___AVATAR Review Thread___

My thoughts - Overall pretty good, definately one for the blu-ray collection in 6 months.

Story - its no LOTR, but there is enough to keep you engaged and bring an emotional attachment to some of the characters. Half way through the movie - you'll definately know whos side you are on.

Music - overall pretty decent, but I felt it a little too loud and upbeat in parts of the movie which seemed to detract from the gravity of what was happening on screen:
especially during the final battle

Visuals - stunning for the most part - you can really believe Pandora exists. Claims it looks like a video game are just stupid and the online trailers really dont do the visuals justice. The effects on the humanoid characters are still not quite there, but certainly light years ahead of anything that has gone before. You can tell something just doesnt look right, but then again - its hard to fool millions of years of evolution.

3D - I'm not sold on the 3d effect. It was nice to watch and did add another dimension to the movie (excuse the pun) - but did it make it look "more realistic" - i'm not so sure.
 
I liked the film's message (which has riled US right-wingers because it dares to suggest America does not have the right to invade other countries and steal their resources). Away form that it can be seen as about seeing through another person's eyes.

Above all its a stunningly beautiful film that manages to overcome the "uncanny valley" (which has defeated many film-makers).
 
Well ...

the good :

I thought the realisaton of Pandora was fantastic , the greatest portrayal of an alien world I've ever seen , and incredibly beautiful .

the hardware - the shps and vehicles were fantastc , especially the scale , they really seemed massive .

the not so good:

I never really forgot the Na'vi were CG , I think this is a mix of not qiute good enough CG and poor character .

the story - it was fine but lacked tension and twists.

the characters weren't as interesting or likeable as they should have been , needed a bit more humour to connect the characters .

conclusion:
pretty damn fantastic in some respects but not a great film .
 
We paid out for the full Imax 3D version. I have to say I wasn't impressed by the 3D and it alternatively gave me nose and head ache for about the first hour. The only really good 3D bits were the falling bits of fire from the felled tree of life, I wanted to bat them away.

The graphics were truly astonishing and my mind moved between thinking how incredible they were to actually forgetting I was watching graphics instead of real blue people.

As other reviews have said, there was nothing new in the story and I kept thinking it reminded me of another film. And then it came to me, it's Dances with Wolves with blue people.

So, well done to Weta for the graphics but James Cameron could spend a little more on original character and script ideas.
 
Titanic wasn't just popular, it still is the highest grossing movie of all time. In just video/DVD rentals alone it did over $900m!

James Cameron knows how to make a successful box office smash with legs, basically. Movie making is mostly a business, and from that point of view, Cameron is massively successful.
 
Finally saw this today and unfortunately I was underwhelmed. I was with it for the first hour or so, intrigued by the use of 3D, the overall visuals and the initial plot. but the novelty of the 3D wore off after the first hour or so and there wasn't much else to hold my attention. There wasn't anything here I hadn't seen in numerous other "experience the rainforest/jungle" movies, particularly Disney's Pocahontas.

The only interesting and original story element didn't arrive until the final battle was underway and the planet responded with attacks by the rhino-type creatures and the flying creatures.

Quite frankly, I was rather bored from about an hour in to when the final battle began. There just wasn't enough story and character development to sustain such a long running time. If you think back to The Dark Knight, it was such a rich blockbuster in terms of the complexities of its plot and the progression of its characters. I saw little of that here.

Too much of it seemed like an IMAX movie to me. lovely visuals but not serving any real story point. It was like George Lucas not making The Phantom Menace until the era of digital effects had developed and then not paying enough attention to the fundamentals of the film. In its day, the effects in Jurassic Park were far more involving and the film didn't constantly pause to say "look at how pretty all this is".
 
Saw it (in 3D) midnight to 3am last night and absolutley loved it.

It's not a movie to be over analysed or nit picked at - or require some sort of seriously written review as if it mattered. It's aimed at giving the cinema goer an entertaining experience, particularly visually, and that's exactly what it does. Definitely worth the
 
I've noticed people can be very bitchy here. Everyone likes differnt things and everyone is entitled to their opinion without being made fun of.

I personally don't know what to make of it until I actually see it. My tickets are for the 3D version shown where I live on wednesday.
 
I saw it the other day and thought that it was visually stunning. The world was beautiful and the creatures that lived within it were amazing. The use of 3D was well done, and at certain points, it did genuinely feel as though I could reach out and touch things. Unfortunately, my friend found that using the glasses gave her a headache, so she watched most of the film without - which is a shame because she missed a lot, and ended up seeing a lot of it blurred.

My only real problem was the length, it really didn't need to be that long, and they could have cut 40 mins or so and it wouldn't have mattered.

It was a total experience to watch, but I wouldn't say it was one of the best films out there.
 
Having just re-watched the Lord of the Rings films, i feel that Avatar is definitely 5 years advanced. The effects on this were absolutely stunning, my friend who i saw it with couldn't actually believe that the surroundings weren't real.



I'm glad he didn't have spears flying out of the screen, that is using 3D as a gimmick. What Cameron did here is what 3D should be, and that is immersing you in the world and making you feel that you can step into the screen. It's more about the depth of field effect than throwing shit at the audience to get a reaction.

You're probably the only person i've encountered that says that they didn't feel immersed in Pandora. Even people that didn't like the film because of it's supposedly weak story say that the 3D managed to immerse them in the world.



Having read your post i'm actually surprised that you've given it such a relatively high rating. Most of what you've written makes it sound like you thought it was rubbish, i couldn't actually find one completely positive comment in your post:confused:
 
Several showings today at my cinema. I'm going for the 9.40 showing this morning! Not sure if it's sold out or what, but as a Cineworld unlimited customer I wasn't given the chance to prebook! So if this mornings one is sold out ( I doubt it) then I can book for one later today if they haven't all sold out already.
If not then I won't get a chance until after Christmas to see it.
 
Opinions aren't these magical things which can't be disputed. If someone were to come on and say "catwoman is superior to The Godfather", that would be laughable. To give Avatar a near perfect verdict is, in MY PRECIOUS OPINION, equally laughable. If the only back up one can have to my complaints is "well its just my opinion", then your verdict lacks some spine. You can't say something like that and not be prepared to defend yourself.
 
Wow wow wow just been to see this at the IMAX, absolutely fantastic, loved it, only problem was it gave all three of us stinking headaches, maybe it was the massive screen ?? Worth every penny though :-)
 
For the record, it's James Horner's song, they just got Leona Lewis to sing over it after it had already been composed.

But yes, the song is used throughout the film, but it is just the score, there's no singing. The only time that Leona's version is heard is over the credits. I actually quite like the song, and i normally can't stand the woman:o
 
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