Movie: Avatar
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
Director: James Cameron.
Cruisin’ the air on giant birds through floating mountains and exotic forests… sounds like a sequence taken straight out of a dream? Avatar enables you to live that dream.
A decade into Titanic, James Cameron spins yet another masterpiece. But it would be unfair to draw comparisons. Avatar has a flavour of its own, aren’t we glad! Does it live up to all the hype surrounding it? Yes, to a very great extent.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is an ex Marine, wounded with his legs paralyzed. After his brother’s demise he joins the Avatar program as a replacement, without any knowledge of the project. The first one hour of the movie, while explaining this program and internal conflicts, creates a base for the story without which the subsequent events make little sense. This probably surprises and bores, falls below the general expectations as no fascinating scenes unfurl. It’s only later that the film picks up. As part of the Avatar program, the ’sky creatures’ as the earthlings are called, wish to exploit the riches of Pandora. Pandora, an extra-terrestrial moon, is no barren land. It is filled with natural beauty and exotic animals, and is home to the Na’vi tribes.
The humans build avatars made to look just like the Na’vis, to seed them in, learn their ways and eventually convince them to evacuate their land. Jake, now able to stand and run on his feet is delighted with his new avatar and ready for the new task at hand. He starts exploring Pandora, falls in love with the forest, its people, and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). But the avatar is nothing more than his proxy reality (reminiscent of The Matrix); Jake’s body still lies paralyzed in a mechanical cell. He finds himself torn between two worlds but decides to stay back where his heart is - Pandora. He spearheads the Na’vis fight for survival.
The movie then depicts heated war scenes, many of them entertaining but a tad too long. The 3-D version might strain the eyes but the effects are well worth putting up with it. The movie must be watched for its exceptional visuals. James Cameron indeed is a visionary and the picture he paints gets etched in the mind. The performances impress. Sam Worthington excels as Jake, so does Lang as the vicious Colonel Miles. Zoe carries her glowing blue avatar with élan.
A sci-fi movie with action, romance and drama - Avatar sure has a lot going on all at once. But the story grows on you and keeps you intrigued. Watch it with an untainted frame of mind and you’ll know why Avatar is a cinematic marvel.
Tags: avatar, avatar-movie, movie-review, sam-worthington
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