Avatar was one of those rare movies where I went in with expectations high as could be. I had been hearing a lot of talk about how Avatar is the next Star Wars or possibly could even be better than Star Wars. Let me say first off that you shouldn’t try to compare one single movie to a 6 movie saga because there is no way you can match that in the given time. However in the 2 hours and 45 minutes it lasted, the movie was astonishing on many levels.
The story follows Jake Sully an ex-marine who had been paralyzed from the waist down in combat. His twin brother who had been trained to participate in the Avatar program was killed in combat. Since they were twins Jake was then selected for the program even though he had no prior training. The Avatars are artificially grown bodies of the Na’vi, a humanoid alien race living on the planet Pandora. The humans get into tubes and let their minds be transferred to their Avatar. When their Avatar sleeps, the human re-awakes. Jake’s mission is to infiltrate the tribe of Na’vi and gain their trust in an attempt to make them re-locate, as their home is sitting on top of a valuable metal that the humans want to harvest for money.
I don’t believe I have ever before seen such life-like CGI in a movie as there is in Avatar. Everything in the movie seems incredibly real, at times I found myself forgetting I was watching a computer animated world. Everything has so much detail and all of the people and native creatures are so unique.
One of my very favorite characters in the movie was Colonel Miles Quaritch played by Stephen Lang. He is always confident in everything that he does and never thinks twice about a decision. He is a super tough marine who won’t stop until things are going his way no matter what the odds are. He is just one of the most badass characters I’ve seen in a really long time.
As peaceful negotiations don’t work in the allotted time the Colonel issues the order to launch his “shock and awe” campaign. The movie really turns into a classic war between primitives and advanced technology. It was very reminiscent of Star Wars Episode VI when the Ewoks of Endor took on the mighty Sith Empire. However Avatar brings the war to a whole new scale as the entire planet fights back against the invaders as it tries to save itself from destruction.
Avatar mixes live action and CGI like never before, it makes the transition from one to the other seem nearly seamless. All of the Na’vi’s emotions are incredibly realistic and believable. Everything in the world reacts to the things around it. Night time on Pandora is one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen, as everything in the forest has a unique color and glow.
It’s really hard for me to describe just how amazing the animation in this movie is. You really have to see it for yourself. I do also highly recommend seeing it in IMAX 3D for the fullest experience. It really makes you feel like you’re right there on Pandora living the action as it unfolds.
Back to the question of if it’s better than Star Wars. I would have to say the animation is better in some respects than the Star Wars films yes. However on a story level it can’t really match up. And although Pandora has a good number of species shown in the movie, it’s still only one planet and can’t begin to match the Star Wars universe, although I definitely expect the Avatar universe to grow over time.
To wrap this up I have to say everyone really needs to see this movie. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss a spectacle in movie making.
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