How many men will you find in this world who can do thinking on unimaginable lines and then dedicate a massive 230 million $ budget to create a movie out of that.James Cameron after his last creation ‘Titanic’ has done exactly that. He has written, directed and produced this visual masterpiece.
Avatar deserves a 3.75/5
Plot –
Avatar’s plot will sound similar to some especially to those ones who have seen movies like Dancing with Wolves. In Avatar, humans land onto a planetary body namely Pandora, whose natives are known as Na’vis.
Na’vis form a breed that looks like genetically created tall-slim-wild chameleons that have blue bodies with sliver sparkles on them. Their ears are inspired from wild rats and face cuts from cats. They have their own language. They are natural acrobats and hunt wild animals using bow-arrow in the majestic dense forests of Africa (oops Pandora). Some of you like me may draw an analogy of some wild tribe in Africa with Na’vis of Pandora (and you won’t be totally wrong). Pandora, the habitat of Na’vis is a green heaven and looks like a dense tropical forest with giant animals thrown in. More description about Pandora may dilute its visual beauty, thus I will halt here.
Story starts with humans landing on Pandora with the intention of mining unobtanium and taking it away. Humans adopt two strategies for this purpose. Two strategies are very familiar to us – first is to send a messenger and second is to fight & destroy (even Ramayana followed these two strategies but in that epic, the intentions were totally opposite). Messengers (including our hero – Jake) are transported into the bodies of Avatar (genetically created Na’vi body-suits).
The plan is to infiltrate into Na’vi clan and then negotiate terms for peace with humans. Our hero Jake proves himself as a Na’vi warrior through his female Na’vi acquaintance (Zoe Saldana - our heroine). However, after successfully becoming a part of the Na’vi clan, he gets to know the hard reality. The huge-home tree of Na’vis (which looked like a banyan tree with branches wrapped spirally onto its stem) was standing on the vast resource of the metal which humans wanted. After knowing that the messenger idea is of no use, humans go for the second option of destroying. Rest of the story is predictable of how they themselves got destroyed!!
Castings in science movies do not have a pivotal role. Our human hero Jake (played by Sam Worthington) is a paralyzed ex-Marine and our Na’vi heroine Ney’tiri is played by Zoe Saldana. Both have given satisfactory performances. The ‘main’ villain of the movie, as you may call him is the military head of humans, Col. Miles Quaritch (played by bodybuilder Stephan Lang). His performance should have been more powerful. Rather than showing aggression through pumping iron on a benchpress, he should have been fiercer in his acts. He looks powerful but not overly dangerous (even though his military-fashion-growling is continuous). You may find a bit amusing to accept it but some military acts reminded me of recently released G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.
Visuals are top-class. You will not get better visual movies than this. It can be easily compared to LOTR (Lord of the Rings – pioneer movie when you talk about ‘graphics’). The effort gone into R&D of Na’vi people and to create the universe of Pandora is huge. One can understand 12 years of its making. However, Avatar could have been better. One major point of difference which could be found when compared to LOTR3 is the climax. In LOTR 3, climax had surprises, twists and the victory seemed liked a victory. In Avatar, climax does not stand upto that level though it had the potential. In concise, as this review's title says, Avatar is A.v.a.t.a.r (A Visually And Technically Appealing Reprise).
Some movies are meant for heart (A Beautiful Mind), some movies are meant for mind (Shawshank Redemption), some movies are meant for smiles (Home Alone series) and some movies are meant for eyes (LOTR series). Avatar falls in the last bracket and caters to its audience justifiably.
Imagine the time when a part of world will be devoid of a particular resource. Thanks to visuals like these portrayed in Avatar, atleast our eyes will have the luxury to see them. One does get these types of impressions in back of their mind especially when current world scenarios are experiencing a divide (referring to 2009 Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen)
Lastly, can’t say about Avatar’s Oscar score but definitely, James Cameron will earn great respect as a visionary in the field of cinema. I end with the lines I started with. It takes a lot of courage to think of absurd ideas and then implement them without supports from over-priced superstars. Acknowledge it.
“Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream”
ps: when I started writing this review, IMDB gave a 8.4/10 and it was ranked 165; now it has a 8.9/10 and a rank of 51.
Plot –
Avatar’s plot will sound similar to some especially to those ones who have seen movies like Dancing with Wolves. In Avatar, humans land onto a planetary body namely Pandora, whose natives are known as Na’vis.
Na’vis form a breed that looks like genetically created tall-slim-wild chameleons that have blue bodies with sliver sparkles on them. Their ears are inspired from wild rats and face cuts from cats. They have their own language. They are natural acrobats and hunt wild animals using bow-arrow in the majestic dense forests of Africa (oops Pandora). Some of you like me may draw an analogy of some wild tribe in Africa with Na’vis of Pandora (and you won’t be totally wrong). Pandora, the habitat of Na’vis is a green heaven and looks like a dense tropical forest with giant animals thrown in. More description about Pandora may dilute its visual beauty, thus I will halt here.Story starts with humans landing on Pandora with the intention of mining unobtanium and taking it away. Humans adopt two strategies for this purpose. Two strategies are very familiar to us – first is to send a messenger and second is to fight & destroy (even Ramayana followed these two strategies but in that epic, the intentions were totally opposite). Messengers (including our hero – Jake) are transported into the bodies of Avatar (genetically created Na’vi body-suits).
The plan is to infiltrate into Na’vi clan and then negotiate terms for peace with humans. Our hero Jake proves himself as a Na’vi warrior through his female Na’vi acquaintance (Zoe Saldana - our heroine). However, after successfully becoming a part of the Na’vi clan, he gets to know the hard reality. The huge-home tree of Na’vis (which looked like a banyan tree with branches wrapped spirally onto its stem) was standing on the vast resource of the metal which humans wanted. After knowing that the messenger idea is of no use, humans go for the second option of destroying. Rest of the story is predictable of how they themselves got destroyed!!Castings in science movies do not have a pivotal role. Our human hero Jake (played by Sam Worthington) is a paralyzed ex-Marine and our Na’vi heroine Ney’tiri is played by Zoe Saldana. Both have given satisfactory performances. The ‘main’ villain of the movie, as you may call him is the military head of humans, Col. Miles Quaritch (played by bodybuilder Stephan Lang). His performance should have been more powerful. Rather than showing aggression through pumping iron on a benchpress, he should have been fiercer in his acts. He looks powerful but not overly dangerous (even though his military-fashion-growling is continuous). You may find a bit amusing to accept it but some military acts reminded me of recently released G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.
Visuals are top-class. You will not get better visual movies than this. It can be easily compared to LOTR (Lord of the Rings – pioneer movie when you talk about ‘graphics’). The effort gone into R&D of Na’vi people and to create the universe of Pandora is huge. One can understand 12 years of its making. However, Avatar could have been better. One major point of difference which could be found when compared to LOTR3 is the climax. In LOTR 3, climax had surprises, twists and the victory seemed liked a victory. In Avatar, climax does not stand upto that level though it had the potential. In concise, as this review's title says, Avatar is A.v.a.t.a.r (A Visually And Technically Appealing Reprise).
Some movies are meant for heart (A Beautiful Mind), some movies are meant for mind (Shawshank Redemption), some movies are meant for smiles (Home Alone series) and some movies are meant for eyes (LOTR series). Avatar falls in the last bracket and caters to its audience justifiably.
Imagine the time when a part of world will be devoid of a particular resource. Thanks to visuals like these portrayed in Avatar, atleast our eyes will have the luxury to see them. One does get these types of impressions in back of their mind especially when current world scenarios are experiencing a divide (referring to 2009 Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen)
Lastly, can’t say about Avatar’s Oscar score but definitely, James Cameron will earn great respect as a visionary in the field of cinema. I end with the lines I started with. It takes a lot of courage to think of absurd ideas and then implement them without supports from over-priced superstars. Acknowledge it.
“Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream”
ps: when I started writing this review, IMDB gave a 8.4/10 and it was ranked 165; now it has a 8.9/10 and a rank of 51.
