Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a former U.S. Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. He is selected year 2154 by a private army of marines to participate in the Avatar program to replace his twin brother Tony, who has just past away. The marines work for an American mine company which has colonized Pandora in search of a valuable mineral called Unobtainium.Pandora is also the home to the Na’vi, who are considered primitive, but are far more physically capable than humans. They are about three meters tall, with tails and sparkling blue skin and live in harmony with their world.
In order to get the mineral, Jake is send to infiltrate and gain the trust of the Na'vi people and convince them to move. Their current home, known as the Home-tree, sits on the largest Unobtainium deposit on the planet. Since humans can't breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically hybrids known as Avatars which is grown from human DNA, mixed with the DNA of the natives. The human mind is linked to their avatar, allowing them to control and experience what it does, while their own body sleeps.
Jake is sent deep into the jungle and he encounters many of Pandora's beauties and dangers. There he meets a young Na’vi female, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), who teaches him the ways of her people. As the humans try to destroy the Na’vi's world, the natives do everything in their power to stop the humans from threatening their very existence.
This movie is the most expensive of all time, and it shows. The world of Pandora, that James Cameron has created, is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It has a beautiful jungle with lots of different creatures both dangerous and friendly. Pandora also has floating rocks and you can see tree roots and waterfalls coming down from them. And at night the jungle glows beautifully, everything from the ground to the plants, some reacts when you touch them and glows even stronger. Pandora feels like two places, one at day and one at night, because it looks so different each time, both are gorgeous. The environment has so much detail, it's really impressive how they have made this world, it must have taken a long time to do all the digital work.
James Cameron explained that the reason for the delay was that he had been to wait until the technology was advanced enough. He wanted to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion capture animation technology, which he had been working 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 character interacted with the movie's digital world in real-time just as if shooting a live action movie. Each actor had a motion-capture suite on to make every move as realistic as possible. The actors facial expressions and eye movement were also captured using a small camera, which were in front of each actor. This way, Cameron intends to transfer about 95% of the actors performances to their digital counterparts. It really shows that they've been using new technology, because it was very realistic and I must say it's the best 3D animation characters I've ever seen. The Na'vi peoples movement and facial expressions were really awesome and I think this is a new step in motion and facial animation. If they wouldn't have had blue skin, I couldn't have tell the difference if they were real or not.
What makes this movie special is that it's in RealD 3D. It would have been cool anyway, but I think the 3D makes it a masterpiece. I saw the movie in RealD 3D and the world that Cameron have created came alive in front of me, I were on Pandora. At times during the movie I felt like I were in the same room as the characters, like when Sigourney Weaver woke up after she had been using her Avatar, my brain thought it happened in the same room and that was a cool feeling. Forget about feeling nauseous, like one person who saw the preview of the movie said, I get motion sickness really easy and I never felt any signs of nausea, not on movies with shaky cameras (which I like very much, Cloverfield) or 3D movies like Avatar, if you follow the movie and get sucked into it you will never feel anything, because you have control of what's happening on the screen and the brain will adapt.
Despite what people have said about the music in the movie, I really liked it. The music works really well in these kind of movies. Composer James Horner scored the film, 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. I think he did a great job of creating music that sounded like it came from another planet. The theme song was made by the British singer Leona Lewis, called "I See You", which I think is a great song. Also the sound effects in the movie were done really well. Everything from the sound of Pandora's wildlife to how it sounded in the jungle.
I must say that the actors in this movie is great, especially the lead roll done by actor Sam Worthington, he's perfect for this roll. I liked Sam in Terminator Salvation and I think he's awesome in Avatar. I think we're gonna see Sam Worthington in a lot of movies in the future. I thought Sigourney Weaver also did a great job and actually everyone else as well.
Overall: Avatar is the best movie I've seen this year. This movie has a good story, great actors and a hell of a lot of awesome 3D effects and animations. The movies 2 hours and 41 minutes has never felt shorter, it happened things all the time, with lots of action and excitement, and that's a great thing. Avatar is a epic movie that everyone must see, in RealD 3D, and a must have on Blu-ray. I saw this beautiful movie on the world premier, December 18th 2009, and I'm glad I did because I couldn't have waited another day to see this movie that is truly a masterpiece.
Review: Avatar (RealD 3D) XXXXX [5/5].
