Avatar (2009)

Avatar
Rating: 5/5

Writer/Director James Cameron with Sam Worthington

This movie has been long anticipated by me for some time and I've been quite skeptical from the moment I first saw screenshots and the first trailers. I kept saying to myself, this movie is going to be good it's by James Cameron. It most definitely did deliver though. If I could use one word to describe this movie though, I would say immersive.

Visually this movie is a work of art and a cinematic masterpiece. It baffles me that Cameron had thought this all up in his head. The planet Pandora feels quite real. If you see this movie, please see it in 3d. This was Cameron's intent and it definitely added the immersion into the land of Pandora. I've had a long standing stance against 3d but this movie is everything a 3d movie should be. Most movies that 3d is in, it feels like they just stick it in there for the sake of 3d and doesn't add to the experience but this just added to the immersion to Pandora. I'll just say this, I will be seeing this movie again in theaters just because of how much I loved it visually.

I really enjoyed the casting of this movie. Sam Worthington, a man who hasn't done any big name movies (or at least any big roles in the ones he has been in) does a fantastic job. For the record, Terminator Salvation was filmed after Avatar was, so I'll consider this his debut. Now this movie won't get nominations or awards for acting, it just works. I loved that Cameron cast Sigourney Weaver in this movie as well. As far as casting goes, I'd say I had one problem in that I kept thinking that Giovanni Ribisi's role would've been much better suited for an actor like Sam Rockwell.

As for the story itself, some will consider it to be trite but you know what, Cameron does it better than the others. I wasn't sure what to think of it, I had lots of thoughts of this being an anti-war movie at first and it is in some respects but it also says to defend yourself. If the Na'Vi wouldn't have attacked back, they would've been killed off. They were quite justified in their actions of fighting back to defend themselves. The third act of this is a fairly action packed much similar to some other movies to come out this year such as District 9. I had my feud with District 9 though because I felt like the action could've simply been cut out and that it really didn't add a whole lot to the story. The action in this movie is completely justified though. At this point that this big action part starts though, you are close to two hours into this movie. By this point in the film, you develope a sense of caring for these characters and understand why each one of them is doing the things they're doing. In District 9, the Colonel who's going after Wikus, what is he fueled by? It's never really thoroughly explained why he wants to kill Wikus so bad besides that it's his job. Parker on the other hand, this is a man fueled by power and money and when you watch Avatar, you understand why he is doing the things that he's doing. The primary antagonists in both of these movies are somewhat similar as they are both mercenaries but Avatar shines as it adds more depth to it's antagonists.