It has been a long time since James Cameron made a movie that was not expensive. His movies are a visual spectacle of the highest order and his latest, Avatar, took 10 years to come to fruition. And it is worth the wait. In the hands of a lesser director the focus of the movie would have been on the action and the set pieces. There are numerous set pieces of wow-inspiring nature but Cameron side-steps the easy route and takes his time, giving you over 2 hours and 40 minutes of viewing pleasure. Okay, the last 30 are action but by then you have been given ample time to soak in the movie. The action sequences themselves should be made mandatory "reading" for action directors like Michael Bay and Tony Scott. At no time are you unaware of who is doing what to whom and the results are spectacular.
Okay, I have talked about the movie without touching upon the very critical elements of story and acting. The story is cut from the standard White Man's Burden prototype that is the fare of most such movies. Working within that simplistic storyline, Cameron weaves in a lot of interesting characters, both human and alien. Most of the movie comprises of CGI in the alien's world. [Or are we the aliens, since the action is not happening on Earth?]
Overall, by taking his time to tell us the story Cameron lets us become vested in the motivations of the characters and none of them display behaviors contradictory to the way they are revealed to us. The man knows how to make movies and he has made another one here. I haven't even touched upon all the wonderful flora and fauna of Pandora. I will leave that to your imagination. Believe me when I say that Cameron's imagination has far exceeded ours.
Note: It can be seen in 3-D or 2-D. Either option would be fine, but if you can do it in 3-D, do it. It is a movie that was meant to be seen in 3-D.
2 comments:
JQ
I would watch it in both 3D and 2D...i don't know if it was different for you, but the 3D glasses i had, i missed out on some colour..i'm going back to the theatres this weekend to watch it without the glasses on :)
M, I finally did watch it in 3-D, too. As you mentioned, I found that the 3-D picture was a little dimmer but the 3-D effect was full on. Depth perception was not an issue for me. In fact, I enjoyed some of the 3-D effects very much like the grass being disturbed by the rotors of the chopper, the detachable simulated computer screens, the phosphorescent jungle at night, etc.
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