A new Avatar in 3D film making . Stunning (only!!) in 3D!!

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2010)

James Cameron. The name itself speaks the pinnacle of film making... an institution in 'flesh and blood'. So when he comes out with a movie (that too after a decade long break since titanic) with a 400 MN USD budget and his forte to back him – the "future world kind"; you already have the expectations which are similar to; say when roger federer walks on to the center court or when sachin tendulkar walks on to bat or David beckham on to the filed.
So how does he (Cameron) deliver . Well to have somewhat a parallel comparison. lots of aces (federer) but title lost or golden boot (beckham) but world cup lost / 175 runs (tendulkar) but match lost (ouch!! That effort in vain still pains doesn't it). So, if you remove "The James Cameron vision of 3D" from avatar; it's a dud. But that's unfair right; even I agree - You can't judge a team without its torch bearer  but again if the torch bearer becomes too big and bright the beacon can blur the team which is what I guess happened with avatar. Cameron, the captain wanted a magnum opus but the team delivered a visual stunner; nevertheless a new saga of film-making is born.
I have the highest of regards for Cameron because he gave T2 (one of the most monumental movies of all) and he still continues to marvel us. I guess avatar has that legacy carried forward in terms of vision but has somewhat compromised on raw content. Post T2, the hollowness of not giving a 'larger than life sci-fi' thriller, must have suffocated the genius to develop a grand visual treat like never seen before, and he has delivered to the fullest. In one of the interviews to HBO, the creative team had admitted that the story narrated to them was somewhere during titanic (1999) and the lack of equipment to do justice to the story forced the making to be pushed ahead by almost a decade. I guess that did some undoing for avatar – the story was great for 1999 but not 2010
So let's assume we are in 1999. Now as a concept, the film challenges the psyche of alien genre. We are used to aliens frying humans all over and have the scary and weird look of bad guys. Avatar challenges that concept - where the humans are the bad guys and are hell bent on destroying an 'almost – divine' planet Pandora. Bulls-eye – what an idea!! (But till 2010 we already had the likes of district 9 and other movies give us a taste of reality that we are not so fragile a species after all). Further, as the ambiance goes, the alien world was as a rule of thumb, made to look rigid and blew volcanoes all over the place in almost all alien movies. But here; Pandora was the pristine landscape (I guess earth would have been similar before we as a species virtually screwed it) with wired creatures who are a virtually connected ecosystem (excellent confluence of sci-fi with genetics). (But again till 2010, WALL-E and Pandoram, to name a few, gave us the grim reality that earth now looked like a barren alien planet and we are in search of greener pastures, which, we can fantasize in a planet like Pandora). That's where the key content element of Avatar was blown away (other films depicting the idea before). And adding to it was the totally unwanted 'love story' between Jake and the na'vi lady love – if the crux was to depict that a human can become one with a alien and betray his species to take the right side, it could have been done without the titanic effect
Again, now back to 2010. the reason why avatar was pushed forward – technology. But this time the guys didn't disappoint. The geeks gave the film world something that CGI industry would be proud of. Hats off guys. What a stunner. Avatar's animation team does raises the bar in film making – a never before seen blend of animated characters with human emotion. The HBO 1st look actually helped in explaining that as the actors (say Sam Worthington) acted, the CGI camera not only records it but digitizes it and grafts the image into the na'vi character including the background and a direct display is seen on the directors screen phew. what an achievement. Avatar is not animation, its amalgamation -- of CGI digital and character acting world. The 3D version is something to die for. The 1st half and hour (just to admire the grandeur of Pandora) and the last 45 minutes (the battle) are breath taking. The attention given to the miniscule of details like light on the carpet when the people run and the flowers; to the audacity of the raptors and the flying machines (not to forget the na'vi themselves) makes it an experience and not a movie.
Avatar does to 3D what Abyss did to 2D.... scale up and never look back!!
9/10 if it would have been a 2000-2002 release. 7/10 for 2010 release
P.S: All the Na'vi ladies had perfect 36-24-36 stats. wonder if there is a world like that somewhere. Come on people - earth is dying so let's look for "greener pastures"