Avatar

Director : James Cameron
Starring : Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
2009

The billion dollar movie. Actually now it's up to 2.6 billion worldwide. Once it is adjusted for inflation, Avatar becomes the 14th highest grossing film of all time. It only took 310 million to make. A lot of people seemed to either love the movie or hate it saying things like it's a bunch of giant smurfs playing dances with wolves. I think they are kind of right, the story is pretty hackneyed but other things make up for it.

Avatar is a story about a handicapped marine who travels to another planet in order to continue his recently deceased brothers work. That work would include morphing his mind into the body of a genetically engineered aliens body in order to learn their customs and hopefully open up some kind of mutual interspecies relationship. It sounds really complex but it's basically a disney movie. Once the main character, Jake Sully, spends some time with the aliens, he of course sides with them and rightfully so. The marines only care about mining unobtanium (what a clever name) wipe out anything in their way. It really is disney stuff. They go through this whole sequence where Jake has to earn the trust of the aliens and eventually he gets it on with one of them. There is a pretty sweet battle at the end and the aliens win, but you already knew they would from the beginning.

Rating : 4 stars. This movie is eye candy. Not the best movie I have ever seen but it does do somethings better than any other movie has before. The story is boring and the acting isn't that great. I did love the marine colonel though, that guy ruled. I started rooting for him by the second half of the film. The planet Pandora looks wonderful. Any scene with the flying raptors ruled especially the big battle at the end. Only thing is the visuals were the only thing Avatar has going for it. Once the my initial awe of seeing everything wore off, I was kind of bored.

Best Scene : Any scene that includes either alien fighting or parkour except for the final showdown with the colonel, that was dumb.

Quotes :
"Just relax and let your mind go blank. That shouldn't be too hard for you."

"You haven't got lost in the woods, have you? You still remember what team you're playing for?"

"A Marine in an Avatar body? Gives me the goosebumps!"

"One life ends, another begins."

"You are not in Kansas anymore, you are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen, respect that fact every second of every day."

"Thanks Jake, I'm gettin all emotional, 'might just give you a big wet kiss!"

Screens:








Trailer