Review:
Avatar Review: Three weeks in, and still going strong

James Cameron is a god among film-makers.

I was going to end my review there, but sensibility got the better of me, so I figured I might as well expand a little. James Cameron has been a film-making god for a long time. He’s been pushing boundaries as far back as The Terminator in 1984. He also directed Aliens, Terminator 2, True Lies, and the daddy of them all Titanic.

I watched an interview with James Cameron once, as he talked about pushing the boundaries. Apparently with Terminator 2, when they started filming visual effects weren’t at the level needed to pull off the effects in the movie. He decided to start filming, knowing that he could push the visual effects to the point he needed them to be in the time it took to shoot the movie. Apparently they did the same thing with Avatar.

So how is Avatar? Well that’s a tricky question that depends in large part how you see it. One thing that won’t change is the story. The plot, normally an important part of a movie, is fairly light here. Not that I’m saying it’s a bad story, more that it’s very simple. There’s no plot twists to surprise you, and you pretty much already know exactly how the movie is going to play out.

The acting was fantastic, though, and if their performances weren’t so believable, the simple story might have been a greater detriment than it was. Even the CG characters, the Na’vi, were fantastically done. Looking photo-realistic, you cry for them, and cheer for them. And want to date them. Did I say that?

Zoe Saldana looked especially hot as the Na'vi Neytiri. While that was to be expected, I was surprised how hot they were able to make Sighourney Weaver's avatar look. A true feet of visual effects. Sam Worthington was fantastic, and both Wes Studi and CCH Pounder as the leaders of the Na'vi tribe were fantastic and believable in their smaller but integral roles.