Average grade: A+
Jack says: A+
I was skeptical when I first heard about this film. I knew it was James Cameron and that it had a huge budget and all that, but by the previews and of what I saw on T.V., it all looked a little stupid to me. But when you watch it, it's impossible not to love everything about it: Pandora (the mythical moon-world created entirely by Cameron); the Na'vi (the native inhabitants of Pandora); the Na'vi language; the plants, the animals, the floating mountains. All of it. It's truly one of the best and most awesome spectacles in film history, if not the very best.
First, one must understand what exactly an "avatar" is. An avatar is genetic rendering of a Na'vi native. It's fully breathing and living. But its only alive through the nervous system of a human being. The avatar has part DNA from the Na'vi and from the human about to assume the avatar (the human must go into some sort of sleep chamber in order to inhabit the avatar).
Jake Sully, the hero of the story, comes in to play when his brother who was the original match for the avatar dies. And since he is a genetic match, they choose him to use the avatar. He is part of a small group of people (including Sigourney Weaver's character) who have avatars in order to go into Pandora (without a mask, since the atmosphere is toxic to humans) and gather information about the land and people.
Jake gets abandoned on one of their missions into Pandora and he has to fend for himself through the night. His life is saved by Neytiri, the princess of her tribe (Zoe Saldana) and is brought back to her 'people' to be studied and to learn the Na'vi way. Back in his human body, Jake is being hounded by Colonel Miles Quaritch to figure out a way to make the Na'vi move from their home base so they can get the precious minerals beneath it. That's the reason the military and scientists are there in the first place. Pandora makes no threat to Earth, but of course money is involved.
What ensues is one of the most entertaining, visually stunning and groundbreaking films ever to grace the screen of a movie theater. It also sends a fairly blatant message about anti-war and 'going green'. The images are heartbreaking, riveting and mind-blowing and it will certainly be nominated for Best Picture along with a scatter of others, and I believe it deserves to win. James Cameron and his film will be cherished and hailed as one of the greatest and most groundbreaking epics in film history.
Matthew says: A+
Avatar has gotten quite some buzz the past couple years. Cameron says it will have all new technology no one has ever seen. Really? I was skeptic. In the past few months I've seen photos, trailers and I still didn't know what this movie was about. Let me tell you.
It takes place 50 years or so in the future and Scientists have discovered a new world. Pandora, an organically saturated moon orbiting around a giant star. They have sent scientists and Military soldiers into Pandora because Pandora has a rich supply of a mineral that earth desperately needs to survive. But the air is not breathable by humans, only by the the natives of Pandora, the Na'vi. So the scientists on this project have created Na'vi based on the genetics of the human. These man-made Na'vi are called avatars and the humans going into Pandora can live inside these avatars through tapping into their minds.
Sounds like a lot to take in, but the story telling of this story makes this totally plausible and believable. Jake Sully is an ex-marine who is paralyzed from the waist down but his twin brother was on the Pandora mission with an avatar already made for him. So he steps in for him. When he first steps on Pandora he gets lost and is attacked by leopard like creatures and is saved by a Na'vi. He takes him to her clan of people and there, Neytiri, the Na'vi who saved Jake, is assigned to train and teach him the ways of the Na'vi.
With Neytiri, Jake learns the language and way of survival, and soon begins to fall in love with Neytiri. This is one of the most important parts to Avatar. The love that Jake and Neytiri have is almost like a dream. Jake is soon accepted into the clan. The people back and the lab don't like this. Jake is beginning to switch sides. He's begging to side with the Na'vi. Then things get serious and soon, war breaks out.
This film has so much contained in it that it's so hard to explain in words. The only thing you can say to someone is see it immediately. It has one of the greatest, most original stories, and most beautiful and fully imagined worlds in film history. The technology and innovation is truly groundbreaking. If I could say this overused saying with only one movie, I'd use it for this one; you have never seen anything like it. It is a film that must be seen, but saying you must "see" it doesn't really sound right. Avatar isn't something you see. It is something truly special, one must experience.
