Avatar: James Cameron's blue movie

It seems movies with humans just aren't gonna cut it this year with the cinemas filled with hot teen wolves and vampires and, now, ten foot blue Na'vi, so we settle back to enjoy the fantasy sci-fi 3D masterpiece with a predictable plot that is Avatar.

The Auckland screening was packed with media and celebrities made to queue and be electronically scanned for any recording devices; slightly heavy-handed security insisted upon by Fox to eliminate piracy, two days before the film goes public. It would be very hard, however, to capture on a handheld cellphone this movie, given that what makes it great is the 3D and the visual effects.

Coming out afterwards, broadcaster Marcus Lush commented, "It's the new Star Wars. Unbelievable. Shame they're all blue."

There's no risk of spoiling the ending to say that in a nutshell, it's a colonialists vs indigeneous people-love-story-turned-war-action film; you got that from the trailers. Yes, going there has opened Pandora's box. The plot isn't that deep, but does it need to be? James Cameron's last film, Titanic, was great and you knew how that was going to turn out and you still went.

The 3D effects in Avatar draw you in, making you feel more connected to the action and to the oft one-dimensional characters. In the forest scenes with 3D animals flying at you, it is like you are there and I admit to jumping quite a bit in my seat. The flying scenes were breathtaking; the visual effects were the best I've ever seen. In fact, New Zealander Richard Taylor and Weta workshops got a round of applause at the end when the credits rolled his name, and well-deservedly so.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, last seen in Terminator 4 also as sort-of-human) is a marine whose late twin brother was a scientist on Pandora, with an avatar created using his human DNA together with Pandora's Na'vi peoples' DNA. Jake shares his brother's genes and can "step into his brother's shoes;" a poignant line to one who lost the use of his legs and who desires a new beginning and a fresh start in a faraway land, with the added bonus of getting an expensive operation to restore his legs if he cooperates with the bosses.

It's not run by the US Military as such; ex-Marines are working on Pandora as hired guns for The Company, who can sell a sparkly coal-like mined ore for $20 million a kilo. And where does the ore lie, but under the Home Tree of the Na'vi people, a race seemingly based upon size zero Native Americans slash African tribespeople who are at one with their world and connect to animals and trees through their nervous system with glowing optic cables in their ponytails.

The Colonel is a stereotypical battle-crazed soldier hell-bent on getting his ore and at odds with biologist Dr Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, best remembered for fighting Aliens not siding with them) who smokes cigarettes in every scene where she's not tall, thin and blue.

It's an action movie, but not played for one-liners like Die Hard. The Colonel gets many of the good lines and his Pres. Bush line, "We're fighting terror with terror" got a good laugh from the audience. The only groan of cringe came from a Jake-Na'vi Princess tender cuddle.

Below: Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) with the pod that Jake "pilots' his avatar from.

The flora and fauna were for me the biggest stars in Avatar. You get a delight from watching Jake blunder around on Pandora, touching anenome-esque plants and walking on ground that lights up with every step. The creatures are as good as any fantasy and more imaginative than most, with many-legged horses, dinosaur-like animals, and even dragons. Waiting for the next amazing creature to appear does bring back a sense of wonder that many have said is lost from the going-to-the-movies experience as escapism.

To Cameron's credit it didn't go crazy with violence or sex; it has been rated M for mature audiences with battle violence but wasn't too scary or overly violent; perhaps the same as say Jurassic Park or Terminator, and the only sex scene is a kiss. The battle scenes are incredible and the last one with helicopters vs the Na'vi is a real highlight of the film.

A nice touch is the extent they went to to form an entire language complete with sentence structure and grammar. I'm sure geeks will learn to speak it like they do Klingon. A professor of linguistics spoke on NZ's National Radio today, saying James Cameron gathered 30 words from various cultures around the world, including the "ng' sound of NZ Maori, and gave them to him to create a unique language for the Na'vi. Luckily for Jake many of them learned English at a school run by Grace so the whole movie isn't subtitled.

I'd say whilst not a classic, Avatar is certainly ground-breaking in its visual effects and is a must-see for all sci-fi and fantasy fans and I can't wait to see it again, as it was so much to take in the first time visually. Knowing what's going to happen, doesn't ruin a movie like this. It's old-fashioned storytelling and romance set on a land far, far away... 

Review by Megan Robinson, 15 December 2009