Movie Review: Avatar

With Avatar, writer/director James Cameron has done something we don’t see often enough. Like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and George Lucas’s Star Wars, he has vividly created an entire world for us to experience, explore, and just plain be amazed by.

And vivid that world is. I’m sure springing for 3-D helped, but there’s just so much to see on screen. It’s like Cameron conjured a world that starts an inch in front of the camera and extends beyond the horizon. And, even more, the many swoops of the camera prove that he imagined a world that extends up, down, and all around as well.

And the viewer is plunked down right in the middle of it. There are more monsters than King Kong and little floating jellyfish-like creatures that act as jungle spirits. The indigenous Na’vi people are towering, blue, and cat-like – and strikingly photogenic as they crouch and hiss. If you still harbor childhood Tarzan fantasies, you’ll be in heaven.

One of my daughters said, “I just loved sitting there and getting lost in that world.” My other daughter said, “That was a long movie. I wish it had been longer.” A friend said, “I needed to pee for the entire last two hours and I still didn’t want it to end.” Tip: it’s almost three hours, so go light on the beverages.

The story follows an army of Earth soldiers to the planet Pandora to mine an ore called “unobtanium” (rolls eyes). Unfortunately, the richest deposit lies beneath a great tree, the sacred center of the Na’vi culture. So, avatars, fake Na’vi, are created in a lab to be remotely controlled by sleeping Earth soldiers. Their mission: to convince the Na’vi to get out of the way so they can blow the jungle to bits.

Article Author: Todd Ford

Todd is an avid film buff, web developer, and passionate enthusiast of competitive swimming. He shares his living space with his wife, two daughters, six cats and two dogs. He is also involved with a local film society in Bismarck, ND as a critic, board member, web master, and film selector. …

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