Avatar.
James Cameron has brought us many great films, Terminator 1 and 2 and Aliens seem to be the best examples. Titanic is the one that made the most money, over a billion dollars. So basically this guy needed to top that. Now we have Avatar. A simple story of a man who joins up with some aboriginal blue guys called Na’vi on a moon called Pandora. His mission is to infiltrate the tribe appearing as one of them. He uses an Avatar to accomplish this.
An Avatar is a mixture of our DNA with theirs, so that we can form a psychic link to our Avatar and control him on Pandora (regular humans cannot breath the air on Pandora). Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington – who seems to have the best agent in Hollywood due to his great filmography) uses an Avatar to learn about the Na’vi (note his Avatar has 5 fingers and the Na’vi have 4) and then report back to the military. In order to learn their culture he teams up with a young female Na’vi who teaches him a lot of cool stuff like how to fly a dragon! You can pretty much guess what happens after that.
The story to the movie is simple. Then again, Titanic was simple, and to an extent Terminator was simple too. The story of T1 – An evil sentient computer sends a robotic killer back through time to kill the future leader of resistance before he is born. The only difference in story from T1 to T2 is that the target is Sarah and in part 2 its John.
That’s it. That’s Terminator. So why is it so good? Because James Cameron can take a simple story and tell it in such a way that makes you care. You care about these people in this world that he has created. This is true in Avatar even more so I think than in those other films. The story is familiar but the plot is amazing. Most of you who read this blog took some kind of film course. Story is the overall story of what is going on. The plot is the details that take us from scene to scene. It’s dialogue, setting, character development, etc. Inglourious Basterds has almost no story – the Basterds want to kill Nazis. That’s it. But the dialogue and tension of the plot are what makes it so good.
Avatar has a good story, and amazing plot and really awe inspiring effects. That being said I really should give this 4/5 in order to make up for the story, but I just cant give it less than 5/5.
I loved every single thing about Pandora and we get there within 20 mins of the film and we almost never leave (sometimes we leave for some exposition – but that’s it). James spent a lot of money on this baby, and I think for the most part I saw it on screen. The effects with 3D are just amazing and I couldn’t help but get into this movie. I love fantasy and sci-fi and I love getting into a world and staying there. The first 90 mins is Jake learning stuff about the world, and we get to learn too. This isn’t just a quickly mocked up world created for the sake of action. This is a well thought-out, creative world where these beings live. Yes they are fashioned after our Native Americans or Indians etc. But all sci-fi takes it cues from something real. This film is an adventure. And YES I think in 2D it would be great too. This is a good movie. Towards the back half I forgot it was 3D, that’s because I got into the movie so much that I didn’t notice. Plus the 3D is not “in your face”. Most 3D movies tend to overuse the 3D to no end (see Friday the 13th part 3 – but I love that movie), this is a MOVIE first, and 3D second.
Do I think Avatar is equal to the moon landing? NO. Do I think it’s the best movie of the year….NO. It’s not better than Watchmen. But Watchmen’s characters are so well written, and well acted and the plot AND story are so great, with a lot of depth. Nothing will beat Watchmen for a long time. But Avatar must certainly be number 2, or at least in the top 10.
Anyone who doesn’t enjoy this film really doesn’t enjoy fantasy or science fiction. I mean the world of Pandora is so rich and wonderful who wouldn’t want to have an Avatar to go running around in it?
5/5
J-Man.
James Cameron has brought us many great films, Terminator 1 and 2 and Aliens seem to be the best examples. Titanic is the one that made the most money, over a billion dollars. So basically this guy needed to top that. Now we have Avatar. A simple story of a man who joins up with some aboriginal blue guys called Na’vi on a moon called Pandora. His mission is to infiltrate the tribe appearing as one of them. He uses an Avatar to accomplish this.
An Avatar is a mixture of our DNA with theirs, so that we can form a psychic link to our Avatar and control him on Pandora (regular humans cannot breath the air on Pandora). Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington – who seems to have the best agent in Hollywood due to his great filmography) uses an Avatar to learn about the Na’vi (note his Avatar has 5 fingers and the Na’vi have 4) and then report back to the military. In order to learn their culture he teams up with a young female Na’vi who teaches him a lot of cool stuff like how to fly a dragon! You can pretty much guess what happens after that.
The story to the movie is simple. Then again, Titanic was simple, and to an extent Terminator was simple too. The story of T1 – An evil sentient computer sends a robotic killer back through time to kill the future leader of resistance before he is born. The only difference in story from T1 to T2 is that the target is Sarah and in part 2 its John.
That’s it. That’s Terminator. So why is it so good? Because James Cameron can take a simple story and tell it in such a way that makes you care. You care about these people in this world that he has created. This is true in Avatar even more so I think than in those other films. The story is familiar but the plot is amazing. Most of you who read this blog took some kind of film course. Story is the overall story of what is going on. The plot is the details that take us from scene to scene. It’s dialogue, setting, character development, etc. Inglourious Basterds has almost no story – the Basterds want to kill Nazis. That’s it. But the dialogue and tension of the plot are what makes it so good.
Avatar has a good story, and amazing plot and really awe inspiring effects. That being said I really should give this 4/5 in order to make up for the story, but I just cant give it less than 5/5.
I loved every single thing about Pandora and we get there within 20 mins of the film and we almost never leave (sometimes we leave for some exposition – but that’s it). James spent a lot of money on this baby, and I think for the most part I saw it on screen. The effects with 3D are just amazing and I couldn’t help but get into this movie. I love fantasy and sci-fi and I love getting into a world and staying there. The first 90 mins is Jake learning stuff about the world, and we get to learn too. This isn’t just a quickly mocked up world created for the sake of action. This is a well thought-out, creative world where these beings live. Yes they are fashioned after our Native Americans or Indians etc. But all sci-fi takes it cues from something real. This film is an adventure. And YES I think in 2D it would be great too. This is a good movie. Towards the back half I forgot it was 3D, that’s because I got into the movie so much that I didn’t notice. Plus the 3D is not “in your face”. Most 3D movies tend to overuse the 3D to no end (see Friday the 13th part 3 – but I love that movie), this is a MOVIE first, and 3D second.
Do I think Avatar is equal to the moon landing? NO. Do I think it’s the best movie of the year….NO. It’s not better than Watchmen. But Watchmen’s characters are so well written, and well acted and the plot AND story are so great, with a lot of depth. Nothing will beat Watchmen for a long time. But Avatar must certainly be number 2, or at least in the top 10.
Anyone who doesn’t enjoy this film really doesn’t enjoy fantasy or science fiction. I mean the world of Pandora is so rich and wonderful who wouldn’t want to have an Avatar to go running around in it?
5/5
J-Man.
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