Avatar

Avatar takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home.  We enter the alien world through the eyes of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine confined to a wheelchair.  But despite his broken body, Jake is still a warrior at heart.  He is recruited to travel light years to the human outpost on Pandora, where corporations are mining a rare mineral that is the key to solving Earth’s energy crisis.  Because the atmosphere of Pandora is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which human “drivers” have their consciousness linked to an Avatar, a remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air.  These Avatar’s are genetically engineered hybrids of human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives of Pandora… the Na’vi.

Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can walk again.  He is given a mission to infiltrate the Na’vi, who have become a major obstacle to mining the precious ore.  But a beautiful Na’vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake’s life, and this changes everything.  Jake is taken in by their clan and learns to become one of them.  As Jake’s relationship with his reluctant teacher Neytiri deepens, he learns to respect the Na’vi way and finally takes his place among them.  Soon he will face the ultimate test as he leads them in an epic battle that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.

Wow, what can I say about this film to do it justice?  Well to begin with I better say thanks to Sky Movies HD for giving us a ticket to the premiere, usually we have to skulk around in dark screening rooms when reviewing movies but this time we got to walk the blue carpet, mingle with the stars (well just stand next to them and stare) and watch James Cameron passionately introduce a film which has clearly been a labour of love for a long time now.  I did try and take some pics from the event for you but failed dismally (we review we don’t photograph), if you want to see some from the event you’re best off heading over to HERE.

Anyway, back to the film.  I have to say I was a bit skeptical, the last movie I saw which was hyped as much as this was Transformers 2 and what a disappointment that was.  I also thought that, like others, the trailer looks a bit too much like a trailer for a game rather than a film so I really didn’t expect to see anything like the event that was being promised.  Well I have to tell you I was wrong, within 5 minutes of putting on my 3D glasses those big blue goofy fellas stop looking like CGI characters and the whole world comes to life.  Not only are the effects amazing, they become unnoticeable and stop looking like “good CGI” and rather you start to accept them for being real.  I’m not sure if this is thanks to the 3D or if its just because Cameron has crafted a superb story too with believable characters.

Before the movie began he was talking about an emotionality to the story which to be honest I thought was bullshit.  I thought we were just going to see something that was all style and no substance like most CGI heavy films, but he was right and you really start to care for the characters and feel their pain when things start to go wrong.

The use of 3D is really interesting.  Usually in 3D movies you have the characters pointing out of the screen a lot and waving things in the viewers face to show them it’s in 3D but in Avatar I can’t remember one bit where I felt I had to duck because something was flying out at me.  Rather than make the film all pointy, Cameron has just simply used 3D to immerse the audience in the world of Pandora and for me it really worked.  It would be interesting to go back and see this again now in 2D to see if it works just as well, I think it wont but it still will be a movie with a great plot which is what every movie needs at it heart.

I was truly blown away by this film and can’t recommend it enough, lets hope we don’t have to wait another 11 years before James Cameron makes another movie.  And once again a big thanks to SKY Movies HD for allowing me to attend a truly entertaining event.