The year is 2154, and paraplegic Jake Skully has been offered a job replacing his recently deceased brother on the moon Pandora, a world inhabited by the Na'vi, a group of tall, blue-skinned creatures very similar to humans. A former Marine, Jake accepts the job, which requires him to become one with the natives, and to gain their trust. However, it isn't long before Jake feels caught between what he is ordered to do, and what he feels it is right to do, as Pandora starts to feel more and more like his home.
"I see you."
At 161 minutes, you know exactly what I was thinking before I sat down to watch Avatar: Why does it have to be so bloody long? It was its length that prevented me from seeing it with the rest of the world in the cinema, and why it took me so long to rent it. But, boy, am I glad I finally did. The best part about this film? For me? The fact that it didn't feel like almost three hours. The film was not too long. Its length was proportionate to its story. The movie needed those three hours so the story could be told so that we understood it. A shorter film would have resulted in a confused audience. Good call, Cameron.
The movie itself is thrilling from start to end. Pandora is visually spectacular. It is awesome; genuinely awe inspiring, and beautiful to look at. The story of Avatar wasn't boring, and didn't seem to leave anything out; I had no lingering questions when the film had finished. I also really enjoyed all of the acting, particularly from Sam Worthington and all of the actors that played Na'vi.
"If you are one of us, help us!"
The performances in Avatar are unique in that they were given by actors and translated into a type of animated CGI. This process is called motion capture, and it allows actors to actually give a live performance, which is later transformed into a digitally animated character, as opposed to only lending a voice to an animated character. This means that all of the actors that played Na'vi in the film actually acted out all of their parts. They did this by wearing special suits that were designed to capture all of the actors' movements. These movements, which included facial expressions, were later digitally translated into CGI.
All of the actors in Avatar had to go through intense training and preparation inorder to accurately portray their characters. Taking this, and what I stated above, into consideration, all of the actors in the film did an extraodinary job. Over the last couple of years, Sam Worthington, who plays Jake, has proven himself to be a fine actor (Fine in many ways...), and I doubt he'll be leaving the big screen any time soon. I've seen Zoe Saldana in many films over the years, but this was the first time I've ever really noticed her. She did an excellent job at playing Neytiri. Sigourney Weaver was very good in her role as Grace, and the rest of the cast also did a great job. No complaints.
"She said all energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back."
I've heard that there are planned sequels to Avatar, and I'm not sure how I feel about this. For the most part, I believe that a great film should not have a sequel, but then we wouldn't Have T2 (1991). I suppose I'll just have to wait and see on that front, though I would prefer Cameron to lend his time to new, different projects. His imagination fascinates me, and I'd like to see what else he could come up with.
I really, really like Avatar, but I like Titanic more. I believe that to be Cameron's finest work. 9/10
Trivia: The original script for Avatar was written in 1995 by James Cameron, 12 years before filming began on the picture. Avatar finally began filming in April, 2007, though it wasn't released until December, 2009.
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