It is 2154, the Earth is dying and the Resources Development Administration, a non-government association on Earth, has lay eyes on the planet of Pandora. Pandora is a primitive planet filled with wildlife and inhabitable by the blue, gigantic aliens, Na'vi. What makes Pandora so attractive is the rich reserves of unobtainium found underneath its surface. The problem is, the Na'vi lives right on top of the biggest reserve.
Avatar tells the story of Jake Sully, a Marine who was paralyzed waist down due to an injury sustained in combat. He was chosen to take part in the Avatar project, after his brother, who was supposed to be in the team, died in action. The Avatar project is a technology that enables the transfer of consciousness from a person to his human-Na'vi hybrid genetic creation.
Jake was tasked to learn the ways of the Na'vi and convince them to leave their sacred land so that the valuable unobtainium can be extracted without resistance.
Now due to some mixed up in communications, I missed a good half hour of the start of the movie...
Luckily I had some background knowledge about it based on news and trailers so I was not completely lost... By the time I was in my seat, Jake is already fighting the panther-like creatures in Pandora...
According to my friend I did not missed much, but I probably missed a big part of the introduction to the Avatar project...
Initially I thought this is the reason why I could not understand some of the things mentioned later in the movie, but my friends assured me that those are not explained in the first place...
If you know what the Colonel meant by "you will get your legs back tonight" do let me know.
This movie is a 2hr40min long...
pretty long for a movie...
but...
this is probably one of the few movies this long that does not feel long at all...
it is amazing...
since the movie is filled with lots of patchy and corny dialogues...
the story is simply predictable...
but somehow i never felt like it was a drag...
one of the reason is because of the beautiful world of Pandora...
what this movie definitely did right...
was to come up with a world filled with amazing creatures and plants...
the wonders of the planet...
especially the wildlife kept me glued to the screen...
the only negative thing is that i watched the movie in 3D...
maybe i am not used to the 3D experience...
but more often than not i found that watching the movie with the goggles on makes things appear dimmer...
and actions a little blur...
plus i was sitting in the first few rows so my neck was pretty strained...
anyway back to the movie...
like i said...
Pandora is amazing...
amazing enough to make me neglect all the cliche in the movie...
and there are plenty of them...
most of the characters of Avatar are the general stereotypes...
u get the gunho Colonel...
the princess who is surprisingly nice even though u are a stranger to her people...
the want-to-do-good soldier...
the biology obsessed biologist...
the money obsessed coorporation which is willing to kill other people to get resources...
and of course...
the kind-hearted outsider of a hero who managed to fit in and decide to stand up for the people he has now call his own...
the storyline is predictable...
but where even though u probably know what is coming...
u would not have guess how it is coming...
like the battle between the Na'vi and the humans...
u know it is going to happen...
but there is still this mystic charm of wanting to see how native tribes battle against the might of technology...
and u really must give it to the production team...
even though the Na'vi were completely CG...
they display a vast depths of emotions...
especially when u look at the Na'vi on the sides at scenes...
u can see some of them looking at other directions, showing certain emotions...
and some of them apparently in thoughts...
really well done...
the only thing that really bugged me in the movie...
is the constant alternation between English and the Na'vi language...
it is bad enough that they speak accented English..
i missed a few lines because they started speaking in Na'vi...
and i was reading the subtitles...
only to realised they have suddenly uttered something in English...
it was quite hard to catch...
Simply put...
the effects and Pandora already worth the amount i paid for the movie...
even if i have missed 30 minutes of it...
with something as beautiful as Pandora...
u can forgive all the flaws it has with it...
for this Avatar gets 4 out of 5...
just some words of advice...
do not go to somewhere u do not like for 3 months...
because that is the time u need to build a bond with the people there that is so strong that u would not mind turning into one of them...
when u have screwed up big time...
u win back the people who felt left down by subduing the biggest monsters around...
it does of course help that when u talk to them u had the monstrous creatures right behind u displaying its might...
and 3 interesting things for u to take note of...
first...
during the "horse" riding lesson...
as Jake is taught how to "communicate" with the "horse"...
if u look at the words used...
they sound really wrong...
like Jake is riding the "horse"...
literally...
secondly...
Norm was shot and got out of the Avatar device...
and simply disappeared all together...
was that because they forgot about him...
and added that scene after they realise towards the end one of the device is empty?...
hm...
finally...
i do not know whether i saw wrongly...
but at the end of the movie...
i thought i saw Norm and the Avatar team on the side...
then saw Norm in Na'vi form holding a gun just seconds later...
did i see them wrongly?...
hm...
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