Avatar - I See You!

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2010)

I have been a regular on IMDb for many years. i did not however venture onto the Avatar discussion board before this was released and I am disturbed to see such insanity from both sides of the camp.
People are destined to hate this, out of jealousy or some some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. People are also destined to love this movie, many of you here have been in love with the film for years strangely enough! Whether you are a hater or a fan, the only opinion that counts is from the guy who didn't sit in either camp, who didn't give a damn when he walked through those cinema doors! I have been a lover of movies for years. When I watched Gladiator at the age of 15 I was hooked on films. I rarely dislike a good movie and I always dislike a poor one. Avatar was given 261 minutes of my full attention, would the movie speak to me I wondered? Would I understand it's language? Or would I leave unimpressed?
Avatar, as we speak, is about to smash pirates and Lord of the Rings from 2nd and 3rd place on the box Office podium. Cameron will occupy the top spot for another 13 years and in my opinion, Titanic will be displaced! Counting inflation, Avatar will turn out to be the biggest movie of all time!
I have reserved some judgement aside, based on the fact this was my first 3D viewing since 3D became the new sliced bread. I liked the format during the trailers and I was impressed at how much it had come along in recent years. I had a basic knowledge of the Avatar plot, through the trailers and the odd article. Avatar is high end concept for the most demanding and critical movie going audience in history - it needed the execution of the most high end director. Within 20 minutes, Cameron seeks to immerse you in Pandora, in this strange world, in his dream! As a fan of historical epics, I was amazed at the sheer grandeur of Avatar, the scale and magnitude of it's environments is beyond compare - the 3D working overtime to blow you away.
The story is great, very basic good vs bad with a hint of The Last Samurai but by know means repetitive or prosaic in any way. We understand how Jake can fall in love with his new surroundings and we realise the ulterior motives of the humans from the offset. Pandora is an incredible experience because it takes you places that your imagination rarely manages in a dream! An charged forest habitat, lighting up, speaking to the navi. The creatures at one with the natives. A paraplegic in pandora can stand, he can walk and run, and he can fly! The dragon-like creatures give us the most stunning aerial views of the planet as well as show case the power of 'The Hive' (Jackson's Weta computer sound stage responsible for the live cgi we see) and what it brings to our eyes. It beggars belief that this was not possible a decade ago and now a new door had been discovered, unlocked and fully opened.
As Jake spends his days and nights learning the way of the Navi, so forms the love story. War does not come without love, or without a woman. Tried and tested formula, but not a dead one seeing as this love is between a human and Navi. The idea is brilliant and it becomes more dream-like as the story progresses - only when in the MRI scanner can Jake fly through the trees with Neytiri and forget about his mission. The viewer is left in pain because of the sheer unconventional means the two characters can interact and be with one another. The ending serves as a delight to those with more interest in the forming love story. however before we get to the end, we are subjected to the most stunning intergalactic battle committed to cinema in recent times, perhaps in all time. Never has the impossible looked more real!
On a human level, the emotions run wild. On a visual scale, we are left breathless. And on a personal note, 10 years after being blown away by Gladiator, I remain in complete awe of what can be done when someone has a special idea and stands by it. Cameron will not repeat his success here, truly the stuff of dreams.
I was sceptical when I went to see Ridley's masterpiece, which for the last 10 years has remained my favourite film, as I never though a film could speak to me in the manner it did. Now I have been captivated by Avatar, I got that feeling once more and I understand it's language. If Avatar is a failure, then it is a failure which towers above any other movies successes!