AVATAR REVIEW - The Movie Messenger

Hyped for most of the year, James Cameron’s Avatar has had very high expectations.  Created with a new stereoscopic camera technology that mimics what the human eye can see, Cameron hoped to push a story he’s worked on since 1995 to the forefront, but hesitated until the technology was ready for it.  Now that it’s finally here, does Avatar live up to the hype? 

The movie introduces Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine who was paralyzed from the waist down and resides in a wheelchair.  His brother was killed in battle, so Jake takes his brothers place in hopes to use his Avatar, a body of one of the natives on the planet Pandora, known as the Na’vi. The Avatar is mixed with human DNA – and Jake is linked to this hybrid when he sleeps, similar to The Matrix, or the more recent movie, Surrogates. 

Perfectly casted James Cameron alumni Sigourney Weaver, plays Dr. Grace Augustine, who is angry with Jake’s involvement in the Avatar program because of his lack of training and experience compared to his brother, and gives him trouble about it.  Jake is cocky, feeling that his time in the Marines is all the training he ever needed. 

On Pandora, an extravagant planet with luscious landscapes and glowing forests and trees, Jake in his new Avatar body leads Dr. Augustine through the deep, yet colorful forest of Pandora, only reaching trouble. 

What really speaks of trouble is Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who notices Jake’s strong attitude and convinces him to infiltrate the Na’vi’s home and somehow convince them to leave, since it contains a mineral known as unobtanium worth millions of dollars.  Jake takes the mission, yet fines himself in a tough spot when he grows to love the Na’vi, and a female native known as Naytiri. 

Cameron immerses you in the world of Pandora, making every detail, creature, and setting come to life.  By the time the movie is over, you don’t want to leave this place.  You’ve grown to love it as much as the Na’vi. The visuals have to be seen to believed. At one point in the movie I remember thinking… this is what people must have felt like back in the 70’s first seeing Star Wars. 

The performances are good enough to tell the story, but I’m not too sure what to say about the Avatar’s and Na’vi, and whether to call them performances or not.  They are animated extremely well, and I wasn’t sure if they were fully animated, or real performances that were animated upon.  Either way, the Na’vi and Avatars are extremely convincing and lifelike, and you can’t keep your eyes off of them.  

Running at an almost three hour running time, Avatar feels like a ninety minute movie.  It’s paced very well, and there’s never a dull moment because you find yourself very involved with the story, and mostly, the world of Pandora.  You become emotionally involved, and want Jake to win.  The movie makes a point that Jake wants to walk again, and in his new Avatar body, he can.  One of the themes I took from this movie is rebirth: looking at yourself at what you are now, knowing what you want to become, and then becoming the person you always wanted to be.  A hero, but more importantly someone who really belongs. 

There are other themes that may take you out of the story if you look into them.  The plot about unobtanium is strikingly similar of the U.S. invading the Middle East for oil, and the story resembles movies like Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and others – where a man is introduced to a new culture, and instead of fighting against it, learns to love it, and then joins sides with this culture and fights against his home team.  To me, this was an afterthought, but along with some poor dialogue at spots (especially during a typical Hollywood pre- final battle speech), were my only gripes with Avatar.  I still found it overwhelmingly entertaining and involving. 

You’ll be a fool to miss this one in theaters.  It’s probably the biggest, and most well done spectacle at the movies this decade, and one of the most memorable movies of 2009, easily.

by Anthony J. Gomez, The Movie Messenger