Review: Avatar (10/10) - 2009: A 3D Experience Like None Other, That Will Leave You Wanting To Have Your Own Avatar!

For the first time since I began writing this blog, I actually do not know where to start. 2009 and the "Noughties" could not have gone out with a bigger bang than with this movie. I have to mention that due to the sheer vast nature of this film I have never needed to use so many quotes and links to a film. Please click on these links for further information on where I obtained the text that is italicised.

Let me take you back to where I first heard about the movie. I was on Facebook (shock horror) a while back, when I decided to start chatting to an old Portuguese friend from my first year at uni. Joao was studying his masters in 3D Animation then (in 2006) and I was a 19 year old Advertising student. For those of you who don't know, Bournemouth University's media school is one of the top in the UK and 3D animators almost land jobs as soon as they graduate. Graduates have worked on Shrek, Australia (my German friend Johannes was the compositor for the Rising Sun) and numerous other productions. Joao mentioned about a film called Avatar that was being made and I should definitely see it. I duly noted it and put it in the back of my mind.

Two years later, when Avatar trailers began gracing our cinema screens, alarm bells began ringing, especially when the name James Cameron popped into the teaser campaign, so I contacted Joao and he mentioned that he was working on it (and after some research discovered he worked as a pipeline technical director). I was so proud of him and how far he'd gone considering in 2006, we were all in Cranborne House (Bournemouth University Halls), having a great time as one big family, and then once they all graduated, I was one of the few left in town.

When his twin brother is killed in battle, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is drafted to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora, an Earth-like moon in a distant planetary solar system in the year 2154. Through the teachings of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), Sully is ordered to understand the culture of the native sapient and sentient race of humanoids indigenous to the planet. The humans, headed by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The movie follows Sully's adaptation and integration into the Na'vi culture as an Avatar (a personalised remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi hybrid bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives), with the help of a native Na'vi, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña).

Personally, I felt that the teaser trailers were just not effective in my opinion. Avatar basically screamed "AVERAGE" at me and I'm not sure if this was down to the editing, or the lack of impact it seemed to have in 2D. In a way though I'm glad that I went into the movie almost "blind" to the storyline as it had that much more of an impact on me. I have no idea why, but before I realised this was the film that Joao worked on, I thought the storyline was average, if not a bit boring. Some local Cypriots were contacting me saying that they didn't like it.


After viewing it, I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my entire life, and neither have the locals. I don't know what film the other locals were watching because the people I came out with were coming out stunned; literally stunned. I came out in the same perplexed state of mind, and bumped into a South African friend of mine who was going for the second or third time, bearing in mind that each ticket for this film is €12 in our local cinema and normal films at the inflated €7.50! This is possibly the only film that I would pay that kind of money for, let alone for a second time. As of December 2009, with an alleged budget of US $280,000,000 (estimated), Avatar is also one of the most expensive movies ever made.

What I find funny about this film is that everyone asks before and after people go to watch it if they are "going to watch it in 3D?"... Why did I find this funny? Well it was well known to those interested in the film industry that James Cameron was developing a brand new form of filming with this film, and probably the key reason why I "forced" myself to go watch it at all.

The following 2D trailer simply does not do this film justice, due to the fact that when you are in the cinema, you live and feel the world around you:

In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. The director planned to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion-capture animation technology, on which he had been doing work for the past 14 months. Unlike previous motion-capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors' motions have been captured, Cameron's new virtual camera allows him to observe directly on a monitor how the actors' virtual counterparts interact with the movie's digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action; "It’s like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale." (Link)

This movie combines the use of both live actors and digital technology to form a vast cast of virtual creatures who convey emotion as authentically as humans. The New York Times article goes on to state that this technology has been implemented on a smaller scale with, Golem in the Lord of the Rings (which, as a character, proved to Cameron that the technology had now progressed enough for him to develop this film) for example. However noone has

gone as far as “Avatar” to create an entirely photo-realistic world, complete with virtual characters, on the expected scale of the new film, Mr. Cameron said in a telephone interview. “This film is a true hybrid — a full live-action shoot, with CG characters in CG and live environments,” said Mr. Cameron, referring to computer-generated imagery (CGI for short). “Ideally, at the end of the of day, the audience has no idea which they’re looking at.” (link).

One of the key points made in this paragraph is about what is CGI and what is real as you sit there, watching the characters interact with the fauna, the backgrounds, the water, and so much more around this virtual world that you are constantly having to decide for yourself (often wrongly) what you think is real.


According to IMDB, the movie is 40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI (with motion capture technology being used for the CGI scenes). Such is the predicted demand for 3D, that Jim Gianopulos, a co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, said that he expected theaters to update their facilities to accommodate the 3D demands of the film. “This will launch an entire new way of seeing and exhibiting movies,” he said. (link).

Sam Worthington's performance was brilliant, especially acting as a paraplegic, when alternating between Na'vi and human, movements of which were both brilliant. He was believable as both characters and I believe that there is much more to come from this budding Australian actor.

Stephen Lang was an extremely realistic army general and was very convincing in his transition throughout the film, thus indicating brilliant casting direction from Cameron's production crew. Joel Moore was an interesting choice as I recognised him from Grandma's Boy, where he played possibly the worst character known to man, however in this film I believe that he surpassed my already low expectations of him.

Giovanni Ribisi was another interesting choice as he will infinitely be typecast in my mind as Ralph Mariano from My Name is Earl. His performance however was average due to the fact thta he did not come across as the ideal candidate for a power-hungry corporate owner bent on screwing over an entire population. Perhaps Cameron could have cast someone more suitable.

I admit, that throughout the film I was absolutely convinced that Neytiri was played by Penelope Cruz. She sounded almost identical and considering Zoe Saldaña was portrayed entirely in 3D, I felt that her performance (albeit in a 3D suit) was phenomenal. She has also acted as Anamaria in Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and Uhara in the 2009 film Star Trek.

According to IMDB, Sigourney Weaver supposedly plays a James Cameron persona for her character in this film. Sigourney stated in an interview, "I teased him because to me I'm playing Jim Cameron in the movie as this kind of brilliant, approach-driven, idealistic perfectionist. But that same somebody has a great heart underneath. So I have to say I was always kind of channeling him." One criticism of her performance was that she seemed constantly irritated as a human towards Worthington, and happy and smiling as an Avatar way before she accepted him as a viable candidate for the Avatar program (without spoiling the movie).

IMDB state that in order to to help the actors prepare for their roles, director James Cameron took the cast and crew to Hawaii, where they spent their days trekking through the forests and jungles and living like tribes (building campfires, eating fish, etc), in order to get a better sense of what it would be like to live and move around in the jungle on Pandora, since there would not be any actual jungle sets to aid and guide the actors and crew. Zoe Saldaña even dressed up as a warrior during these journeys, complete with an alien tail symbolic of the one her character has in the movie. These hikes were only done during the daytime, though; The cast and crew spent their nights at a Four Seasons hotel. (At least they didn't "rough it" completely then).

Composer James Horner scored the film as his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic. Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na'vi in March 2008. The Na'vi language itself was created entirely from scratch by linguist Paul Frommer, who was hired by James Cameron to construct a language that was easily pronounceable by the actors, but lacking any resemblance or influence from any single human language. Around 500 words were created.


It can be noted that all of the machinery such as helicopters and robot bodies used in the film were developed by specialised product designers who then had their designs passed off by industry experts for authenticity and realism. However there is one thing that I do not understand...surely copyright is a major issue in film making, but years ago in 2007, I discovered the following video (which consequently took me years to find again). Does this machine not look extremely similar to the machinery in the image above? For me, viewing the movie version was merely an improved form of this original design below.



I try to challenge my readers by bringing them information from numerous sources, which often takes much longer than it seems, however I do hope that you enjoy this extra mile of data. If not, just tell me and I'll stop!

Some people complain that this film has a simple and predictable plot, however if you simply sit down in the cinema, take in what you are watching, bat away the odd mosquito you think is coming at you, and just watch without trying to predict the outcome, this movie will be one of the most phenomenal pieces of movie making you will come across for some time to come. Avatar's Gross Revenue worldwide is surpassing the $726,612,776 it has already made, so how can so many people argue its success?

I have rated this film a phenomenal 10/10 for this 161 minute beauty. I didn't want it to end and the thought of a second or third leaves me simply desperate for more. Who knows what else Cameron has up his sleeve, and who knows just how much this technology will improve in time for the sequels. All I know is, that I will be following this very closely and pre-ordering IMAX-3D tickets as soon as possible. Do not miss this movie while it is still in the cinemas... This ladies and gentlemen, is history in the making.