"Avatar is a stylish, visually stunning grand film, with some plot problems"
After a big hiatus of 13 years, James Cameron is back with a bang. His newest affair is with some blue aliens, fighting for their environment with human race in the year 2154. As expected, the film is visually stunning, with visual effects so amazing that Hollywood has never seen before. 3D is just like toppings in a delicious cake!
"I dreamed I was a soldier who could bring peace. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up" says Jake Sully [Sam Worthington] who was a ex-Marine in US Army, alas he always 'dreamed' as his legs were paralyzed. But he gets one of a lifetime chance for playing huge role in fictional American organization RDA's mission - mission Avatar. Human race [or more precisely RDA] is up for a valuable mineral called 'unobtanium' found in Pandora, an earth-like star of Alpha Centuri. Jake's identical twin brother was scientist, who took part in this mission, but after his death, RDA gave opportunity to Jake. Now Jake was all set to take part in 'Avatar' program, to exploit Pandora's valuable resources and 'unobtainium'. He has to gain trust of Na'vis, an indigenous population of Pandora, since huge deposit of unobtainium lies underneath the land of Na'vis. Cameron's writing starts to get very cliched and expected, as Jake [in his Avatar] falls in love with Na'vi girl Neytiri [Zoe Saldana] and starts rebelling with RDA.
Near the middle of the film, the writing starts to get pretty weak. In terms of story, the film has a striking resemblance to 1990 Academy Award winning film 'Dances with the Wolves'. Futhermore, Avatar is full of several plot holes, a big plot hole being Aliens speaking their own language as well as English, Jake flying on a huge flying beast near the end of the film without any problem at all, Jake transforming permanently into his Avatar, leaving his human body without any second thought and so on.
But still, this 162 minute alien film feels like a life-time experience. James Cameron's cliched writing is overshadowed by his visionary direction. Blue aliens in the film never look like CGI driven character.
Cameron also gave public a lesson on saving the environment, loving the trees, treating all the animals like humans and so on. The message is conveyed pretty well through this film, in a very effective way. Cameron did a commendable job here.
Zoe Saldana's performance as Neytiri and Sigourney Weaver's performance as Grace Augustine stole the show. Zoe is a delight to watch. Her expressions for Neytiri and her indigenous accent was all lovely. Weaver also did a great job in portraying Grace Augustine, a fellow scientist with Jake. Sam Worthington did over-acted at times, but still it was impressive performance by him.
Stephen Lang's performance for Colonel Miles was cheesy and stereo-typed. Rest of the cast did well.
Visual effects are something which are definitely to be praised and studied for a long time. After 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, this is the best use of motion capture technology in recent time. Compositing, chroma-keys are done exceptionally by the visual effects team of Avatar. Also, 3D is what which makes the film ahead of the curve. People have seen several 3D films, which are just 3D films and nothing else, but Avatar is first 3D film which is a complete, wholesome entertaining film in its own.
Cinematography is pretty good as well. Mauro Fiore's presentation of green at day and blue at night planet is breath-taking. Production Designer Rick Carter's sets complement Avatar's top notch visual effects and cinematography. However, James Horner's music was slightly disappointing at this time. Horner's must was like a recycled version of his previous work. He didn't showed any originality at all.
So in the end, Avatar is a great film. It is filmed stylishly, has jaw dropping visual effects and has a cliched, slightly weak storyline, giving a humble message in the end. Highly recommended.
3.5 out of 5.
"I dreamed I was a soldier who could bring peace. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up" says Jake Sully [Sam Worthington] who was a ex-Marine in US Army, alas he always 'dreamed' as his legs were paralyzed. But he gets one of a lifetime chance for playing huge role in fictional American organization RDA's mission - mission Avatar. Human race [or more precisely RDA] is up for a valuable mineral called 'unobtanium' found in Pandora, an earth-like star of Alpha Centuri. Jake's identical twin brother was scientist, who took part in this mission, but after his death, RDA gave opportunity to Jake. Now Jake was all set to take part in 'Avatar' program, to exploit Pandora's valuable resources and 'unobtainium'. He has to gain trust of Na'vis, an indigenous population of Pandora, since huge deposit of unobtainium lies underneath the land of Na'vis. Cameron's writing starts to get very cliched and expected, as Jake [in his Avatar] falls in love with Na'vi girl Neytiri [Zoe Saldana] and starts rebelling with RDA.
Near the middle of the film, the writing starts to get pretty weak. In terms of story, the film has a striking resemblance to 1990 Academy Award winning film 'Dances with the Wolves'. Futhermore, Avatar is full of several plot holes, a big plot hole being Aliens speaking their own language as well as English, Jake flying on a huge flying beast near the end of the film without any problem at all, Jake transforming permanently into his Avatar, leaving his human body without any second thought and so on.
But still, this 162 minute alien film feels like a life-time experience. James Cameron's cliched writing is overshadowed by his visionary direction. Blue aliens in the film never look like CGI driven character.
Cameron also gave public a lesson on saving the environment, loving the trees, treating all the animals like humans and so on. The message is conveyed pretty well through this film, in a very effective way. Cameron did a commendable job here.
Zoe Saldana's performance as Neytiri and Sigourney Weaver's performance as Grace Augustine stole the show. Zoe is a delight to watch. Her expressions for Neytiri and her indigenous accent was all lovely. Weaver also did a great job in portraying Grace Augustine, a fellow scientist with Jake. Sam Worthington did over-acted at times, but still it was impressive performance by him.
Stephen Lang's performance for Colonel Miles was cheesy and stereo-typed. Rest of the cast did well.
Visual effects are something which are definitely to be praised and studied for a long time. After 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, this is the best use of motion capture technology in recent time. Compositing, chroma-keys are done exceptionally by the visual effects team of Avatar. Also, 3D is what which makes the film ahead of the curve. People have seen several 3D films, which are just 3D films and nothing else, but Avatar is first 3D film which is a complete, wholesome entertaining film in its own.
Cinematography is pretty good as well. Mauro Fiore's presentation of green at day and blue at night planet is breath-taking. Production Designer Rick Carter's sets complement Avatar's top notch visual effects and cinematography. However, James Horner's music was slightly disappointing at this time. Horner's must was like a recycled version of his previous work. He didn't showed any originality at all.So in the end, Avatar is a great film. It is filmed stylishly, has jaw dropping visual effects and has a cliched, slightly weak storyline, giving a humble message in the end. Highly recommended.
3.5 out of 5.
