• Year: 2009
• Review Type: Box Office
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• Rated: PG-13
• Director: James Cameron
• Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Genres

• All
• Action
• Comedy
• Animated
• Drama
• Sci-Fi
• Horror
• Western
• Romantic Comedy
• Action, Film Noir
• Action, Animation, Sci-Fi
• Adventure Fantasy
• Mind Thriller

Avatar

Reviewer: Josh

Avatar is the latest epic from James Cameron. This movie is a massive film with a wide scope, but does it fall short because of that? I'd say that it does buckle under its own weight by the end of the movie. We're given a picture of mankind looking to outer space for it's natural resources. Earth has been killed by the actions of man, and so they have gone to Pandora to extract a powerful mineral which is very lucrative. The only problem is that the Na'vi live on Pandora, and they just happen to have a settlement on the largest deposit of the mineral that the humans want.

Sam Worthington does a good job playing a paraplegic Marine, Jake Sully, who has come to Pandora to pilot an "Avatar". The "Avatar" is a genetic creation with DNA mixed from both the humans and the Na'vi allowing the humans to pilot the Avatar with their nervous system. As the story goes Sully gets separated from his group while piloting his "Avatar" and eventually he find's his way into the Na'vi city. This is when something starts to nag at me when I realize that I've seen a very similar plot before. Only instead of taking place in space it took place on the Great Plains, and instead of aliens it had Native Americans.

Pushing aside a familiar plot you're left with an astounding show of special effects. This movie is what CG should be. One of the more impressive displays of these effects are the scenes of Pandora at night. I won't spoil it by trying to describe it, but this movie is beautiful visually.

The other strong part of the movie is the villain played by Stephen Lang. He brings to the table everything that a hard line, career military man can be. Lang's character is single minded in his determination to relocate, or more specifically remove, the Na'vi from their home. He is evil, but evil in a way that is born from a mind determined to complete his mission by any means necessary.

In the end Avatar is not going to rewrite the history of film. Visually it has set the bar very high, but as far as the story itself there is not much progress made. This is one of the weaknesses of most, if not all of James Cameron's films. Yes, they have great special effects, but most of them have a story that has some holes. If you don't mind movies that are almost three hours long then give it a shot. It will absolutely be better to see it in theaters for the visuals than to wait for the DVD release.