Remember the first time you saw Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Back to the Future or Raiders of the Lost Ark? You probably did not see some of them in the theatres, but always wanted too. Avatar is one of those movies.
Avatar just released on Friday, December 18th is extremely impressive. As a fan of classic science fiction, I know James Cameron has the gift of giving us movies that he himself would want to see. The Terminator movies are a great example of how Cameron pushes the boundries of filmmaking to new levels. Avatar is no different. The story is cut and dry and very easy to understand. The characters are easy to relate to and yes, there are a LOT of special effects. So many, in fact, that it was hard to tell what was real and what was a CG image. That’s a good thing. Furthermore, the movie is presented in RealD 3D, which adds a new dimension to the art of storytelling. You might find yourself swatting fireflies that float in front of your face.
The music of Avatar is also top notch. I have been a fan of James Horner’s music since I was a child. The soundtrack is a mix between Willow, Apocalypto and Aliens. Quite a score, indeed.
So everyone, I beg, no plead with you to see this masterpiece today you will not regret it. Recommend.
- Erik
Although I can’t say I disagree with some of the statements made, I have no problem saying that I thoughly enjoyed this movie. Sure the story was cliche as hell. I got the same FernGully vibe when I saw this flick, but now that it was brought up the story in Avatar was almost an exact rip off of Dances with Wolves/The Last Samurai except the natives win and the whole alien planet thing. Like it was said, Hollywood ran out of original ideas years ago. You’re lucky if you get at least one original story amongst all the movies released in a year. I will say that the story progression in Avatar was a nice brisk pace and the Navi/Pandora ecosystem structure was very clever tho.
The real reason you should see this movie is because of the visuals. I am not talking about the 3D either. The set pieces are bright and vivid, full of interesting creatures and foliage. The Navi themselves, although not mindblowing in character design, move extremely fluid and this made their movements very believable imo. Although the battles were not played out in the most strategic and logical fashion possible, they looked incredable.
Also as a note I have to say that movies over 90 minute should not use 3D. Everyone I know including myself who saw this came out of this movie with a borderline migraine.
I really didn’t want to over analyze it, only went to the cinema to enjoy it. I could tell the story from the trailer, and it was okay with me. The execution of this classic story was dissapointing. One of my favorite movie is the Last of the samurai is also in this Kagemusha-Dance with the wolves-Pocahontas-FernGully story, it is redone, it should be redone and that is also okay.
Just two key things about the story I hated (so much). The last movie of Cameron was Titanic. I liked that film, boy I also cried when I firts seen it. The love story was so intelligent and understandable, that the story of the sinking ship was just a background for it. In Avatar te love is just popped out from some Ejva thing into the mind of the girl…it wasnt established well … I couldnt understand why she fell for it. Just to regret it one minute later and find out he lied…this is not cliché…this is bad for a nearly three hour long movie.
Still the love problem is that I missed half hour from the film. 30 minutes at least about capturing the big red, two seated sport dino. I believe if only 5 navi warrior accomplished sucht a thing it should be more…difficult. But no, the screen goeas black and we se the flying Ferrari dino landing and everybody forgive him for everything, even the girl is in love again. You know what its like? Like the newest monte cristo movie’s ending…when the women still loves him, they buy the prison of If and make it a tourist paradise…oh and also the boy is his son…awful.
And now for the second problem, the action. No, not is technically. I said already its about no damage childern. Now about tactics…at the ending the plan of the human army is to bomb that place. Fair enough. But tell me army experts, why sending the infantry there? We want to blow up the place! Oh, I see. They have to be there to scene a ground fight also…you know, fight in air and land…luckily there wasnt a pond there to dive in. And it alsó remind me of the Kagemusha-Last samurai ending scene with cavalry against rifles…which remind me how meaningful was there…and how stupid the reasoning here.
Still about tactics…the hero hate his allies. The fight starts, and the navi warriors are slaughtered…I was waiting for some trick or something, a card of ace you know. But no, the blue team defeated, just before the plane arrives…and it also goes down in a minute…two main character died instantly…but that’s okay with the hero, he acknowledge this and then…only then…when everybody died…for him…because of him…pulls out the grenade and defeat the big bomber single handedly, alone. Couldn’t it be done earlier? I dont know, around when the others were alive? Oh, and this trick didnt work with the boss’s plane, no. Then he had to use the manually taken missile(?). Isnt this a good info, that the navi warriors could use…before the died?
Sorry if I got carried away…these things really bugs me.
I’m really having a hard time seeing what was bad about the story. If you look at any of the greatest movie stories of all time, they’ve been done before. Not only done before in movies, but hundreds and thousands of years before in literature. I enjoyed the story, even though it has been done, for what it was. For example, the story of Star Wars is ripped right out of Greek literature with some Biblical themes mixed in. It’s all about how the story is presented, and IMO, the story was presented well. As they say, there is nothing new, just old stuff redone and repackaged. If you over analyze it, I think you end up ruining a good and fun experience.
I give it a try to elaborate. I guess can’t tell the story was as childish as you can get, because everybody sais it wasn’t for that. Okay, than I wont complain about the story. I had problems with the 3D screening. I did’nt believe it at all. And not because the technic it used, it was interesting. The use of the camera and effects was bad…so bad actually I bored watching it. Just for the record, the same things were good with the 3D Beowulf movie back than. Nobody gave it a damn back in the day. In Avatar there is no scene where i can feel realitiy, no personal scenes from some interesting view. We just saw everything from a third person perspective. And I dont know why, because finally with this possibility we could see things from new angles (Final Fantasy movies used this idea quite well). But the worst thing was the no damage effect. I understand the PG13 strictment, but I wont accept it. Neither the navis, neither humans take real, visible damage. Boring plane crashes, exkplsions, a scar here and there but there is no real heavy damage in an full scale war for the life. It’s a shame. In Beowulf and the and you could feel the agony of the hero, you could SEE the sacrafice of the character. There is no such deep thing in Avatar. And this is just the technical side, about the story it would be worse.
Why all the hate for the goodness of Avatar? Anyone want to elaborate?
It wasnt good…
YA GOTTA!
No.