Reviewed by: Bill Gibron of FilmCritic.com
Director: James Cameron
Producers: James Cameron, Jon Landau
Screenwriter: James Cameron
Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez
Theatrical Release Date: December 18, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi violence
FilmCritic.com Rating = 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars
It’s been nearly two decades in the making. As far back as the ’80s, famed filmmaker James Cameron (The Terminator, Titanic) was itching to turn his vision of “every science fiction book” he had ever read into the ultimate cinematic experience. By 2005, he had announced that Avatar would indeed be his next film, a technologically sophisticated combination of live action and computer-generated imagery that would “change” the landscape of motion pictures. Well, after four years, thousands of rumors, and several hundred million dollars in production costs, the sprawling outer space epic is finally here. True to his word, this story of humans invading the planet of Pandora is a mishmash of every speculative fiction theme committed to paper. It’s also, as hyped, a stunning masterpiece.
This is a sumptuous film, overflowing with details and delicate touches that counteract the massive firepower and mechanical/animal menace on display…..Sure, the script has a few cheeseball lines, but what science fiction story doesn’t? Similarly, the performances are solidly within the context and demands of the narrative. Lang is wonderfully evil, while Weaver and Worthington deliver effective, sincere turns. Perhaps the best bit of “acting” comes from Ms. Saldana.
Read the full review by bill Gibron at FilmCritic.com.
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Copyright © 2009 Filmcritic.com
Saw it on IMAX 3-D, and it was unbelievable. Do yourself a favor and see it on the biggest screen you can You will not be sorry. Mark.
I find it hard to take- Why is this movie worth watching? On the visual side it does get good brownie points. But the overall packaging is seriously not worth the trouble.
one word awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think james cameron requires an honour dat goes beyond oscar..
Absolutely sublime film. If this is the sci-fi movie Cameron was waiting to make, it turns out it’s also the sci-fi movie I’ve been waiting to watch. This is the sort of thing that made me a fan of sci-fi in the first place.
Dune+Ferngully+Dances With Wolves all while trippin’ on shrooms and staring at Roger Dean album covers. Go see but take your mp3 player and listen to Ozric Tentacles albums.
I was amazed at how awesome this movie was. I thought the teaser trailer was awful, but I was very impressed by the movie. The 3D was amazing, and it wasn’t used shallowly, like in A Christmas Carol (Nothing against A Christmas Carol, I just thought the new version wasn’t that good).
The storylone was nothing new, but the cinematography was AWESOME!! WOOOOW!! I will see this probably around 3 times before the new year.
The movie was awsome. In fact it is an Experience to watch it.
Dances With Wolves IN SPACE..!!!
It was beautiful and an amazing ride. The only thing that took me out of the film was crossing the characters from Dances With Wolves into this flick. But by halfway in, I didn’t care anymore. I’m not a huge fan of westerns, so having the great DWW story told on this incredible world was a ride I want to have over and over again.
Got to see this before it leaves the theaters one more time.
And yes… Go see it in 3D. Cameron has solved the 3D movie.
GREAT film! Best Buy is doing another 90 sec. film competition with MOFILM, this time winner gets to meet Jon Landau in Barcelona, and guest-direct for Best Buy (plus $7500 gift card.) It’s a really great opportunity for aspiring filmmakers, have until Feb 1 to submit, please share: http://bit.ly/bbbarc or follow @mofilmbestbuy
A plot cross between Dances with Wolves and Battle for Terra and the most visually stunning CGI I have ever seen, bar none. Filled with eye-popping scenery and 2 dimensional characters that you HAVE seen before in many other movie plots, this is a movie that begs to be seen over and over again just to take in all the imaginative detail. The message is very heavy handed but the parts are well played, within their limits. The 3-D effects are not distracting and nicely add to the movie without being gimmicky. So the plot and characterization is thin and the dialog predictable, I really did not care. I got a movie I enjoyed and would go back to see again, without thinking.
The times have really changed for what movie lovers want to see in a movie. I have always loved science fiction movies that captured your attention and sucked you in with a really good story line. Now it appears that everyone is completely hung up on graphics and animation.
Dave,
Story and concept is still key. And, Yes, we have seen this story before. (but you can say that about every movie made in the last decade – to some extent.)
However, When something as outstanding and visually ground-breaking as this movie is, we can all have a moment of “OMG did you see that?” It does not make you a bad person to want to see the new shiny.
Next week, we’ll be back on the “Story is King” kick, but for now. HOLY COW… That looked awesome..!! 😉
Absolutely the worst movie I have ever seen by far.
Something worth noting. I don’t think Dances with Wolves was about someone using a remote neural interface to control a genetically enginered body. I know that’s not what people are comparing but it was one part of the story that I can honestly say I haven’t seen in any other movie or show (if memory serves). I guess you could say it’s a variation on the matrix with virtual swapped with biological.
The graphics were great (saw it in 3D in the local rather than an IMAX). However the story was just so poor. I knew where the film was going in the first few mins in terms of overall plot line and as soon as we had the ‘tree’ not bringing Sig back to life I knew how the film would end. No it’s not a total disaster because of the graphics, but please for the other two, not something I see through so quickly!
Saw the movie in 3D today. Special effects were awesome. Story was very weak. My son put it best: “It’s Disney’s Pocohontas set in outer space.” He is so right. Not worth a Golden Globe in the least.