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and it sounds amazing-
Wow. James Cameron pulled it off. I was a big skeptic about Avatar ever since I saw the promotional footage Cameron showed at last summer's San Diego Comic-Con; the effects, the characters, the hype -- none of them were affecting me even though I really wanted them to. I suffered through every Delgo or FernGully or Dances With Wolves joke -- and even made a few myself, I'll admit -- and remain shocked that we're a week away from the movie's release and no one in the general population seems to be buzzing about the movie let alone fully understands what the hell it's about. But neither the film's marketing nor the sizzle reel roadshow that 20th Century Fox and Cameron went on have done Avatar justice. You just have to see it to believe it.
On a technical level, Avatar is a landmark in motion picture history, a film that will be remembered 70 years from now as redefining the grammar and possibilities of cinema much the way that D.W. Griffith's films did. It helps audiences take a giant step forward in their suspension of disbelief in what is "real" onscreen, while raising the bar for what mass appeal genre movies can be and achieve. It also validates all the hype and investment in 3-D and motion-capture animation. And if all that sounds too good to be true, then just know that Avatar is a grand, glorious and kick-ass piece of entertainment, an old-fashioned movie gussied up by state of the art filmmaking. Does Cameron cannibalize from his own films here? Sure, you can't help but think of Aliens (the presence of mech suits and Weaver being the most obvious), but to dismiss the film out of hand on that basis would be narrow-minded. After all, every filmmaker poaches from their own work (Scorsese and Tim Burton spring to mind). Cameron simply knows what he does best, and he does all that and more in Avatar.
Books can (and will) be written on Avatar's visual effects. Cameron and his team have achieved a stunning level of photo-realism in the environment and inhabitants of Pandora and of the mech suits and vessels of the humans. (One thought kept going through my mind during the climactic battle: James Cameron should direct the Halo movie.) He gradually introduces us to the various fantastical elements, allowing us time to let these things become real in our minds. For the most part, the yellow eyes of the Na'vi seem alive and expressive (a first for motion-capture characters, in my opinion), although there are a few times when Jake's looked "dead" to me. The level of detail in the Na'vis' skin, and in the vegetation and beasts of Pandora, is astounding. Not since seeing Star Wars as a little kid have I felt so completely and magically transported to such a strange, new world.
Rest of review here
89 average so far on Metacritic
Wow. James Cameron pulled it off. I was a big skeptic about Avatar ever since I saw the promotional footage Cameron showed at last summer's San Diego Comic-Con; the effects, the characters, the hype -- none of them were affecting me even though I really wanted them to. I suffered through every Delgo or FernGully or Dances With Wolves joke -- and even made a few myself, I'll admit -- and remain shocked that we're a week away from the movie's release and no one in the general population seems to be buzzing about the movie let alone fully understands what the hell it's about. But neither the film's marketing nor the sizzle reel roadshow that 20th Century Fox and Cameron went on have done Avatar justice. You just have to see it to believe it.
On a technical level, Avatar is a landmark in motion picture history, a film that will be remembered 70 years from now as redefining the grammar and possibilities of cinema much the way that D.W. Griffith's films did. It helps audiences take a giant step forward in their suspension of disbelief in what is "real" onscreen, while raising the bar for what mass appeal genre movies can be and achieve. It also validates all the hype and investment in 3-D and motion-capture animation. And if all that sounds too good to be true, then just know that Avatar is a grand, glorious and kick-ass piece of entertainment, an old-fashioned movie gussied up by state of the art filmmaking. Does Cameron cannibalize from his own films here? Sure, you can't help but think of Aliens (the presence of mech suits and Weaver being the most obvious), but to dismiss the film out of hand on that basis would be narrow-minded. After all, every filmmaker poaches from their own work (Scorsese and Tim Burton spring to mind). Cameron simply knows what he does best, and he does all that and more in Avatar.
Books can (and will) be written on Avatar's visual effects. Cameron and his team have achieved a stunning level of photo-realism in the environment and inhabitants of Pandora and of the mech suits and vessels of the humans. (One thought kept going through my mind during the climactic battle: James Cameron should direct the Halo movie.) He gradually introduces us to the various fantastical elements, allowing us time to let these things become real in our minds. For the most part, the yellow eyes of the Na'vi seem alive and expressive (a first for motion-capture characters, in my opinion), although there are a few times when Jake's looked "dead" to me. The level of detail in the Na'vis' skin, and in the vegetation and beasts of Pandora, is astounding. Not since seeing Star Wars as a little kid have I felt so completely and magically transported to such a strange, new world.
Rest of review here
89 average so far on Metacritic
