A One Mann’s Movies review of “Avatar” (2009 – 2022 re-release).
“Avatar” was a BIG film. THE BIGGEST in fact, since still holds the record for the highest grossing movie of all time. So it’s odd that I’d only ever seen it once, at the cinema on first release. After seeing it in glorious 3D on the big screen, I had no desire to revisit a 2D / small-screen version of Pandora. That is, until now with a timely re-release of the movie ahead of the December release of its much-delayed sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water”. Would it still make an impact? The answer was a big “Yes”!
Bob the Movie Man Rating(s):
Plot Summary:
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is an army veteran, invalided and in a wheelchair, who takes the place of his dead brother in a mission to the planet of Pandora. Jake is needed to ‘populate’ an ‘Avatar’ designed to act as a mediator between the incoming miners and the rebellious locals. But while he starts acting as the ‘inside man’ to the militaristic Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), he is not prepared for the impact of engaging with the local tribe, and specifically the leader’s beautiful daughter Neytiri (Zoe Saldana)
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi.
Directed by: James Cameron.
Written by: James Cameron.
Twitter Handles: #officialavatar.
“Avatar” Review:
Positives:
- I was prepared to be wowed again by the visual spectacle of “Avatar”. And I was prepared to be wowed again by the classy use of 3D, probably one of the few films which used it to add emotion and depth to the story and not just for gimmicks. But I wasn’t prepared for what a great movie experience it is:
- The overall story has emotional depth and even more resonance with its ecological message now than it did on first release in 2009.
- The initial conflict and growing love between Sully and Neytiri is beautifully portrayed. In fact I absolutely love Zoe Saldana’s portrayal of Neytiri and grinned like a Cheshire Cat every time she snarled and bared her teeth!
- Stephen Lang makes for a memorable villain, albeit one that’s a bit two-dimensional.
- And the final aerial conflict is as good a war-movie sequence as you’ll find anywhere. When that flotilla of ships hoves into view, it reminds me of the helicopters in “Apocalypse Now”. It also reminded me (although I’m not a fan of the sequence!) of the Ewok battle against the Empire in “Return of the Jedi”.
- It’s technically superb. It was nominated for nine Oscars in the 2010 awards and won three: for Cinematography, Visual Effects and Art Direction (now “Production Design”). After two hours of viewing, all of the wizardry really makes you feel as if you could inhabit Pandora as a living, breathing place.
- The much missed James Horner’s music is splendid.
Negatives
- There’s a lot of heavy and unnecessary exposition, particularly at the start of the film where a ‘tell don’t show’ approach rules. In one scene, Parker Selfridge – Giovanni Ribisi’s under-written management character – mansplains all about the mission, and the need to mine “Unobtainium” (UGH!!!). But he does this to Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) whose clearly already been there for a number of years!!
- There’s also a Sully voiceover – regular readers will know my hatred of those – which is largely unnecessary and again could have been ‘show not tell’.
Monkeys?
There is a nice “monkey” in the early part of the end-titles. It’s a five minute or so 3D excerpt of the upcoming “Avatar” sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water”.
Summary Thoughts on “Avatar”:
It was really fun going back to the world of “Avatar” again. When James Cameron announced that there were going to be another FOUR Avatar sequels, after a gap of thirteen years, I was very negative about the idea. And to be honest, I’m still little more than luke-warm about it. “Avatar” was pretty good as a standalone tale, all nicely wrapped up at the end. So it will all come down to whether there is a compelling STORY to be told through these follow-on movies. And also whether there’s an audience with an appetite to be re-engaged. And the jury is still out on that question. But at least having seen this again, I’m willing to give the next movie a chance.
I was late getting to see this, and it only has a limited re-release run. But it’s very much recommended for a revisit, if you can still find it showing near you.
Trailer for “Avatar”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmtNL7HGxsM .
