MyRating: YYYYDirector: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking
I almost never watch the same movie twice in the cinema. This is the one that I did. First in 2D, but when I knew that Avatar was about to break the record of Titanic to be the number one top grossing movie of all time, I decided to watch it again in 3D, just not to lose the experience of witnessing the biggest movie of all time in the big screen with its maximum format, 3D.
The story is about Jake Sully (Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine who decides to join a mission to a planet named Pandora, as a replacement for his brother who is accidentally being killed. The task is to study about the planet and its native inhabitants, the Na'vi people, as Jake and his teammates take the form as Avatar, a created Na'vi body controlled by a human mind inside, to explore the planet. Jake is soon captivated by his new mission, not only because of the beautiful and exotic world of Pandora, but also because he can feel himself wholly again, as he can walk and run as an Avatar. When he meets and falls in love with Neytiri (Saldana), a daughter of a Na'vi chief clan, Jake gets the whole access to everything he needs to know about their world, their way of life, their culture, their beasts and their gods. But the situation changes when Jake finds out that the real reason of their mission to Pandora is to colonize the rich land of the planet, in order to dominate the precious materials preserved below the land. That also means to drive away the Na'vi people from their own land. And if the time is up and they are not willing to move, the human will use their full force to expel them. So, Jake finds himself in the middle of a big dilemma, whether to follow the order of his commander, or to fight for the Na'vi people and Pandora, that he has been fallen in love.
Frankly speaking, I am not really mad about the story plot the first time I watched it. The way the story is being told is somewhat felt a bit old-fashioned, with some slow moments in the middle of the film. But when I watched it again the second time, I started to really appreciate this movie. The wild imagination and the visionary idea of a James Cameron to make a revolutionize 3D movie, and all the hard works for years behind the production to translate it into a beautiful film, makes us cannot not to give a bow of appreciation to Mr. Cameron.
This is a masterpiece work. The graphic is so good, so detail and so believable. When we see the Na'vi people, they look as real as the real human in this movie, like there is no line between the CGI and the real persons. It's like they are real people that live somewhere out there, in another planet. The world of Pandora is also so mesmerizing and the cinematography is absolutely beautiful (especially if you watch it in 3D), like you are entering another world that you've never seen before. To sum in one line, the CGI of this movie is so smooth that you will be having difficulty to differentiate which one is real and which one is not. And finally, the last almost half an hour battle scene is a stunning epic and a heart-pumping action, brilliantly crafted to satisfy our long waiting after the extravagant shinking ship of the Titanic. (MJ)
