TrueEnglishGent (Level 10)

AVATAR IS NO CLASSIC, BUT DOES SET A NEW VISUAL HIGH POINT IN FILMS.

James Cameron is one of a few directors whose work is ever met with hype and anticipation, his legacy of film making as been the subject of passionate discussion for years and his latest work as reached new levels of excitement for movie goers. Avatar is the tale of Pandora, a distant moon rich in an highly sort after resource known as  unobtanium. This lush and breathtaking moon is the home of the Na'Vi, a giant blue-skinned humanoid species who protect and worship the dense forest that covers much of the moons surface. Trouble is those pesky humans have landed and want to secure a huge hotspot of the stuff that is located under a giant tree that is both the home and place of worship for the Na'Vi people. You can see where this is going. To attempt to peacefully move the Na'Vi people away from the tree and inevitable destruction, the humans send in Jake Sully who quickly realises a shocking if predictable truth. 
 
The story of Avatar might not be original or that refreshing, and while it's clearly inspired by the tough tribulations and heartache suffered by the Native American people back in the 16 and 17 hundreds, it still somehow developers to be something better then the sum of it's parts. This is mostly thanks to the Na'Vi people themselves, whose traditions and traits are as thrilling to watch as the movies many intense action sequences. On the other hand, the human race comes across as generic as you might expect with by far the films worse dialogue. Performances on the whole aren't bad, with both Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri worthy of great praise as I found myself believing the interesting mixed relationship between both. That said, I would argue that Avatar is one of Sigourney Weaver's worst performances yet.  
 
On the human side of things, there's a simply wonderful display of villainous by Stephan Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch who might just be one of the most memorable bad guys I've watched in a movie these past few years, and Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge was a small but still memorable character. Sadly Michelle Rodriguez puts in a typical Michelle Rodriguez display, she certainly is eye-candy but her acting range still seems limited. So maybe the acting displays don't want the visual splendour, but it's more then enough to keep the story trucking along and despite the film taking a good twenty odd minutes to finally get interesting, Avatar is far from generic.  
 
It seems much of the hype and expectation for Avatar came from Cameron's unique and somewhat risky take on 3D, now this being the blu-ray release I obviously can't tell you how well the 3D effects hold up and I was unable to see the film at cinemas. One thing I can comment on is it's overall visual wonderment, for Avatar is without a doubt an high point for visual display in the film industry. Beautiful dense forest are mixed with the many odd and wonderful creatures that live on the moon of Pandora, great use of saturated colours make many of Avatars key breathtaking scenes well, breathtaking. It would be true to say that the film doesn't really kick off until the viewer gets their first sight of Pandora's true beauty and other elemental oddities. There's some great camera work throughout the film to and the action sequences have the tension and detail that made Cameron famous.  
 
So the blu-ray release is a visual delight for all, it begs to be watched on a large HDTV with a box of popcorn at your side. The lack of extra features is disappointing and for many unforgivable considering the unique take on film making Cameron as undertaken in Avatar, I'm sure when we finally see that new edition of the film in the coming year or so, it will be something rather special. Stunning is the only word I can describe the visual quality of the film on blu-ray, it's almost as if blu-ray was made for this film and the audio matches the on-screen quality perfectly. So yes, the lack of features is frustrating but there's every chance that we would have had to wait another four to six months until all that extra content had been created before we saw a retail release of the film.  
 
Avatar is not James Cameron's best work, it often feels as if the visual fireworks throughout were put in place to cover up dodgy and sometimes awful dialogue. The tale and characters are interesting enough to carry the story, in particular Sam Worthington who plays his role with a great finesse matched only by Zoe Saldana. The film features many breathtaking moments that define just how far computer graphics in movies have come, and it's easily the finest display of the technology to date, it's just sad that it's dragged down by the occasional lacklustre performance. Whatever opinions you have on Avatar and the hype surrounding the film, it's definitely worth some of your precious time, if for just the world Mr Cameron as created rather then the somewhat predictable story telling.  
 

SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5.

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