Visually Stunning. But Dull Story. Review on Avatar Movie

If you haven’t watched this movie yet, you have really missed something ! James Cameron, the Director who delivered ’one of a kind’ movies like Terminator 2, Abyss and Titanic has done it again with his latest movie "Avatar". "Avatar’" was created twelve years ago by Cameron, but was ahead of its time. Cameron had to shelve the project and wait for technology to catch up to the script he had written. In 2005 Cameron thought he was close enough to push the technology to tell the story he always wanted to tell and went back to work. It cost of course a lot of money, but the result is just fascinating, mesmerizing. Money well spent.Made at a budget of around 1.5 billion US$ no doubt, this movie has evidently taken cinemas to another level altogether.

Plot:

Avatar is the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine, who replaces his brother on a secret mission to infiltrate the Na’ vi, the colony of beings that sit on the planet of Pandora, where there is a precious ore, that sells at a ridiculous amount. Technologically it’s possible (in the movie) to create an Avatar (an alien body which can ’carry’ a human soul) and send human soul inside it (now, this is something unbelievable) duplicating the original person ! Jake is asked to learn the ways of Na'vi and in the process of learning it, he falls in love with beautiful Neytiri ( the Na’vi Princess). When Jake learns the ways of the Na’ vi, his feelings and learnings will put him and the people he trusts in dangerous jeopardy. Suddenly after Jake mixes with the Na’vi and mates with the Neytiri , the humans who sent him unleash a sudden wave of attack upon the innocent Na’vians destroying their home - a HUGE tree. Then the obviously shocked Jake befriends the Princess and plans to save her people from second wave of attack. ( Just as in many movies) Jake (!) is the chosen hero of the Na’vi people’s deity. Now it’s here that the movie starts becoming pale and unpredictable. Had the special effects not been magical it would have been another average movie.

3D Effects: The special effects used in the movie actually makes justice to the amount of more than 2 billion USD it has grossed in Box Office. Weta Digital the SFX studio of ’Lord of the Rings’ and STAR WARS fame ’Industrial Light n Magic’ have both churned their best to bring a behemoth experience to our eyes ! I really can’t figure out how much the graphical engineers would have toiled to create a single scene in the movie ! Ever since Jake flies the chopper and lands on Pandora, everything looks so beautiful, yet ..... real ! The images in some scenes are truly razor sharp like never b4. The rendering of red color on the head of Princess’ mom’s hair is well rendered to show the quality of SFX ! The rest of the movie is so cool that you have to see it to believe it !!

Having discussed the PROs I feel AVATAR’s heavily bogged down by its CONs :

1) How can such an expected Cameron’s movie have such a thin plot(story) ? After a point in time the movie is so pale n predictable that it looks like an average SFX movie ! If SFX is neglected, the end was too light leaving no impact at all. This movie is no match to my favorites like LOTR, STAR WARS or Matrix.

2) What technology can transfer the soul of a human from one body to another body (whether it is alien or human body) ? Suppose your clone has been created from your DNA. Will it act as a empty body that can ’receive’ your soul ? No right? But in Avatar it happens lol. This is a wrong import of spirituality into a sci-fi movie that I cannot understand, believe or accept !

3) The movie looks cool in 3D, no doubt. But it was not perfect. When I wore the 3D glasses in theater, I felt the images at the edges of the screen were blurred. This was irritating as some scenes are sharp in the center of the screen and blurred at the edges. 3D technology is not perfected yet !!!

4) Pagan worship carries too much weight in the movie. Worshiping the tree goddess, believing in the chosen one are some stupid things as in many other movies. So junglee ..... Yaa hoo !! Some things were too unbelievable such as Neytiri's mom accepting to teach unreliable Jake their ways and Neytiri immediately accepting Jake again as soulmate after her dad is killed !

5) Just as in other Hollywood movies, I don't understand why foreigners are so crazy abt aliens ! They really die for movies like STAR WARS and Alien in which aliens look so ugly ! And......I truly missed John Williams who scored music in former Cameron movies viz. Titanic and T2. The music scored is only average in Avatar.

Despite the flaws it’s highly recommended movie to watch ! If you have missed it, make sure you own it some day in future on Blu-Ray and watch it on a 3-D HDTV.

Scenes in the movie that stand out :

• Jake and team flying amidst the ’floating mountains of Pandora’ truly mind blowing !

  
  




• Jake, Neytiri and team flying fast their dragons across the waters of Pandora.

  
  




• Jake and Neytiri romancing in the quiet forests of Pandora.

  
  




• US Army bringing down the 'one BIG tree' tree with missiles.

  
  

Punchline : Watch out Avatar opens a new dimension in cinema viewing experience !