Dropping a week before Christmas is 20th Century Fox's much talked about sci-fi epic Avatar. Despite having a story that will seem very similar, James Cameron’s long awaited return to the big screen should be met with much fanfare. Prepare to throw whatever reservations you have about his movie aside, Avatar is nothing short of a technical masterpiece.
**Warning, spoilers below**
Avatar begins with marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) waking from cryo sleep after being out for almost six years on a ship headed for the planet Pandora. He discovers his brother is dead and because his DNA is similar, Jake is offered a new start by filling his shoes in a scientific program call “avatar.” On Pandora lies a substance called Unobtainium that sells for 20 million a kilo and greedy bastards we humans are, want as much as we can get. Problem is, a tribe of human-like creatures called the Navi inhabit the area where this stuff is most abundant.
As part of the program Jake controls a genetically produced Navi through a machine that he can operate with his mind. He is asked to infiltrate the Navi and learn their ways so he can provide intel to Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) on how he can relocate the tribes and mine the Unobtainium. On his initial run, Jake gets lost on Pandora and is found by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). She knows he’s not one of their own, but sees he has a good heart and leads him to her people. They eventually agree to help him learn their ways and Neytiri is to teach him.
As Jake learns from Neytiri, he begins falling in love with her. In turn, he begins to see that the humans are wrong for wanting to destroy the Navi’s habitat and seeks to stop them. Colonel Quaritch discovers this and boots Jake from the program, imprisons the team, and begins his assault on the Navi. They destroy their home tree and scatter the tribe. With the help of Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) the team escapes and is able to continue controlling the avatars in an effort to save the Navi. Jake unites the various Navi tribes and with their help, prevents the humans from destroying their final refuge.
Highlights
I’m just going to get this out of the way; Avatar has the BEST COMPUTER GENERATED SPECIAL EFFECTS EVER. I have never seen animation done this well before. The various studios on this project (Weta included) have raised the bar for cinematic imagery. The Navi themselves look incredibly realistic and the various forms of life on Pandora look highly detailed. The large amount of colors used in the landscape as well as the many characters themselves is amazing. Further all this by the fact that I saw this in 3D and I hope you get my point.
The real stars in Avatar are the computer generated Navi, but the return of Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace is a welcome addition here, despite her Avatar looking a bit silly when she smiles. I would have liked to see more of Parker (Giovanni Ribisi) throughout the film. His character is very one sided at first but as the film goes on he appears to become conflicted with the decisions he has to make and that character development isn't fully shown. Michelle Rodriguez continues to be type cast here as the gruff super woman who could kick your ass and I imagine a lot of other actresses could do just as well in her role.
What hurts Avatar the most is its all too familiar story. A man follows orders but then realizes the people giving the orders are a bunch of fucktards and sets to right the wrongs he committed while following said orders. It’s clear within the first 20 minutes of Avatar that humanity is really the enemy here and we’re forced to pick the side of the Navi. This fact is further driven home by how much a dick Colonel Quaritch is. We’ve all seen this type of story in a lot of movies, but here it simply looks gorgeous. It’s obvious that Cameron has borrowed a lot of similar material in writing the screenplay for this film, but even knowing that I didn’t care and I just enjoyed it.
Overall
Clocking in at two hours and 42 minutes, Avatar may seem like it’s a bit long, but you’ll easily get lost in the visual feast that is happening on screen. The technical work on this film should get just as many awards as the Lord of the Rings films did several years ago. Overall, this is great film and although you’ve seen this story before, you’ve never seen it look this good. James Cameron’s Avatar is a visual tour de force and should not be missed this holiday season.
ComicsOnline gives Avatar 4.5 out of 5 spirit seeds.
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