My first Positive Review in 5 years of using IMDb

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2009)

Usually it takes a seriously bad movie to motivate me to pen a comment on these boards. Transformers 2 is an example of this (I don't know what became of my scathing review of that piece of crap). However, this time I feel sufficiently impressed and moved by a movie to write a positive review. Avatar, Wow! What an amazing experience!
I saw the film in IMAX 3D format and for 2.5hrs I genuinely felt like I was transported to another world. I don't think I moved a muscle (except eye muscles, and involuntary life-support muscles - of course) during the entire film. I was simply transfixed and mesmerised by the sense of immersion that this film evoked. Yes, the main themes of this film have been done before. Nonetheless, the way this familiar story was told in Avatar was first class. The real highlight of this film was the visual effects. The 3D was not overdone like a Disneyland ride, rather it was used to add depth (literally) to the scenes and bring Pandora into the cinema. The soundtrack was also marvellous and the visual illusion was well supported by terrific sound effects.
I loved the attention to detail in the creation of the alien world, especially the anatomical similarities between the various plant and animal species (double eyes, breathing holes in the necks, bioluminescence, external neural interfacing tendrils much like USB ports on a PC, etc) - clearly all following parallel evolutionary paths. The scale of the moon's lifeforms (a result of the lower gravity presumably) was impressive and the giant trees looked incredible on the 7 storey high IMAX screen!
I loved the laboratories of the future – I would like to have one of those holographic wrap-around screens – with data that can be grabbed and dropped into a portable pad. I'd *really* like to have a neural interfacing machine in my lab complete with the ability to 'remote control' an avatar. The concept of a massive network of synaptically connected organisms was well presented. I guess in this model the plants are like the core (hard-wired) backbone of the network. The animals, with their 'USB' (universal being a most appropriate term here) tendrils, can upload and download to this via the tree-of-lights docking port or connect directly to each other, thankfully its all plug'n'play! Science is definitely cooler in the future and as a neuroscientist, it is encouraging to see our field receiving this sort of positive attention – hopefully it will inspire more students to take up the challenge of doing something productive and helpful for our own world and its people. Okay that's my 'study science/engineering' spiel over.
A friend pointed out, as old James Cameron fans, it is lovely to see the homologies between this film and Aliens/Terminator. The revamped drop ships, and exoskeletal walkers in particular brought back some fond memories of those sci-fi classics. As an aside, I wonder if the audience would be so sympathetic towards the Na'vi if they looked less like giant underfed, hatless, warrior smurfs and more like HR Giger's alien concept? Anyway, it's a moot point as clearly in this film – we humans are the bad guys. The not so subtle ecological lessons dispensed by Avatar come at a timely moment in human history. I just hope that we as a species are around long to learn something from this exposition on corporate greed, and the need to conquer and profit. I think many people would aspire to the harmonious and simple ideals of the Na'vi. However, in most cases we humans seem to complicate our lives in the quest for personal comfort and wealth at the expense of our own planet. Symbolically, Jake Sully represents the inward struggle that we all face in our efforts to live greener. In the broader scheme of things, I believe movies such as Avatar are important to keep reminding us to pay head to our own inner Na'vi or risk being shrugged off by our planet.
Overall, I can find very few reasons not to love Avatar. Congratulations to everyone involved in the production of this film for raising the bar in movie making. I can't wait for the sequel, Avatar 2: Revenge of the Human!