted technicians like Cameron, Bay and Schumacher feel the need to boil a story down to such bare essentials that when they have to come up with a compromise to move the plot along the end result is a hammer in the face to anyone paying attention.
Maybe I’m overreacting and Cameron just started running out of rope. The ending story was rushed, as it definitely didn’t fit into the rest of the film. At $600 million dollars, you’d think it would have been tighter. If the technology is so costly and cutting edge, then why is another film aspect that is as old as man (story telling) a let down? It impacts everything. Watch the “earth tree saves us” segment a second time and tell me that wasn’t tacked on? I would have had the ground battle win with jungle smarts and strategy (the humans had air superiority anyways) while the earth tree helps with all the birds. Strike a reasonable balance of some sort.
Ok, got it off my chest. If I saw Avatar like 5 years ago I would have given it a 5/5, but I’ve been jaded like the likes of Bay and the rest of Hollywood’s gifted technicians.