Still, once you get over the similarity to Costner’s film, Avatar is fantastic. It’s a bit like listening to Led Zeppelin – the core is ‘appropriated’ from elsewhere, but so much is brought to the table that it becomes a completely new beast.
We follow marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) to the alien planet of Pandora. Planet Earth has an energy crisis and the natives of Pandora are sitting on top of the solution. Worthington is excellent and just as watchable as his breakthrough role in Terminator Salvation, with the only criticism being his world-weary narration. Cameron’s choice to walk us through the exposition at the top of the film makes sense – it’s a long film as it is, and it pays to get everybody up to speed as fast as possible, but Worthington’s droll monosyllabic voice grates, echoing Harrison Ford’s narration in the original cut of Blade Runner.
The real star of the show is the special effects. Again Cameron shows us that it is he, and not George Lucas, who is pushing the envelope. In fact, the CGI is so good in Avatar, that it made me feel a bit sorry for Lucas – if the Star Wars prequels had been made with these special effects, then maybe the films wouldn’t have been as bad. Wishful thinking probably.
The visual effects in Cameron’s new film are so good, you can’t see the join. Shot using a motion picture stage six times larger than anything Hollywood has seen before, it genuinely looks like it was shot on an alien world. It definitely makes a difference to seeing Jar Jar Binks bob up and down in The Phantom Menace.
As far as 3D goes – and this is supposed to be the reason for such a long wait since Titanic – it’s not outstanding, and doesn’t offer anything we haven’t seen before in recent 3D releases. Anything moving and not completely in focus blurs much more than it would in standard 2D, and unless the object in focus is completely framed, the effect doesn’t really work.
It’s just a shame that such groundbreaking technology was wasted on such a familiar canvas. The tune might be different, but the song remains the same.
After an hour and a half the half ton 3D specs were crushing my nose which ruined my concentration somewhat. And it wasn't easy to concentrate in the first place - I thought that the film itself was mindblowingly tedious, like watching somebody play a computer game. What is the point of amazing special effects if they are used on a film like this?
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame, isn't it. Cameron's got a history of breaking special effects limitations, but only to compliment or further the plot. With Avatar, he seems he be bragging to the viewer - "look what we can do" - without any thought to the story.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure for kids who haven't been exposed to the story before will think it's original, but for the rest of us it just seems very second-hand.
And one thing I forgot to mention in my review above - how cornball was it when Michelle Rodroguez turned up at the end, out of nowhere, in her helicopter? Obviously this has been done to death before, but the really cheesy part for me was that she had taken the time to paint her helicopter to match her eye make-up! WTF!?!?!
Yes I agree - that was pretty cornball. Almost as cornball as when they said "only 4 people have ever flown a last shadow". It was impossible to imagine how the film might end at that point...
ReplyDeleteBut it was the floating mountains that did for me. Rocks floating in the sky? How come people are able to stand on them? Why do only some rocks float? Plus, the animals are able to connect to each other through their hair. How the hell is that supposed to have evolved? Why?
Forget it Moo, it's Pandora.
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