Avatar (M.R.)

I will start off by saying that all those jokes people make about James Cameron's Avatar being The Matrix and Pocahontas are all true. The film won in the art and acting departments. The plot could be seen as a win or a fail. Ignoring that ambiguity, there was a very depressing air around the movie.

Seeing the film in 3-D was really fun. I had a bit of challenge having those glasses on, but without them I would not have been able to make out basic shapes. But it just dress attention to the artistic genius, partially contributed by WETA Workshop, the people who worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Even though Pandora looked impressive, there are a few inconsistencies. Like the floating mountains...I doubt those could ever work in any form of actuality.

For Avatar, the art and film directors employed a tactic called "motion-capture," in which various dots are placed on a actor, he is filmed, and then on a computer can be animated. So mastering the movements of a made-up race and their language is quite impressive. Major props to Sam Worthington, who had to master an American accent and the Nav'i one.

There were a few things I liked about the plot and things I did not like. The synopsis is awesome, except it felt so rushed that it was hard keeping track of character names, like the main antagonist. The movie was long enough as is, and one cannot argue that the battle scenes were too long because those too seemed abbreviated. There probably should be an extended edition or director's cut to fill out the movie.

But Avatar, as mentioned earlier, felt a lot like Pocahontas. Except on a much larger scale, more violent and, as a result, more depressing. It follows what nations had done for centuries in the past. It is a bit of a harsh reality and it sort of hit really hard. The effect would have been greater if the plot was not rushed, though.

Overall, I thought it was great in spite of the few shortcomings. Though, that could be a result of me being a huge sci-fi, fantasy movie fan.

Rating: 9/10