Needless to say.... SPOILER ALERT
I typically don't write reviews for movies since they tend to be underwhelming. You sit through a movie, slightly enjoy what you have viewed, hoping to get your 8$ worth. There typically is one epic movie per year. In 2007 we had Ratatouille. In 2008, The Dark Knight. For 2009 Avatar takes that place.
I am sorry to say that the version of Avatar that I saw was not in the theatres. I downloaded a video camera version from bit torrent as unfortunately the IMAX in my city is not airing Avatar 3D until February or March.
I downloaded the movie after reading a lot of hype on the internet. In part because I read about how much better the movie was in 3D, and part since the signal to noise ratio is terrible with movies. The video and sound quality was actually pretty good for a camera recording. Certainly much higher then the one for Star Trek I viewed.
Viewing the downloaded version of the movie provided an unexpected advantage. The subtitles for the Na'Vi language were in some European language. Consequently, I did not know what the Na'Vi were saying when try were addressing the other Na'Vis. However based upon the (human like) facial expressions along with the tone of voice I could infer what they were saying. I believe this added to the mystery and as such added to the experience.
Character development in this movie is rather two dimensional. All characters fit to their stereotypes without comprimise. You have Sam Worthington portraying Jake Sully, the disabled former soldier. Zoe Saldaña portraying Neytiri, a Na'vi princess. Stephen Lang portraying Colonel Miles Quaritch, the security contractor whose single purpose is to defeat the natives. Michelle Rodriguez portraying Trudy Chacon, a hover-copter pilot that won't attack civilians and who is loyal to the main characters for untold reasons.
Seeing this movie in 3D I had assumed the characters would be three-dimentional, sadly they were not. Every character is two dimensional. The notable characters are as follows:
Corporal Jake Sully is a paraplegic marine, who arrived at Pandora for the sole purpose of acquiring enough money for the expensive operation that would repair his spinal cord. The first time Jake enters his avatar is precious, it is what I believe, exactly what a paraplegic would do if given the chance to walk (if even for a small time). Initially he is completely determined to abide by the colonel's wishes and spy on the na'vi, to find their weaknesses and to bring about their downfall. After spending more time with the na'vi he begins to feel empathy for them and begins to care about preserving their way of life. I believe it is this, how his loyalties change, and the love story that compel people liken this movie to Dances with Wolves.
Each time Jake left the Avatar control pod and ventured into the human world I was disappointed. It seemed as if the "HDR" na'vi world was more "real" and exciting. I anticipated Jake returning from the grit of the human world. By the end of the movie the human world seemed like a bad nightmare for Jake.
Dr. Grace Augustine is the lead scientist of the human's expedition to this planet. She concerns herself mostly with the biology of the planet and not on a single-minded fixation with the super conductor. She along with Norm Spellman discover the planetary wide neural network. When you first meet her she is abrasive and confrontational when it comes to Jake being on the avatar project. This first impression may make you dislike her initially, however by the time she dies she has become likeable enough that you feel bad for her.
Trudy Chacon is one of the hover-chopper pilots situated on the planet. This character while being Michelle Rodriguez (so of course likeable) is underdeveloped and we are left with many questions. Why does she help the main characters? Why the impromptu change of heart when they are attacking the tree? This character would have been much better with at least 10 minutes of back story. That would prompt her from being a third tier character to a second tier character (behind Jake and Neytiri).
Parker Selfridge is the corporate administrator of the human expedition on Pandora. The expedition is funded entirely by a company, without government control or involvement. This effectively makes Parker the ruling king of the humans. All he cares about is the bottom line -- to a fault. Parker stereotypically allows his greed to be his sole motivator. Reprecussions be damned. The look of defeat when he is escorted off the planet is simply priceless.
Norm Spellman is a anthropologist avatar controller he is the initial mentor of Jake as he is getting used to the avatar. After the beginning of the movie he is turned into a background character that tags along with Jake. His avatar dies which is unfortunate considering that he stays behind on the planet.
Colonel Miles Quaritch is the base's security contractor and the film's primary antagonist. This character is also based upon the ultra-macho army ranger stereotype. Over the top, but it works well for this story. I mean who says things along the lines of "this isn't over!". Who breaks seal on a command bunker exposing everyone to the risk of poison atmosphere for the chance to take some pot shots at a helecopter!
Neytiri is the princess of the Omaticaya the character from the Na'vi who ends up being central to the story, who is eventually falls in love with Jake due to his bravery and fearlessness. A very simple character however and not much background other then a certain spiritual quality that every na'vi shares.
Mo'at is the Omaticaya's spiritual leader or shaman. She has the deepest understanding of how the "Gaia" planet functions. She is also a very simple character, not much to talk about.
Tsu'Tey is heir to the chieftainship of the tribe who is Neytiri's betrothed, prior to the events of the film. Tsu'Tey plays the character who does not trust Jake until near the end of the film.
Eytucan is the Omaticaya's clan leader, husband of Mo'at and Neytiri's father.
Visually the movie was stunning. I believe they successfully provided an environment that was alien enough while keeping things relatable to a large degree. The attention to detail in the environment was amazing. I found -- at least at first, unable to determine whether the Na'Vi were simply people in makeup or CGI.
Pandora is the most realistic world I’ve seen made with computer graphics. The motion capture they used to do the faces finally pulls the quality out of the uncanny valley. The quality here is just above Final Fantasy – The Spirits Within, a movie with excellent visuals. The visuals were inhuman enough that we differentiated between them and reality. Just like how Final Fantasy was a benchmark of CGI in 2001, Avatar is the same in 2009.
The story was predictable in the same sense that a roller coaster is. One can enjoy a predictable story by enjoying the ride you are on. There are some archetypical plots that are re-used over and over -- for good reason, they resonate with us, they move us, these are what keep us captivated for hours. When it comes down to it every story (at least the ones that hollywood generates) is either "a hero goes on a journey" or "a stranger comes to town". Avatar is both. It is a monomyth. To steal a line from Reddit: I expected a less predictable story in Avatar. I mean the man made Titanic, I didn't see that ship sinking at all!
The acting suited the film well it wasn't overdone "gritty and realistic", nor was it full of romantic soap opera crap. Avatar is a nice balance in the middle that allowes you to relate to the characters while still having them seem semi-realistic and interesting.
This is a science fiction story done right. It exposes aspects of fantasy and futuristic science while not exposing implementation details. What is explained is done visually in a way that can be ignored if you don't care too much about such things. This allows us to enjoy the movie while having our own experience and knowledge fill in the implementation not allowing such details to end up being scrutinized and undermining the validity of the movie.
As an aside, the magnetic fields required to lift huge mountain-boulders off the ground (assuming a room temperature super conductor -- Unobtainium) would rip apart the hemoglobin in your blood. Luckily something like this is easily overlooked. Having the Avatar control station in these mountains would have to function through quantum entanglement as any radio communication would be interfered with. One small note, to all those who are complaining about the element name. Unobtainium is a perfectly cromulent word, it is used in real scientific contexts.
Speaking of magnetic fields, any magnetic field strong enough to disrupt communications would interfere with any kind of RF Based Avatar control. If the control was RF, the control station on the floating mountains would not be functional. This leaves other forms of communication. This movie is situated 100 plus years from now, we can assume that technology has progressed exponentially since now. I would guess the method of control is likely to be quantum entanglement. This would also explain to an extent why the avatars have to be genetically coded to the user. Unfortunately using quantum entanglement brings up several other questions. I am the first to admit my knowledge of quantum mechanics is merely at the armchair level. My understanding however is that no matter how far apart two entangled particles get, they still reflect each other. So why didn’t they just control them from Earth? Why didn’t they just send Avatars into space rather then actual people?
Both the humans and the na'vi had ways to bond with other creatures. The humans had the avatar system, the na'vi have the nerve ending tail on the back of their head. I believe this shows that both have the desire of empathy and understanding with the other creatures around them. It also highlights that both have a desire to be greater than what their bodies allow them to be. On the side of the humans the avatar system wasn't necessarily bad, just with a bad premise.
One thing about the movie that didn’t make much sense was that Jake fully integrated into the culture within 3 months. In any human culture it would take several years to fully assimilate. This is not taking into account that this culture is truly alien. Setting this up over a longer timeline such as 5 or 10 years would be more intellectually honest. It personally takes me more than 3 months to fully trust someone. It would also fit more with the growing up theme.
From watching the movie and from the subsequent discussion I have come up with four possible ways people can interpret the message from this movie. Some consider Avatar to be an anti-technology movie. Some consider it to be a colonial guilt movie. Some consider it to be an allegory to the Iraq invasion and occupation committed by the United States. Finally some consider it to be a movie about greed and the senseless pursuit of corporate profits.
Understanding the movie as an anti-technology movie is rather disingenuous in my opinion. The movie does show that the na'vi people could survive properly and in harmony with nature. That is all it shows. It does not state that technology is bad, in fact in my opinion it states the opposite. Technology allows us, simple humans, to expand further then our making. Needless to say I did not choose this as my interpretation.
Colonial guilt is the most common interpretation that I hear from Americans. The gist of the idea is that Native Americans were treated terribly when the Europeans colonized. Avatar does bear many similarities to this. The humans fear the native creatures, are simply here to exploit the resources and were running over the indigenous people in pursuit of these resources. This has some merit, however my generation had nothing to do with those unfortunate events. Consequently I did not choose this as my interpretation.
A friend of mine mentioned that he thought it was an allegory to the Iraq occupation. The americans being there occupying a "land" in persuit of a resource (oil). I consider this a modified version of the above colonial guilt interpretation and as such is not mine.
Finally, you have corporate entity that senselessly tries to pursue profits for their shareholders. Consequences be damned. This interpretation shows Avatar as a movie that advocates against greed and shows that all actions have consequences. This is my interpretation.
Other messages included an overly simplistic environmental message, simply stating that the humans ruined their own world (simply given with no qualifications). Aside from that there were no overtly political messages. It was nice to have a movie with no sucker punches or deus ex machinas and a movie where the title actually fits!
One of the things that I really liked about this movie was the gaia concept was actually based upon some scientific concept rather then purely mythology and belief. The people actually had a connection, the na'vi people didn't truly die as their memories lived on in this network. The exposed neural endings that all the major creatures had was a novel concept. Such a device would have had to evolved early on in the planetary biology as both the autonomous and fixed creatures have this capability.
In the final battle where Miles Quaritch was in the mech suit I found it amusing that he pulled out a knife. It makes sense though considering that the primary purpose was to mine, not to do the stabby stabby dance with the natives. Having a tool to pry or cut with would be useful.
Simple stories appeal to us because they are like an idealistic dream. Movies such as this connect to the audience on some emotionally sensitive level. This is the reason that Avatar is so successful. The level of appeal depends on what your goals in life are. For me, my goals are to get enough money so I can get a cottage somewhere and live there peacefully until I die. I enjoy the wilderness and enjoy camping. Because of this Avatar resonates with me. Regardless however it is still an idealistic dream.
The greedy corporation was driven off the planet by the end of the movie. I wouldn't expect the humans to simply back off. I would expect them to return in force. The only concievable way to stop them would be to annihilate everyone as they arrived. Eventually earth would stop sending people. If I were to look back to our history I would liken this to germany after World War One. The german people defeated but still repressed. I could see Avatar 2 being like World War Two. I expect the second chapter (which is now confirmed by James Cameron) to be much, much darker.
Avatar is the most epic movie I have seen since the Lord of the Rings. When I use the word epic I am referring to the traditional definition of the world. Epic as it is now has been distorted and beaten to death by the under 25 internet crowd. The word epic is now used in place of the words great or neat. I however refer to it in the more traditional sense. Epic to me means impressively great. Like LOTR in fact, I did not notice the 3 hours passing when watching it. This movie is going to stand out for years to come. Think of how you regard Lord of the Rings 5 years later. This will be Avatar's throne.
This is a movie with 15 years of development behind it. Every bit of the movie is worth seeing. This is the perfect way to end the decade, instead of ending with JarJar in 1999 we end it with a alien epic. While the ending was predictable, I wouldn't have it any other way. Seeing Jake transfer to the new body, throwing away the only remaining divide between him and his new people... Exactly the ending we expected. I will conclude with quoting what Ebert said in his review. "There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely."