avatar making | avatar MOVIE REVIEW: 'Avatar': Giant film making most of the basics

Talk about finding your inner self.

"Avatar," the monumental and groundbreaking new film from director James Cameron, is at its heart the story of one man's struggle to do the right thing. To get to that place, Cameron creates the most impressive techno-cinema experience ever. Even if we can find small fault in the storytelling and character development, and the relative simplicity of the film's nevertheless vital messages, its excellence in other areas triumphs. As in, whoa.

In "Avatar," set in the year 2154, Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, a former Marine recently paralyzed from the waist down, beckoned to the distant planet Pandora by scientists seeking to bond with (though it's really to ultimately take advantage of) the planet's natives. Jake becomes the brains of his own avatar, an 11-foot-tall, fast, strong and able-bodied being designed in the image of the planet's Na'vi people. While sealed inside a tank, Jake's mind is wired to the brain of this avatar, giving Jake the sensation that they are one and the same. He is tutored by head scientist Grace ---- reteaming Cameron with his "Aliens" star Sigourney Weaver ---- who at first has little use for Jake, but soon sees his value and ability.

Observing carefully are members of the corporate entity in charge of the project, concerned with only one thing ---- mining the planet for a mineral that can help solve Earth's energy crisis back home. The head of the security team for the corporation is the no-nonsense former military man Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who tolerates the scientists but makes it clear they have a single objective ---- to acquire the mineral no matter the cost to Pandora and the Na'vi.

When Jake finds himself in the dense and danger-filled jungle inhabited by the Na'vi, he's still on board for the mission when he meets the beautiful warrior princess Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana. After a rough start, the two bond and Jake is eventually accepted by the Na'vi people as one of their own. His switch in loyalties doesn't sit well with the violence-hungry security team, who launch an all-out assault on the natives, expecting to take what they came to steal.

"Avatar," in the works for some 15 years as Cameron waited for the necessary technology to become perfected, uses motion-capture and photo-real technology, along with animation and stereoscopic 3-D, to bring forth a film unlike any we've seen previously. To Cameron's credit, the technology doesn't wow us to the point of visual exhaustion ---- we are simply aware of its special qualities as we observe.

The film's messages ---- about staying true to values, the need to treasure nature over personal gain, about using force in the wrong place at the wrong time ---- become rather elementary, even if they provide some rah-rah inspiration.

For such a big film, what is most impressive about "Avatar" are its little touches, such as how the actors move in their motion-capture performances, and the breathtaking details of the otherworldly Pandora jungle. "Avatar" goes for the awe factor, certainly, and after waiting this long, who can blame Cameron for getting so big with his film? What he's also made, though, is a film probably even more impressive with multiple viewings, if you can sit that long a second and third time. In the little things, "Avatar" successfully finds its inner self.

"Avatar"

*** 1/2 (out of four)

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver

Director: James Cameron

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Rated: PG-13 (for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking)

Running time: 161 minutes


source - http://www.nctimes.com



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