AVATAR
December 18th 2009 08:45
Ney'Tiri, a true being that exists through movie magic
Enter another World, the World of Pandora.
That could be a clichéd tagline for the film, and it is advertised like that indeed. Cliché or not, it's true. Being able to see Avatar last night in it's full IMAX 3D glory, in Budapest's Cinema City Arena was a bit of a dream come true for me, I must admit. Being so, I'll hardly be unbiased but I'll try to be honest.
There will be some SPOILERS below, so beware. I won't go into the deepest details, but some themes will touch sensitive material, that could reveal elements of the story for the lucky ones amongst you, who don't know too much about the movie.
James Cameron had this dream goal for quite some time, the scriptment dating back to '95, but the idea to do something like this probably preceeds his adult years. Avatar is a vision of visual revolution of cinema. It was impossible to do it even a few years back, and even now, they had to invent ways to achieve some of the visionary techniques to put the whole thing together. The movie is not just about 3D, while it's brilliantly submersive, never gimmicky, and professionally orchestrated, it's not the main thing. The movie is probably awesome in 2D, or any other format available.
The real improvement is twofold (at least). First, the image based facial performance capture, that allows to capture the slightest nuance of an actor's performance, replacing makeup, but never the actor. And second, the virtual camera, that enables the real time view of a whole effects heavy shot, during the actual shoot. Why is this good? Because the director has immediate feedback and can adjust the scene just like live action, filling it with dynamism, and his or her own style.
Of course let's not forget the countless artists and craftsmen of cinema working on what seems like a whole ecosystem of an alien world, and making it believeable, and for most of the time undistinguishable from reality. The epic collaboration of the crew, with a truly visionary director, and an almost clinicaly commited cast makes the journey for the audience possible.
The story follows a simple yet effective path. We're in 2154. A paraplegic ex-marine, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) travels to Pandora, a moon orbiting a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri solar system, to fill in for his twin brother who before his tragic death was working for a corporation called RDA in the Avatar program. The sole reason for this opportunity is their matching genom, and the greed of the corporation running the exploitation of Pandora. A material unavailable on Earth, jokingly named Unobtanium is in abundance on Pandora. Although it's not explained in the movie, it's a room temperature superconductor, that feeds the dying and overpopulated Earth's energy hunger, allows near light space travel, and interstellar communication, ah yes and it's 20 million a kilo! But most importantly it's the symbol of human greed.
The Avatar program is led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) a no nonsense bitter woman, sort of a missionary mixed with David Attenbourough, whose goal is to understand the life on Pandora, and the place of the Na'Vis in it. Meanwhile the chief of security on Pandora, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) sees an opportunity in Jake, to place a mole within the indigenous tribe, to find something against them, a way to make them move or pass away, so that the RDA can mine the richest Unobtanium deposit that sits right under the Hometree, the living place of the Na'Vi.
On Pandora there is an ancient, unspoiled ecosystem, and the Na'Vi, an intelligent humanoid species on stone age level. A tribal princess, Ney'Tiri (Zoe Saldana) meets Jake in a seemingly fateful manner, and soon they and their worlds become entangled on many levels.
Who wins in this classic tale of technology vs. nature, greed vs. the respect of life? While it can seem naive or idealistic, the story that leads to the film's truly epic climax has some nuggets of thought provocation. Thoughts about enviromentalism, imperialism, the respect of other cultures, and our place in the universe.
What is the brainchild of James Cameron is a game changer indeed. A visual experience with a basic but well crafted story, decent to strong performances, and most importantly with the power of true awe.
At around 160 minutes, the movie feels even short, I barely wanted to get up from my seat or to remove my 3D glasses. I was definitely missing some lead up at the movie's start, some exposition, and more scenes of the grey and dying Earth. It's dealt with flashbacks, and this way you literally plunge into Pandora. A viewer not aware with the scriptment, might not miss these scenes that much, but I do. Well I guess I'll have to wait for an extended DVD or Bluray edition. Other than that I had some issues with the dubbing (it's done that way here in Hungary), but even these couldn't decrease the effect of pure cinematic joy.
I was literally smiling through the movie, with images burned into my brain. It's really a no brainer, but if I have to articulate it out:
IT IS A MUST SEE.
9 out of 10
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