[rating:5]
Avatar takes place in the future, on a planet several light years away called Pandora. A multi-billion dollar company is excavating rare materials from the planet to take back to Earth to process and return a rather ludicrous profit. The natives are resisting, and with just cause. A paralyzed marine (Sam Worthington) is sent to the planet to resume control of his recently deceased brother’s avatar. These avatar’s are modeled after the local natives, the mission for these scientists and marines is to study and negotiate with the natives to the benefit of the corporation. As with all plans of mice and men, something goes awry. The details of that I will leave for you to discover on your own.
I saw this movie in 3D; I haven’t seen a movie in 3D since Captain Eo at Epcot Center and to be honest, I wasn’t really on the 3D bandwagon when we were preparing to see this movie. I was hoping to catch a regular digital 2D version of the film. Apparently the 3D was the most popular medium for viewing the film because all of the theaters in the area had already removed the 2D version, much to my chagrin.
I really enjoyed this movie. I think it certainly lives up to all the hype and expectations. A lot of people were saying that the movie has kind of a hippie anti-big business undertone but I disagree. I think its there if you are looking for it, but if you just watch the movie for its intended entertainment purposes I don’t think you are going to walk out hating big business because of some subliminal subtext. The digital artwork is phenomenal and the storyline keeps you intrigued for the entire 2 hour 42 minute runtime.
Regarding the 3D aspect of it, I would agree that watching this movie in 3D was a unique experience, however, 3D is just a gimmick. It’s an excuse for the theaters to charge you an extra $2-3 per ticket. Honestly, when this movie comes out on Blu-ray, watching it on an HDTV via HDMI is going to be more spectacular then watching it in 3D.
(P.S. Avatar is coming out on Blu-ray April 22nd).
Locutus-
I liked the cinematography and awesome CG stuff, but I felt the story line was overly stereotypical of futuristic alien culture infiltration movies. All for all it was a good story, i just felt like I had seen it before with different cast and director.