Possible spoilers, proceed with caution!*
Avatar, “the movie that will change your expectations for future films”. About three months ago I went to the movies to see ‘Inglorious Basterds’. The World War II Nazi comedy by Tarentino. Before the movie started like always you have to sit through the painfully agonizing ten minutes of previews. However, for me I have always enjoyed the previews. It seems as though they are the only source that I look upon when previewing upcoming movies. I remember briefly seeing previews for many movies, however, this time I didn’t see anything that sparked my interest. I believe Avatar was the last preview before Inglorious Basterds started. Upon seeing the Avatar preview I was less than interested. When I first heard the name Avatar I instantly thought of the anime television series and that quickly turned off my attention. At the time I thought that this was possibly and add-on or extension of the television series. Not only that, but the movie looked very childish. After all, who wants to see a bunch of blue people running around fighting each other?
Well it turns out that James Cameron’s Avatar is just the opposite. It is the ultimate sci-fi movie of the year. Instantly the movie was a huge success grossing over 250 million dollars the first couple days. As I heard great things about Avatar from friends and family I began to look into the movie a little deeper. What I found next was very intriguing, a full 3D movie that utilizes IMAX! A couple days later I was in the movie theater watching Avatar in 3D!
Avatar starts out with a baseline story of the United States traveling to an outside planet named Pandora. On Pandora we are interested only in the Uranium like material that is deep beneath the planets surface that sells for millions of dollars per kilo. However, upon landing and growing as a community on Pandora we have upset the natives, the Navi. With increased hostility coming from the natives, and the language and lifestyle barrier the US has realized that they must learn who the natives of Pandora are if they want to continue mining the valuable materials found on the planet.
You follow Jake Sully, a soldier who has been handicapped mobily and is sent to Pandora to be a surrogate. The US has started diplomacy with the Navi by created surrogates that act like the Navi yet have the genome of the human controlling them. Sully has been chosen because of his brothers passing, his genome is a perfect match. Throughout the movie you see the many trials and tribulations that Jake Sully goes through in order to gain the trust of the Navi. The main goal is to get the Navi to move away from their ‘holy tree’. The ‘holy tree’ is a tree that is deeply networked with the spirits of the deceased and of the living. This life force is what keeps the natives going. However, this is also where the biggest deposit of the uranium like material is. As Jake Sully takes diplomacy to a whole new level and becomes one of the Navi, they accept to train him and make him their own. This was before their knowledge of his real ideals.
Throughout the movie Jake Sully becomes a Navi, a very trusted Navi. Sully falls in love with his new surrogate life and the community that he has become so familiar with. Jake goes through many stages and must make the hardest decision of his life. Whether to tell the Navi they must leave, or to defend them from the US militants. He finally realizes that he cannot let the US destroy this highly powerful and meaningful tree that the Navi surround. The movie then turns into an epic 3D battle between the Navi, Jake, and the US militants that want the tree gone. Driven by money and greed the military takes offensive action against the natives.
As the battle unfolds the movie gets even more gripping and interesting. The last hour provides viewers with an epic, tantalizing, and meaningful story that they will leave with in awe.
Technical: The technical aspects of this movie are amazing. The movie takes use of the 3D design without over doing it. The 3-dimensional viewing is done in a way so that the picture quality looks surreal. The movie contains multiple 3D pop outs (image looks as though it’s coming out towards you from the screen), however, it isn’t over done.
