Avatar
If that's how they mate, what are they doing to those poor animals?
Year: 2009
Director: James Cameron
Overall Rating: 3 stars
You'd think the writers would pick something other than "unobtanium" to get the film started, but at least it shows us early that dialog is not all that important when you've got over $200,000,000 to spend on effects. What you're left with is a battle in a beautifully rendered alien world and one man's struggle between the evil corporation and the tribal Na'vi. You've seen Dances with Wolves? Same thing, just with a lot more blue.
First of all, I've watched this one in both 2 and 3D. The 3D effect was a whole lot nicer than expected, but found it distracting instead of adding to the experience. Only when watching in 2D was I truly able to appreciate the beauty that is Pandora. There was also a lack of
paddle ball scenes so you're not constantly reminded that it was originally intended to be 3D which was a nice surprise.
As for the story, paraplegic ex-Marine takes his dead brother's place in the Avatar project on Pandora to study Na'vi. By creating hybrid Human/Na'vi test tube babies and transferring consciousness to these monsters, we are able to interact with the natives. Officially, this is for scientific purposes, but the corp. wants info on how to get the savages out of their ancestral home in order to get at their
MacGuffin. Of course, once our hero interacts with the natives, he learns to respect then, falls in love, defies the humans, and becomes their greatest warrior...
The Na'vi are great animal handlers. Jump on one, entwine the tentacles in your pony tail with the tentacles on the animal an you can control the beast. This is all good until later in the movie when you find out how they mate. You guessed it, pony tail tentacles to pony tail tentacles. Those poor animals! And all of this in a PG-13 movie! The MPAA must have been sleeping through that part. :)
If you can get past the lack of originality in the plot, their strange relationship with the animals, and the environmental message that you just can't get away from, Avatar is a beautiful effects flick. The huge landscapes during the day and brightly luminescent plant and animal life at night really help bring Pandora to life. The motion capture was well done and it's even possible to let yourself forget that it's all CG.
As it was my very first 3D movie, I was too busy going "ooh pretty" to care much about the plot. But to me it felt more like a condemnation of corporations and their role in the destruction of not just the environment, but of the indigenous people and their culture. Kind of a "Dances with Wolves" meets "Princes Mononoke" and "Pom Poko" (only Pom Poko actually made me cry)
ReplyDeleteYes, but you also cried at the end of King Kong ;)
ReplyDeleteI have steadfastly refused to watch the humoungus budget version of Ferngully, but caught myself (admittedly, sorta drunk) watching one of the end battle scenes. Visually impressive, yes, but I felt like I was watching the trailer to a new video game due to the flat, emotionless acting and so-so action. Well written (the review, not the "movie").
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