[Movie] Avatar 3D

I’ve just returned from Avatar, the first James Cameron film in over a decade, and I will concede that it exceeded my very low expectations. Not by a great deal, but it did. That isn’t high praise, but if I told you everything now you’d stop reading. So, let’s got on with it. James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D.

Avatar Movie Poster

The plot of this film is fairly simple. Humans have gone to a new planet (Pandora) because there is a special mineral there that they want to mine, called unobtainium. Yes, that is the real name. They can’t get to the big deposit of the mineral though because the local indigenous population, the Na’vi, live right on top of it. Cue the paraplegic ex-marine called Jake that you’ve all seen in the trailer. His brother was supposed to go out and take over an avatar as part of the science mission on the planet. He died, so his twin takes over so that the DNA will still match in this hybrid of human and Na’vi DNA. Jake is offered a deal. In exchange for getting his legs back he is to infiltrate the Na’vi and get them to relocate peacefully. He meets up with a nice young Na’vi called Neytiri who takes him to her tribe. To avoid actively spoiling the plot of the film for you that is all I will say. If you’ve seen the trailer you know that much, and more. Knowing that you can also probably work out the whole story.

That is one flaw with this film. The plot is nothing that we haven’t seen before, the dialogue is weak, and you can tell from about 15 minutes in where the whole film is going. The message is clear from the start. We need to look after the planet and be nice to indigenous people. Strange to hear that coming from an American, but what can you do. The problem is that he sets this up and then lets it all go at the end with a CGI battle that is supposed to enforce the message, but instead is just blowing lots stuff up.

The world creation, however, is brilliant. Unlike the clunky dialogue Cameron has done what we all know he can do, and instead of giving us actors in front of a green screen that has some pretty pictures on, he has given us a world with depth. I don’t mean that he has used the “RealD 3D” to make it look like the world goes into the screen, I mean he has made a world that could exist. He’s also put Motion Capture to use very well, especially when you can look at a 10 or 12 foot smurf and know that it’s actually Sigourney Weaver.

The actors have done the best they can with clunky dialogue in a film that drags on well past the time it should. If you have given a plot that the audience can map out from the start, you don’t need to make a 160 minute film out of it. I don’t need to see all the travel when I knew 10-20 minutes ago where it was they were going. I also don’t need the plot explained to me again and again. And again.

Now a short word on the 3D. This is the best that a 3D film has done, and is likely to do for a long time. That doesn’t mean it needs it. This 3D doesn’t immerse me in the world or the story. Nothing could immerse me in that story, and the world brought me in, not the 3D. There was one scene in particular that existed just for 3D, the rest tried to use it “subtly”, but there really was no need. The best has been made, 3D is still nothing great. Drop it.

So there you have it. The film is too long, but the world beautifully made. The film is worth a watch. It’s not brilliantly original. It’s not the best plot. It’s not got great dialogue, but there are things there that will impress.It’s not the future of films that we were promised, but it isn’t awful. Just mediocre.

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This content is reposted from the Random Blog of Random Blogginess. The original post can be found here. It is used, with permission, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

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