Sunday, January 3, 2010

'Avatar' Review


Zoe Saldana & Sam Worthington as aliens. Watch trailer #2 for a plot summary: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/avatar/26982/main
Movie fans have been wondering what James Cameron has been doing since 1997's Titanic. That blockbuster is the biggest grossing film of all time. So how does a director top that achievement? Audiences and reviewers will be harsh on any subsequent film he makes... especially if it's a smaller one.... waiting for him to fail... "Oh it's not as good as his others, etc." Cameron knew that and has been quietly working for years on a new film. Publicity has been slowly released about him experimenting on new technology... perfecting 3-D.... something about a sci-fi plot...
>>Well the wait is over and now we have Avatar, a blockbuster that outshines Titanic in every way. Everything you read or heard about it is true. $230 million + was spent creating it and all that money is up there on the screen in full splendor. The box office receipts have already passed that amount since its recent release as word of mouth and glowing reviews keep mounting. The detailed work is eye-popping in 3-D and is used judiciously, not effect for effect's sake. Years ago I've seen 3-D films at the Sony Imax Theater in NYC but they played under an hour and we had to wear these heavy electronic goggles. Avatar uses lightweight glasses which are a relief since the film unwinds over two and a half hours and never drags. Perhaps an intermission would be good for a toilet break and to give our eyes a rest but perhaps Cameron didn't want viewers to lose the story's's momentum. Mercifully the 3-D effects are spaced apart enough for dramatic impact and never overwhelm you to the point of acquiring a headache,
>>The plot will remind you of films like Dances With Wolves and The Emerald Forest where an outsider joins a foreign culture and becomes one of their people... risking his life to defend them against his greedy, ignorant superiors. This time we go one hundred and fifty years into the future to the moon Pandora. Good performances by a newcomer Sam Worthington as a soldier and Sigourney Weaver as a sympathetic scientist (a veteran of Cameron's Aliens; some of the work here will remind you of that film) as the good guys who fight against a buff, gruff Stephen Lang as the gung ho military commander bent on destroying Pandora's ecological/mystical balance in pursuit of a rare mineral wanted by his corporate employers.
>>Expect seeing a world populated by strange creatures and wildlife. Some of the scenes are breathtaking in 3-D as they lead up to the spectacular battle at the film's end. If you never saw a 3-D film, this is the one to see. It doesn't matter if you don't like sci-fi as the story will win you over. Don't be surprised if Avatar outgrosses Titanic. This crowd pleaser is the movie event of the year. You dare not miss it. As enticing as the previews are, it's not the same experience seeing it the way it must be seen on the big screen. Avoid a non 3-D showing.
>>It's been reported that Cameron might make a sequel, possibly two. We know that he's good at making them - Terminator 2 and Aliens although Ridley Scott directed the original Alien. There's been talk for years about a sequel to his True Lies but we better not hold our breath waiting for the one about a ship hitting an iceberg... J/K

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