A paraplegic marine is asked to replace his deceased scientist brother on a distant world where a company is mining for a valuable mineral needed back on earth. His brother was part of a project where his DNA was used to create an artificial body, or Avatar. The avatar is very similar to the natives on the distant world of Pandora, the Na’vi. The Na’vi are tall, blue feline humanoids who are not reliant on technology, rather they prefer to live with nature.
James Cameron obviously has made some notable movies in the past, Terminator, The Abyss, even Titanic, but Avatar is the movie that has taken the longest, cost the most, and perhaps is the most technically advanced he has ever attempted. Camera’s and computer graphics had to be invented to allow Cameron to create the world he has envisioned.
The graphics of Avatar looks like a video game, only more realistic than anything seen before. The Na’vi look believable. Yes, they are blue, yes they are 12 ft tall, but they move and look as real as a real life smurf. Pandora is a wonderful planet with the vegetation simply stunning. Simply put, everything you see looks very very good. Nothing jumps out as incorrect or wrong, nothing to pull you out of the movie and back to real life.
Sam Worthington is an actor on his way up in the world of movies. Having already starred in Terminator Salvation, he takes the lead of crippled marine, Jake Sully, marine grunt out of his comfort zone. Zoe Saldana, recently seen as Uhura in Star Trek, is Neytiri, a Na’Vi female. Both leads are very good and excel when together. Even though Sully is an Avatar half the time and Neytiri is always a Na’Vi, even as computer generated characters, both are wonderful to behold.
One of the bonuses of James Cameron as a movie maker is that he likes to design everything, from the smallest creature to the biggest vehicles. And on that note, the machines, the shuttles, transports etc look very good, and will probably inspire designs down the line. Tilt rotor flying machines that have their roots back with Apache and Cobra helicopters flying through the Pandoran skies gracefully.
Avatar is a long movie, nearly three hours, and colourful and incredibly enjoyable. Yes, there are moments where you are drawn out of the fantasy, especially the ‘THIS IS SPARTA‘ speech. The plot is unoriginal to say the least, the twists are minimum but predictable when they do occur. While there plot doesn’t break any new ground, the lack of originality doesn’t really detract from the movie.
Avatar is a great, enjoyable movie, science fiction at its best. One that will hopefully spur more great movies in the future and inspire future generations to dream and love sci fi. A movie worth buying on Blu Ray with as many extras as possible!
