Okay, so let me say that I'm going to see this again because the theatre I saw it in had a piece of shit sound system. I swear, I wouldn't be surprised if they had hooked up a laptop and were using laptop speakers in the corner. I'm going to see it in 3-D and might write a review for that as well, but I want to make one thing clear: this is a movie that HAS to be seen in theatres. You can't get the full effect otherwise.
If I had to use one word to describe this movie, it would be "breathtaking." I am usually not a fan of computer generated special effects because they tend to suck (Freddie vs. Jason, anyone?), but the visual effects in this movie were astounding. Even though you could easily tell they were animated, they fit seamlessly into the plot because of the way Jake describes his time with the Na'vi: he starts to confuse dream with reality and can't tell which life of his is real. The creativity of the animated creatures blew me away. It must have been so fucking fun to work on the design team of this movie. Every time the scientific team went out, I wanted to see what new animal or plant was going to be introduced. Yes, I was THAT invested in it.
I mean, the story itself was interesting and kept your attention, but it was one that had been done before. It was like watching Pochahontas meets Independence Day or something. You pretty much could see from the start what was going to happen. The brilliant thing about the visual effects and spectacularly imaginitive world of Pandora, however, was that you wanted to see how it would happen, so you were kept watching. I knew Jake was going to switch sides- you could tell that from the first time he ran out of the doctor's room. What I wanted to see was all the little details that affected his decision- the animal/ hunter bonding, the Tree of Souls- those were what drove the movie, because without them you had an overdone drama that had been seen before. With them, though, you have this beautiful world that hooks you in from the minute the credits roll.
Oh and I did appreciate James Cameron's blatant slap in the face to colonialism. Political statements in movies make me happy (District 9 is a good example of this).
The great thing about seeing this on the big screen is that you feel like you're actually there, which is why I would highly suggest, 3-D or no, that you go RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
Peace!
The Movie Mistress
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As far as this being a story that's been done before it's basically a slightly more serious and more explosion-y version of fern gully.
ReplyDeleteI was just waiting for a comic relief character played by Robin Williams to show up. Which, unfortunately, he never did.
Omg it totally is! Except that there was a douche-bag G.I. Joe colonel instead of Tim Curry. I fucking love Fern Gully. Ha I hadn't even thought about that. In my head I just kept comparing it to Pochahontas. I still liked it though. It was really beautiful to watch, especially the flight scenes.
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