(no subject)
Went to see "Avatar" tonight.
It's a fairly straightforward plot - think "Dances With Wolves" in space, with elements of "Princess Mononoke". Nothing spectacular or original, though it's competently handled (if a bit predictable in parts). No major plot holes on first viewing, though it would have been nice if we'd got a bit more background on what sort of society existed on Earth, and as usual there were a couple of tactical decisions made during some of the big action sequences where I was going "wait, wouldn't it have made more sense to...?".
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver are all on good form, there are solid if unremarkable performances from the rest of the cast (though the main military antagonist, Colonel Quaritch, was a bit too stereotypical). Still, overall a good job on the acting. And the pacing is excellent. It's a long movie (over 2½ hours) but it didn't feel long, and as for points where I was sitting waiting for something to happen, joyously few of those. Say what you like about James Cameron, but he knows how to put a movie together.
As for the visuals: Wow.
This is the first 3D movie I've gone to see since Jaws 3, and frankly it blows that clean out of the water, as well as avoiding almost all the regular 3D movie tropes. But even without 3D, the effects would still be absolutely luscious, as befits a movie that took the combined talents of ILM, WETA Digital and the Stan Winston Studio. The planet Pandora is at once beautiful and alien: it's fauna and flora, certainly, are depicted with greater care than any movie I've ever seen before, fittingly for a movie that wears its environmental consciousness on its sleeve. At times, it was wonderfully like watching Rodney Matthews paintings come to life.
So overall, the plot is about as original as mashed potato and gravy, but you just get caught up in the amazing visuals.
Scores:
As a movie, 7/10
As a visual delight, 10/10
It's a fairly straightforward plot - think "Dances With Wolves" in space, with elements of "Princess Mononoke". Nothing spectacular or original, though it's competently handled (if a bit predictable in parts). No major plot holes on first viewing, though it would have been nice if we'd got a bit more background on what sort of society existed on Earth, and as usual there were a couple of tactical decisions made during some of the big action sequences where I was going "wait, wouldn't it have made more sense to...?".
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver are all on good form, there are solid if unremarkable performances from the rest of the cast (though the main military antagonist, Colonel Quaritch, was a bit too stereotypical). Still, overall a good job on the acting. And the pacing is excellent. It's a long movie (over 2½ hours) but it didn't feel long, and as for points where I was sitting waiting for something to happen, joyously few of those. Say what you like about James Cameron, but he knows how to put a movie together.
As for the visuals: Wow.
This is the first 3D movie I've gone to see since Jaws 3, and frankly it blows that clean out of the water, as well as avoiding almost all the regular 3D movie tropes. But even without 3D, the effects would still be absolutely luscious, as befits a movie that took the combined talents of ILM, WETA Digital and the Stan Winston Studio. The planet Pandora is at once beautiful and alien: it's fauna and flora, certainly, are depicted with greater care than any movie I've ever seen before, fittingly for a movie that wears its environmental consciousness on its sleeve. At times, it was wonderfully like watching Rodney Matthews paintings come to life.
So overall, the plot is about as original as mashed potato and gravy, but you just get caught up in the amazing visuals.
Scores:
As a movie, 7/10
As a visual delight, 10/10