EPTAfter so many of my friends calling this ‘the best movie they’ve ever watched’ and ‘mindblowingly’ good, I felt I should spend the money needed to watch this one in the cinema. Normally, I would just download this off some torrent site, but then I wouldn’t get to experience the awesome special effects this movie has. The few bucks I imagined spending, quickly grew to way more than anticipated and when all expenses were covered, I realized I could’ve bought the DVD with money spent that night, for me and my sister to watch this movie: this James-Cameron-licensed-motion picture better deliver. Spoilers incoming by the way – but if you haven’t seen this movie, you won’t understand anything, ‘cause I’m not going through the plot like a slave.
![[image loading]](http://www.coronacomingattractions.com/sites/default/files/avatar_poster_final.jpg){kind=avatar}
'OMG SO GOOD' - 'ORLY'
The Effects
Yes, they’re good, amazingly good. My god is this movie a pleasure to look at. The colors, the Na’vi, the explosions – I cannot put my finger on anything that in any way felt wrong or misplaced. It’s clear where the vast amount of the ginormous $500 mio. went – the special effects, and since 90% of the movie takes place among the Na’vi people, this part of the movie had better rock my socks off. And it did.
The effects are not exactly revolutionary though: I remember seeing similar stuff at the London Science Museum some five years back, but the magnitude and detail has probably never been seen before. All in all indescribably beautiful.
![[image loading]](http://img.wallpaperstock.net:81/avatar-pandora-wallpapers_16284_1440x900.jpg){kind=avatar}
6/6
The Plot
This is where the movie really lacks depth: sure it might be pretty, but a movie isn’t really that good, unless there’s a kick-ass story to help digest the entire thing. And Avatar doesn’t have that story. In fact, Cameron apparently decided not to write a new script, when Disney had already done the entire thing for him: Avatar is hardly anything but Pocahontas painted with more expensive colors. This is really sad, considering how much money went into this thing. Still the story of Pocahontas’ is a classic and it’s not that bad watching it a second time, but it’s not original content. And it’s predictable. As hell. After the first 30 minutes you know how’s going to end, and the only thing I was wondering about in the end, was whether Jake would die near the end. (He didn’t)
Another complaint of mine is the duration: some movies warrant 150+ minutes, but in my humble opinion Avatar did not. Too much filler content and too much showing off with the special effects. In the hands of a good editor this movie would’ve been 30 minutes shorter and more of an intense experience: I was bored near the end, due to plot predictability and too much random bullshit.
With all that said, most of the time you are entertained and the plot is not entirely horrible. It’s just not good enough for a $500 mio. dollar movie
![[image loading]](http://iamhilarious.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/pocahontas-avatar-750x730.jpg){kind=avatar}
It’s that obvious – poor job, Cameron, poor job
2/6
The Characters
Oh god. Nothing brought my piss to a boil more than the empty human/Na’vi shells that we’re supposed to care for during this nearly 3 hour movie. I honestly didn’t care when so many of the bi-characters died near the end: I knew jack-shit about them, they were so horribly underdeveloped. Most Sci-Fi movies solve this by having an opening scene involving the main character/someone else important and said persons family, so when said person is in trouble we care about said person. In Avatar we know that Jack Sully has a dead brother… and that’s about it. Poor fucking job. Had 10 minutes of this movie been dedicated to some actual character development, this movie would’ve improved dramatically.
Actually, Jack Sully is not the worst example of bad character development. He’s empty, but he’s consistently empty. Norm Spellman, Jacks Avatar-controlling partner, is so inconsistent it made me want to scream. At first he likes Jack and welcomes him aboard the team. The next moment he’s envious of Jack because he gets to date the tribe leader’s daughter as an Avatar (which, by the way, includes a love scene this movie could’ve been without). A few scenes later they’re the best of friends. What the fuck happened to warrant this behavior? Did he have a change of heart? Did the duke it out in a cut-out scene? I don’t know, but I sure as hell had a hard time categorizing their relationship.
There is only one character I really felt somewhat for in the movie, and that’s Neytiri, the tribe leader’s daughter: she has a family, a home to protect and shows love and compassion towards Sully. She loses her father, her lover and part of Na’vimity (humanity as a Na’vi – clever huh?) in a few moments and it’s one of the best moments in the movie. Unfortunately just as you get involved emotionally Sully comes in with a shitty line, and you’re back marveling at the view, but loathing the characters.
![[image loading]](http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00063/ava_main_2910_63425a.jpg)
There: the characters, this picture says it all, ‘cause they are all empty’
1/6
The Cast
I don’t follow the acting scene much, but none of the actors really impressed me, and in fact I felt that some of them were miscast quite badly. Michelle Rodriguez does not deserve to be in a movie of this magnitude and I’m still wondering why she’s in it: she’s a bad actor, period. (also someone suggested to me that’s she’s in the movie to appeal to the male audience, but she’s not exactly hot. Megan Fox would’ve shut me right up, if that’s what you were going for) Sigourney Weaver was in Aliens and it’s hard not to compare her to her role as Ellen Ripley in an amazing movie, and for that reason I REALLY felt they should’ve found someone else. Giovanni Ribisi will always be Phoebes brother to me and can therefore NOT play the role as a corporate swine. I also felt he’s performance was overall pure, but that also stems mostly from a very poor overall scripted character: like Norm he’s so inconsistent.
Other actors did their part well: the voice actors for the Na’vi were overall very well chosen and really impressed me. Stephen Lang also did a good job with Miles Quaritch, but that guy is all muscle, no emotion, so how hard can it be. The rest of the cast did an OK job in my eyes, nothing extraordinary, but not painful to experience wither.
![[image loading]](http://images.b105.com.au/2009/12/14/318527/ENT-Movies-Avatar_1-600x400.jpg){kind=avatar}
A mixed bunch, acting wise
3/6
Conclusion
This movie is worth a view, alone for the amazing special effects and 3D animation and for that alone it will go down in history (and the obscene amount of money it has made). But that’s it. The plot is lackluster, the characters poorly executed and the cast… meh, OK, I guess. I really expected quite a bit more out of this movie, but I was entertained throughout 99 % of the movie and that’s quite seldom for me. I will NOT be buying the DVD that’s for certain, since the movie would just be a bad sci-fi movie without the 3D glasses and a 40 foot screen. Go see it, it’s the most expensive movie ever made and the effects are good, but don’t watch it a second time.
4/6
(a small four, but the special effects carry this movie)
Again, these are just my thoughts, and I mostly wanted to counter the people calling this ‘the movie of the decade’, since it’s really not that good. Compare to a house: from the outside it looks amazing and you are wondering how the hell it can look so good, but once you go inside you realize no real effort’s been made with regards to furniture and design. And the fundament is unstable, with some drain damage here and there.
