Avatar - James Cameron
Just to start off I did watch Avatar a few weeks ago and I’ve just come around to reviewing it so it’s gonna sound a little off in places. But overall, it’s outstanding. A film that will revolutionise cinema. And recently, entertainment, with news that TV’s made in 2010 will all be 3-D possible. An achievement along the lines of the first film with sound, colour and widescreen. It’s up there with HD viewing. All thanks to James Cameron and his dream. Many years it took to make Avatar, inventing new types of filmmaking equipment to produce a quality piece of cinema. And many years to come before a big film like Avatar will be made.
The story is complex and for that Cameron gives the audience the courtesy of knowing this. He doesn’t hold back, he doesn’t dumb down. It’s something unseen recently with big action films, even science fiction action like this. The story takes place in the future where valuable sources are running thin and a company, the one owned by Parker Selfridge, the corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation (played by Giovanni Ribisi), has led an army and scientists to Pandora, a huge planet with the habitable creatures named the Na’vi. The homeland of these creatures contains invaluable material which the company want and need but the Na’vi will not give up. Throughout the years, scientists have tried to integrate with these creatures but have failed until they produce an avatar. A body which a human can control that’s in the form of a Na’vi. Sam Worthington plays one of these avatars’, Jake Sully, a former marine, who after the loss of his legs and brother, takes over the duties of being the controller of a Na’vi and begins to integrate with the creatures to help them move away from the invaluable materials and not cause any harm. After Sam falls in love with one of the Na’vi, he begins to understand their way of life, whilst Miles Quaritch, a security contractor who heads the mining operation's security detail, wants to blow the whole place up just to grab what is his, his fat pay-check. After some lovely action sequences with wild creatures, and Sam learning to become “one” of the them, shit hits the fan when the army general bombs the city centre of the Na’vi, killing thousands. Sam must then decide if he is a part of the Na’vi or on the army’s side. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s pretty obvious what happens.
One gripe I have with it, which I can’t give it it’s 9, is its lead actor Sam Worthington. A great actor perhaps, but seeing him in both Terminator Salvation and Avatar, I don’t think he is ready to lead a film. In the scale of actors who can front a film, he is closely behind Chris Pine, someone on the cusp of stardom, a little push, more range involved, he can be the next Christian Bale or Jake Gyllenhaal. The film does have an emotional pull which does draw you in, certain scenes near the end with deaths of main characters, it shocks and it pulls at the heart strings. This film changed cinema, and I think that’s great, but on the scale of science fiction films, looking at this and District 9, for the amount of money spent on District 9 compared to Avatar, I still believe that District 9 is a better film. More enjoyable. But the 3-D aspect of Avatar is worthwhile, I would defiantly check it out for something you’ve never seen before and the way the detail in every shot astounds the experience, you can almost hear the gasp of the shots of Pandora.
8.5/10
If you like this, you'll love this: District 9, Titantic, Alien, Star Wars, The Dark Knight, Star Trek
Simon Childs
No comments:
Post a Comment