How many men will you find in this world who can do thinking on unimaginable lines and then dedicate a massive 230 million$ budget to create a movie out of that.
James Cameron after his last creation ‘Titanic’ has done exactly that. He has written, directed and produced this visual masterpiece.
Avatar deserves a 3.75/5
Plot - Avatar’s plot will sound similar to some especially to those
ones who have seen movies like Dancing with Wolves. In Avatar, humans
land onto a planetary body namely Pandora, whose natives are known as
Na’vis. Na’vis form a breed that looks like genetically created
tall-slim-wild chameleons that have blue bodies with sliver sparkles on
them. Their ears are inspired from wild rats and face cuts from cats.
They have their own language. They are natural acrobats and hunt wild
animals using bow-arrow in the majestic dense forests of Africa(oops
Pandora). Some of you like me may draw an analogy of some wild tribe in
Africa with Na’vis of Pandora(and you won’t be totally wrong).
Pandora, the habitat of Na’vis is a green heaven and looks like a dense
tropical forest with giant animals thrown in. More description about
Pandora may dilute its visual beauty, thus I will halt here.
Story
starts with humans landing on Pandora with the intention of mining
unobtanium and taking it away. Humans adopt two strategies for this
purpose. Two strategies are very familiar to us – first is to send a
messenger and second is to fight & destroy(even Ramayana followed
these two strategies but in that epic, the intentions were totally
opposite). Messengers(including our hero – Jake) are transported into
the bodies of Avatar(genetically created Na’vi body-suits). The plan
is to infiltrate into Na’vi clan and then negotiate terms for peace
with humans. Our hero Jake proves himself as a Na’vi warrior through
his female Na’vi acquaintance(Zoe Saldana - our heroine). However,
after successfully becoming a part of the Na’vi clan, he gets to know
the hard reality. The huge-home tree of Na’vis(which looked like a
banyan tree with branches wrapped spirally onto its stem) was standing
on the vast resource of the metal which humans wanted. After knowing
that the messenger idea is of no use, humans go for the second option
of destroying. Rest of the story is predictable of how they themselves
got destroyed!
Castings in science movies do not have a pivotal role. Our human hero Jake(played by Sam Worthington) is a paralyzed ex-Marine and our Na’vi heroine Ney’tiri is played by Zoe Saldana.
Both have given satisfactory performances. The ‘main’ villain of the
movie, as you may call him is the military head of humans, Col. Miles
Quaritch(played by bodybuilder Stephan Lang).
His performance should have been more powerful. Rather than showing
aggression through pumping iron on a benchpress, he should have been
fiercer in his acts. He looks powerful but not overly dangerous(even
though his military-fashion-growling is continuous). You may find a bit
amusing to accept it but some military acts reminded me of recently
released G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.
Visuals
are top-class. You will not get better visual movies than this. It can
be easily compared to LOTR(Lord of the Rings – pioneer movie when you
talk about ‘graphics’). The effort gone into R&D of Na’vi people
and to create the universe of Pandora is huge. One can understand 12
years of its making. However, Avatar could have been better. One major
point of difference which could be found when compared to LOTR3 is the
climax. In LOTR 3, climax had surprises, twists and the victory seemed
liked a victory. In Avatar, climax does not stand upto that level
though it had the potential.In concise, as this review’s title says Avatar is A.v.a.t.a.r(A Visually And Technically Appealing Reprise).
Some movies are meant for heart(A Beautiful Mind), some movies are meant for mind(Shawshank Redemption), some movies are meant for smiles(Home Alone series) and some movies are meant for eyes(LOTR series). Avatar falls in the last bracket and caters to its audience justifiably.
Imagine
the time when a part of world will be devoid of a particular resource.
Thanks to visuals like these portrayed in Avatar, atleast our eyes will
have the luxury to see them. One does get these types of impressions in
back of their mind especially when current world scenarios are
experiencing a divide(referring to 2009 Climate Change Conference,
Copenhagen)
Lastly,
can’t say about Avatar’s Oscar score but definitely, James Cameron will
earn great respect as a visionary in the field of cinema. I end with
the lines I started with. It takes a lot of courage to think of absurd ideas and then implement them without supports from over-priced superstars.
Acknowledge it.
“ps: when I started writing this review, IMDB gave a 8.4/10 and it was ranked 165; now it has a 8.9/10 and a rank of 51