At the Movies with Fatwayne

Wow! Let me say it again, WOW!! I was totally blown away by this movie which I saw in IMAX 3D. It was two and one half hours of jaw dropping excitement. A magical planet with magical creatures and plant life not to mention the 10 foot tall humanoid inhabitants replete with tails (Na’vi). This was one beautifully filmed movie employing up to the minute, state of the art CGI and 3D techniques. Set in the year 2154, you will have no difficulty accepting this due to the fantastic sets, computer displays and everything else in general. This is a very well thought out film and one that had been on the drawing board for years just waiting for technology to progress to the point that would do justice to James Cameron’s vision of what he wanted it to be.

In this story the majority of humans are not too nice! The military men are mostly mercenaries while the civilians are only interested in the bottom line regardless of the cost in terms of life or destruction of the environment. They are on an Earth sized moon called Pandora, orbiting a planet called Polyphemus in search of valuable minerals (Unobtainium!). The indigenous inhabitants are called the Na’vi and although larger and stronger than the humans, their weapons are primitive. Although they are fierce warriors, especially when forced to protect their homes and all that they believe in, they seem to be no match for the “men from the sky”.

The title comes from the genetically bred hybrids that can be controlled by their human counterparts while those humans are in a ”sleep” state. The human can control it’s hybrid or “Avatar” and experience what it experiences. One of the humans is the twin of his deceased brother who was in the Avatar program. Since an Avatar had already been created with the dead brother’s DNA, the twin, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is recruited to take his place.

Jake, in the form of his Avatar, is sent into the Na’vi community to learn as much as he can so that the human invaders will have vital information that will allow them to conquer the Na’vi and assess the valuable ores beneath their home. The problem is that Jake becomes sympathetic to the native populace and one female in particular, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). The rest of the story tells of Jake’s conflict between his human comrades and his devotion to Neytiri  and her people.

It is so much fun to watch Jake’s avatar as he learns the skills and ways of the Na’vi. It is so completely different from anything we are familiar with that we are bound to become enthralled in his learning process. There are plants and creatures that we could only imagine in our dreams and only if we were very creative! I truly wish that I was more competent in my descriptive abilities so that I could relate to you the phenomenal experience that this movie offers. I should have studied harder in school!

I must admit to you that seeing this movie in anything less than 3D (and if possible IMAX) might take a bit of the luster off of the experience but a wonderful experience it should be nonetheless!

Quotes from Avatar
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Fatwayne’s Rating   -   -