"Avatar"

[cyberdude557]

Movie events don’t get bigger than this. James Cameron’s long-awaited follow-up to Titanic, the most successful film to date, is immense in every way: from the ambition and scope of its vision, to the ground-breaking technological wizardry, to the staggering size of its budget.

Estimates of the production costs vary widely, but recent theories place Avatar alongside Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End as one of the most expensive films made.

The success or failure of this high-stakes gamble of a movie will send seismic ripples throughout the film industry. If it tanks, Avatar could pose more of an immediate threat to the Hollywood infrastructure than the San Andreas Fault.

Film fans as well as business insiders have cause to root for Avatar’s success: the failure of such a high profile original concept would mean that the industry will become even more risk-averse and reliant on the proven lure of sequels and remakes.

But on the strength of the film’s well-received world premiere in the Odeon Leicester Square, in Central London, last night the movie industry players of Los Angeles should not be too worried about losing their houses just yet.

Avatar is an overwhelming, immersive spectacle. The state-of-the-art 3D technology draws us in, but it is the vivid weirdness of Cameron’s luridly imagined tropical otherworld that keeps us fascinated.

It’s a world that takes a little getting used to. Cameron’s vision owes something to Hayao Miyazaki’s meticulous fantasies and something to the 1992 Australian animation FernGully: The Last Rainforest. At times it verges on the tacky, like a futuristic air freshener advertisement with the colour contrast turned up to the max. The ethically accented orchestral score certainly doesn’t help matters. But mostly, it’s a place of wonder full of exotically freakish animal composites � iridescent lizard birds, hammer-headed rhinos � and sentient vegetation.

Assuming correctly that the special effects would turn out to be the stars of this film, Cameron avoided the big name casting route, opting instead for the relatively unknown Australian actor Sam Worthington in the central role of paraplegic former marine, Jake Sully.

The wheelchair-bound war hero is selected to take part in a top-secret programme. He will travel to a lush extraterrestrial moon called Pandora which is inhabited by a cobalt-skinned race of ten foot tall humanoid aliens known as the Na’vi.

Aware that the core audience for the film is likely to be teenaged boys, Cameron has equipped the female Na’vi with supermodel looks and curves in all the right places, as well as tails and pointy ears.

Sully finds himself a pawn, caught between two camps: the empathetic scientists led by Sigourney Weaver and the corporate guns for hire who want to aggressively plunder the mineral resources of Pandora.

Thanks to his blossoming relationship with Na’vi warrior princess Neytiri (a CGI motion- captured performance from Zoe Saldana), Sully begins to question the legitimacy of the mission.

With the use of such charged phrases as “shock and awe� and Sully’s curt summation of the situation (“When people are sitting on stuff you want, you make them your enemy�) Cameron adds a thought-provoking political dimension to the story.

Will the film match Titanic’s gigantic box office haul of $1.8 billion. Possibly not. The soppy, soggy doomed love story of Jack and Rose hit a particular chord with audiences. But I would be very surprised if James Cameron didn’t have another sizable hit on his hands.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article6952668.ece

Trailer:

[hoodsbucs]

Im sure everyone here will love it, but this movie looks really lame to me.   Way too much CGI.  And crappy looking CGI for that...

[Buccobruce]

Im sure everyone here will love it, but this movie looks really lame to me.   Way too much CGI.  And crappy looking CGI for that...

yeah its amazing how this board eats up anything with CGI in it.

[cyberdude557]

Im sure everyone here will love it, but this movie looks really lame to me. Way too much CGI. And crappy looking CGI for that...

I thought the same when I saw the first trailer. But apparently the film got a standing ovation at the premiere in London and is already getting Oscar buzz.

Plus practically all James Cameron movies have CGI, and they are usually pretty good.

It's in Michael Bay's films where it usually looks like crap.

[Booker]

I don't see the hype either. It doesn't look that good to me

[alldaway]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzz

Sherlock Holmes looks a lot of fun though.

[Fitz66]

Im sure everyone here will love it, but this movie looks really lame to me. Way too much CGI. And crappy looking CGI for that...

I thought the same when I saw the first trailer. But apparently the film got a standing ovation at the premiere in London and is already getting Oscar buzz.

Plus practically all James Cameron movies have CGI, and they are usually pretty good.

It's in Michael Bay's films where it usually looks like crap.

I think it'll be a little bit different than regular CGI in 3-D

[swashbuccaler]

This movie looks like absolute horse-crap. I heard an early review that said the dialog in this one is laughably bad. If your the type who can be sucked away into a film like this, then by all means go.. But it really looks like a joke.

[spartan]

Gotta be honest and say it looks pretty good to me, going by the trailers. But then again I do like Sci-Fi stuff. I will wait for a few more reviews before I go rushing out to see it though. I have seen so many films where the trailers looked awesome but the movie itself pretty much sucked. I guess it comes down if you like the genre or not.

[TheAman]

Two Words: James. Cameron.

Those two words means the movie will be good.  Dude hasn't made a bad movie in his life.

[swashbuccaler]

Two Words: James. Cameron.

Those two words means the movie will be good.  Dude hasn't made a bad movie in his life.

His other movies also didnt involve the blue man group as its protagonists either.

[cyberdude557]

Two Words: James. Cameron.

Those two words means the movie will be good. Dude hasn't made a bad movie in his life.

His other movies also didnt involve the blue man group as its protagonists either.

People probably thought the same about warrior machines destroying the human race. That plot worked out pretty well.

[swashbuccaler]

Two Words: James. Cameron.

Those two words means the movie will be good. Dude hasn't made a bad movie in his life.

His other movies also didnt involve the blue man group as its protagonists either.

People probably thought the same about warrior machines destroying the human race. That plot worked out pretty well.

Im really not even judging it by the blue people thing... I was just making a lame joke..

What bothers me is all the buzz coming from it that says its the biggest corn fest..

Check out the laughably bad theme song to the movie(obviously trying to mimic Celine Deion's song in Titanic)..

[Boid Fink]

I LOVED the Terminator Series.  I thought this movie looked alright.

[alldaway]

You will either love/hate Avatar, so each person may see it differently.  I love Sci Fi but I hate the plot given it is Dances with Smurfs.