James Cameron's "Avatar" *Contains Spoilers*

[Jodi]

I recently watched "Avatar". I went into the cinema not knowing anything about this movie other than James Cameron directed it and there was blue people in it. The movie started with a disabled marine being sent to a sort of lab to see his "Avatar". I believe Avatars are the blue people. The marine's brother was involved in the making of the avatars but then he died, so they hired his identical twin (the disabled marine) to replace him. The reason they allowed a disabled marine with no experience in was because the avatar is made of elements from the human, so that they are very similar. Therefore his identical twin is a perfect replacement. To gain access to an avatars body, the humans have to go in tubes and then there body is transformed into the avatar. I wont spoil the film entirely but the marine's avatar is assigned the duty to make friends with the others like him to try and persuade them to move to a different location. This is done in order to gain access to some stone that is buried under their home. Then a battle commences between the humans and the others and the marine has to choose which side he is on.

Basically: It's no titanic and is remarkably similar to "The matrix" and "Pochontas" (yes the disney movie...the whole digging for gold and trying to move the "savages" is the same sort of idea as avatar)

The best bits: It is visually stunning, the design and colours of it are amazing.
Sam Worthington (The marine) is brillant in this. He has a thick australian accent but was born in Britain.
The worse bits: The length- It is over 3 hours long and at the end i was glad when it had ended. It was way too long.
The similarities to the Matrix- The only problem with the similarities to the matrix was that Keanu was not in avatar.

Worth watching? Yes definately but sleep before you go or drink lots of coffee.

[colsluvsPB]

I saw this about two weeks ago and forgot to post my review . . . .

I had seen the Sam Worthington actor this summer in the "Terminator" sequel.
Lets just say I never would have guessed he was this good of an actor from
THAT movie, I don't think it brought out the best in anybody, sadly.

I thought it was a good movie, I was able to see it in IMAX and 3D. I think
it is much better that way, but not having seen it the traditional way I
can't be sure.

As for the plot, etc., hey, I forgot about "The Matrix!" Good one, yeah,
Keanu would have been nice but I think he's getting a little old for the
standard action hero thing. Still, a cameo wouldn't have hurt.

Back to the plot, it most reminded me of a late 1980s movie called
"The Emerald Forest" which people in their 20s have probably never seen.
It is remarkably similar, except no avatars, just an engineer from the US
that keeps going back to the Amazon because he built a dam there and
his son disappeared into the forest. Unbeknownst to him, some local
Indians more or less lured him away and he is now a teenager that is
integrated into the tribe. In fact, early on he gets married to a tribe girl.

So I thought of that movie, plus, "The Lion King." I have not seen
"Pocahantas."

Good movie overall and I thought it was cool but totally unrealistic that all
of nature would unite against a foe. Nature usually likes to fight itself, sadly.
However, the idea of the interconnectedness of all beings is something
sadly overlooked in our society.

The ending was actually much better than "The Emerald Forest." I also wondered
what was going to happen to allow the guy to continue as a local (in Avatar)
since he needed that electro thingey to keep it going but they found a good
solution.

Some people think 3D is the future of movies. They could be correct, I think
mostly it will wind up being used for action or nature movies.

I would recommend this movie, but it is very long and it's not quite the
second coming it is being hyped at. But, yeah, go see it.

-colsluvsPB