Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months you will no doubt have heard of James Cameron’s Avatar. Hailed as the movie that would change the face of cinema forever, Avatar had so much hype surrounding it’s release due to it’s revolutionary use of performance capture and 3D effects. Supposedly written years ago, Cameron has waited over ten years to see this baby to fruition since he had to wait for technology to catch up to his creative imaginings.
Set on the fantasy Earth-like world of Pandora, Avatar tells the story of a paraplegic ex-Marine by the name of Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington. He is drafted in to replace his murdered twin brother on the Avatar program. The primary objective of the company is to mine a valuable material called unobtanium. In a effort to facilitate peaceful relations with the natives, known as Na’vi, the Avatar program sees Sully operate a human-Na’vi hybrid grown by scientists on site and headed by Dr. Grace Augustine, played by Sigourney Weaver. Sully however, recieves another mission to collect intel for Colonel Miles Quaritch played by Stephen Lang, head of the security team, in return for treatment for his paraplegia on his return home, which he could otherwise not afford. This mission is compromised however when Sully falls for the chief’s daughter, Neytiri played by Zoe Saldana, and ultimately he must choose between his own race, and the one he has come to love. Sound familiar?
Avatar has been described online as an exaggerated re-telling of the classic Pocahontas with some fancy added 3D effects. So is that the case? Last December, Avatar was hailed as the greatest viewing experience to hit cinemas since Titanic, Cameron’s last theatrical outing. Admittedly, the story does have a strong resonance of ‘boy meets girl, boy messes up, boy returns to save the day’. But the 3D graphics in the cinema were astounding and made it worth watching. Alot of this impressive visual astonishment is lost since Avatar’s arrival on DVD this month. This leaves it up to the story and characters to draw the audience in and ultimately, it doesn’t quite get there.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big a fan of boy meets girl as the next girl, but there just isn’t enough screentime for each of the characters to become properly connected like one should. The script is iffy at times and even the protangonists don’t pull you in entirely. You do find yourself rooting for the natives though, and Lang provides a character you can’t help but love to hate. So is the DVD worth watching? I think so. Even without the 3D effects, the world of Pandora is asthetically pleasing and provides an adequate backdrop for the love story between Sully and Neytiri. The action scenes will keep the boys interested too! Granted the 3D experience in the cinema was a greater technical display, but there’s still enough there to reaffirm Cameron’s position as one of the most interesting and imaginative filmakers of our time.
