A masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (17 January 2016)

I haven't watched Avatar for a while, but I used to watch it frequently and until Disney's Frozen came out, it was my favourite movie. I loved the original version but personally I think you should watch the extended edition to truly appreciate this extraordinary movie.
James Cameron certainly knew what he was doing when he created this film and put his all into the project. All the performers did great work, with fantastic performances from Sigourney Weaver, Zoey Saldana, Sam Worthington, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephan Lang and Giovanni Ribishi.
Sigourney Weaver, who in my eyes is one of the greatest actresses I've ever seen - she's definitely in the top ten, perhaps even top five - made Grace Augustine a snarky, feisty and rather rude woman who was hiding a loving, maternal side as well as a great deal of emotional pain, particularly in regards to the destruction of her school. By the way, if you want to fully appreciate Sigourney's performance in this movie, you need to see Grace's discussion with Jake about the school and that is only shown in the special edition.
I've seen Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans, but he was at his finest in Avatar, making Jake Sully into a sarcastic and fierce warrior who also had a childish wonder for the world around him. You also see Jake develop throughout the movie. Initially he seems like a "dumb grunt" but grows into a charismatic leader. His love for Neytiri felt very genuine, thanks to the excellent chemistry between Sam and Zoey.
I wouldn't put Zoey Saldana as high as Sigourney Weaver on my list of most talented actresses, but she still did impressive work as the feisty Neytiri. If I had to criticize her, I'd say she was just a little over-the-top when Neytiri found out that Jake was a spy and when she was crying over her father. However to be fair, Neytiri was devastated in both of those scenes and it's perfectly in character for her to lash out when she's angry or distraught, so it was still a great performance. Despite being slightly over-the-top in those two scenes, Zoey proved that she is still capable of subtlety and I'm a guy who appreciates subtlety in a performance. For example there was Neytiri's little disapproving glance at Tsu'tey when Jake was about to catch his Ikran, her playful smile when Jake deliberately flew too close to her or the vulnerable look in her eyes when Jake acknowledged that Peyral was a good hunter. Regardless of whether Zoey's as good as Sigourney or not, she still made Neytiri my favourite character in the entire movie.
Giovanni Ribishi also did a great job by making Parker Selfridge a greedy but conflicted man whose greed was constantly warring with his moral guidelines. He was clearly disturbed by the destruction of the Na'vi's home and despite his assertion that they were "savages", it's obvious that he didn't really want to go to war with them.
The true villain of this story is without doubt Colonel Miles Quaritch. He was little more than an evil psychopath, who literally drank coffee whilst destroying an entire clan's home. Although not a deep character, Stephan Lang's performance was so strong that the simplicity of Quaritch doesn't really matter to me.
I haven't seen many movies starring Michelle Rodriguez - actually I'm not sure if I've seen her in any films outside of Avatar - but she was an excellent choice to play Trudy Chacon. From what I know of her, Michelle is most comfortable in the role of tough and feisty women so she fitted Trudy's character very well.
Those six were the greatest performances in the movie but I'll also give credit to CCH Pounder, Wes Studi, Laz Alonso and Joel David Moore; all of them did great jobs. Dileep Rao and Matt Gerald were rather forgettable but to be fair, their roles were too small for us to really see how skilled they are. However out of the two of them, Matt put on a better performance with what he had to work with.
The storyline is rather simple - my younger brother has described it as basically Pocahontas with blue aliens - but that in no way cheapens the experience. Sometimes a simple storyline is the greatest storyline. It depends on how it's told and this story is told extremely well so the predictability of the plot didn't bother me. Furthermore quite a few likable and/or important characters die in this film, showing that Cameron is not afraid to show the brutal reality of war.
Pandora is a beautiful moon - for those of you thinking it's a planet, believe it or not it's actually a moon despite being close to the size of Earth - and is alive with unique wildlife and plants. James Cameron did an excellent job of creating an entire new world. Aside from the Na'vi, my favourite aliens are the Toruk and Ikran.
Another thing to mention is that the special effects are magnificent. Admittedly, I'm no expert on special effects but the Na'vi, animals and plants all look incredibly realistic. If I'm not mistaken, Cameron had ideas for this film about a decade before it came out but waited until technology was more advanced in order to make it as realistic as possible. That was a wise decision and another sign of the passion and dedication he had for this movie.
This movie is probably James Cameron's greatest work since Titanic, perhaps even the greatest in his entire career. He has confirmed a sequel and I hope he puts as much effort into that as he has into this and creates another masterpiece. Only time will tell.