AVATAR!

I was so extatic to see this movie. I went with my friend Jacob who said he'd been waiting for this movie to come out for about a year. We decided to go together to see it at an early bird showing which means that we pay less than a matinee price. At cinemark you pay "only" 5.50 for the very first showing of the day, plus the three dollars for the 3D formatting. So it was still around 9 bucks for some reason...tax?

Anyway, to the movie....

It opened with some incredible science fiction images of people being shipped off to Pandora, and Jake looking at his dead brothers body. The spaceships made me think of watching a Star Wars film for the first time in theaters. This is what it must have been like for those people back in 1977 when that giant ship came onto the screen. Only this one was in 3D. The visuals aren't too stunning, when they arive on Pandora. We get to meet Sigourney Weaver's character. I immediately began to like her the moment she came on the screen. We begin to understand what the mission is and what an Avatar is. Sigourney Weaver's character begins to talk about the Na'vi people. There is immediately a conflict between the scientists on Pandora studying the people and the Biology of the planet, and the Military forces that want to take the rich minerals that bring in the big bucks.

When the planet is first being explored, I am reminded of Jurassic park when we are first looking at the dinosaurs with the caravan of tour jeeps. Only this world is incredible to behold. It is "planet earth" on steroids, but healthy ones if that is possible. It looks and feels completely real. I had the feeling plenty of times as if I was going to movies for the first time in my life. There were times when I was actually afraid of falling off cliffs, I was afraid of being stabbed in the face, I was afraid of being shot with an arrow. These were all feelings I was literally feeling because of the world that James Cameron created, and because of the ingenious ways the 3D process was implimented. These things I felt throughout the entire movie, not just the moment when the planet was first being explored.

The Na'vi people are beautiful. They have every human quality and characteristic. They express themselves the same ways that we do, only their tails are the additional expressive feature. They are about three to four times the size of humans, and they fly about the trees with the agility of Tarzan. They're eyes, when scaled to size, are much larger; their ears are something in between horse and elf. They're blue skin is the overarching color in the color palette of the film.

When Jake is going between the world of human and na'vi, it is as if he is entering something that is surreal, and dreamlike. Not quite real, but not fake either. The na'vi soon becomes more real to the audience as they becomes more real to Jake. The Na'vi become the focus of the film and they become the people, the Humans almost become the fake monsters that we so often see in VFX films. whatever that means.

The culture of the Na'vi is explained through the lessons of Neytiri to Jake. We learn about the flying beasts and horselike creatures that the Na'vi ride and make a connection with using their hair. We learn about the way they speak to their dead ancestors through the roots of the trees.

anyway that's all i can think of for now. :)