Avatar

Avatar (2009)

82% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 218 reviews)

Runtime: 162 minutes

Directed by: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez

From: 20th Century Fox

Here is a film that I’ve heard about ever since I heard a brief mention of it in the book The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made, which came out 10 years ago. It wasn’t one of the 50 movies, but rather it got brought up in the Honorable Mention section. Interestingly enough, a planned Star Trek movie about the original crew and their beginnings in Starfleet Academy was one of the 50 Greatest Movies; funny then that this idea was expanded upon and brought to life in the big hit movie that came out in May, which was better than what I thought it would be. I can also say the same about this movie.

In case you’re one of the few that don’t know, it’s set in 2154 and it’s about a human corporation that is on a planet called Pandora, inhabited by blue human-cats known as the Na’vi. Working with the corporation is a scientist team that creates avatars, which allow for humans to control a created Na’vi creature remotely. One guy, Jake Sully, joins the project after his twin brother is killed; Jake happens to be paralyzed below the waist due to his prior tour as a Marine. I won’t spoil too much after that as hey, the trailers made it clear how the movie would go.

I’ll admit that the story isn’t exactly complex; not that I was expecting The Usual Suspects or Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels here, but I can understand why some people didn’t care for it due to its simplistic story. Me, I didn’t really listen to the hype and how the movie “would be a game-changer” and all those grandiose claims, some of them coming from the filmmakers themselves. But, if you aren’t bothered by a pulp-y story and instead can kick back and enjoy the awesome visuals (especially in 3-D; next month I’ll see it in IMAX 3-D), then you should enjoy this, even though it’s a lengthy film; my patience was never tried and I enjoyed being in that world and how unique things were on Earth, even though a lot of it is based on Earth creatures. Fancy that. The film just looks great and in 3-D, it’s even better. It took Cameron so long to make this as it took that long for the technology to come along and make the movie possible. It ends up being amazing and it’s the best computer effects I’ve ever seen; it eclipses what has come before it, I say. The action stuff is a blast too.

So, overall, if you want to see this, do so on the big screen as seeing it at home just won’t be the same. Don’t listen to the idiot fanboys out there who expected way too much out of it or were expecting something else. Instead, if you can tolerate subtlety that is about as faint as a chainsaw to the face (the Na’vi being like Native Americans is laid on pretty thick) then you should enjoy the flick that is part action, part romance, part drama, and all entertainment, as you get to see the likes of sniveling corporate types, a macho Colonel (Lang, in a tremendous scenery-chewing performance), and a noble scientist (Weaver). The audience I saw it with Sunday night really dug it, giving it the loudest cheers and applause I can ever recall at a theatre. So, I think you’ll end up enjoying it too, and I’m saying this as someone who before the movie wasn’t sure how it would be, given the underwhelming trailers I saw beforehand.

I'll be back and post something by the very end of year at the latest, I promise.