By OpalCat

tags: adventure, animation, fantasy, movie review, sci-fi

Rated:
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver…
Summary: A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home….
Official Movie Homepage
Full Credits

Review: [Warning: contains spoilers!] I didn’t know much about this movie when I walked into the theater. I knew it was supposed to be groundbreaking in filmography, and that it was getting a lot of press. I knew that it was in fancy-pants 3D and was supposed to have amazing effects. Story-wise, I didn’t know much. Visually, I knew that the previews had people that looked like the Pan character from Pan’s Labyrinth. That’s about all I had.

Walking out I understood what all the fuss was about. Before I go on it must be said that if you’re the kind of person who requires un-telegraphed plot twists to enjoy a movie, skip this one. I had the overall arc of the story figured out in the first 10 minutes or so, along with the rest of the audience. The story fit the standard plotline of “stranger comes into established situation, goes into foreign ground as the insider for his own side, develops sympathies for the other side, eventually changes side.” It was in the details that the story came alive. The depth of the world was palpable. The characters (a lot of them, anyway) were interesting and had dimension. The only thing I rolled my eyes at was the name of the precious mineral they were mining: “unobtainium” …really?

The acting was also very good, especially the Na’vi lead female character, Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana. When she cried, I felt it. It was the wail of absolute despair and it made me get misty eyed along with her.

I also liked the environmental messages; I may be a tree-hugger but it is what it is. I liked being reminded of the symbiosis of the world, and of the ugliness that greed can introduce to the world. In the world of Pandora, these connections are magnified and made more obvious, but they’re presented in a way that allows the viewer to make connections with Earth.

I have to come back to the visuals. I liked the pretty aqua-and-purple color themes, I admit (hey, look around this site, yanno?) and all of the luminescent night scenes were sparkly, and beautiful… but the realness of it was different from other animation I’ve seen. It was hard if not impossible sometimes to tell the live action from the animation. The textures of the skin of the Na’vi was so real you felt you could reach out and touch it. When they cried it was just like real tears on real skin…

The scenes of flying evoked every memory of every dream I’ve ever had of flying. I could feel the wind in my hair and the out-of-control-yet-in-control sensation of flying straight toward the ground and then zooming off before hitting the bottom.

There isn’t much I can add that hasn’t been said before. All I can do is recommend that you see this movie while it’s still on the big screen, because it’s worth it. See it in 3D if you can. I’ll go see it again when they have invented smell-o-vision.

— 01:05:07 AM
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