Cameron's Avatar Review

Seen it twice, don't know why. It's one of the most anticipated movies of 2009. So, where do I start?

Okay, my first reaction was the visuals - impressive, it has the most sharpest CGI I've ever seen. It's so realistic that you don't even know if it's real jungle or not but obvoiusly you know that already because there ain't floating lands here on Earth. They make the best out of CGI here especially at night scenes, where the luminescent wildlife in the forest shines most. The 400 million budget and 10 years in the making means only one thing and one goal - CGI Perfection.

Characters are blue, yes they are all blue. Na'vis are color blue indigenous humanoids and Jake Sully is feeling blue when he found himself in hopeless situation.

Some said the story is great, well not for me. With a run time of almost 3 hours, it has only a simple plot, not even a twist ending. You don't believe me eh? Okay, here's a quick overview of the film. Jakes arrives on Pandora and operates an Avatar. Learns the Na'vi's culture and giving back intelligence about the natives to RDA. Fell in love with a Na'vi, confessed about RDA's plan and was deserted by the tribe. He betrayed his commander by helping save the Na'vi, end of story. Sounds like you've heard this story before, sounds like "Dances with the Wolves", you know there aren't new modern movies lately that are 100% original.

After I've seen it for the first time, I knew that this was a rip-off of Fern Gully - the characters, plot and the theme itself. It's like a well budgeted and live action version of Fern Gully. It also came to my mind that this movie is influenced by the games like Starcraft and Warcraft. I found a lot of similarities like the Humans being the Terrans and the Na'vi being the Night Elves, bipedal mecha like Terran's Goliath and the big resemblance of Na'vi's Hometree and the Night Elve's World Tree, and the list goes on. I know if I get lost you there, but I know the gamers can tell and even James Cameron.

Despite of what I've said of the plot earlier, I still like this film. Though it may lack my taste, there's a magic in Avatar that I want to see it again just like Titanic. After all, I've seen it twice, I could go for 3rd, 4th or let's make it to the xth time. Too bad I haven't seen it on IMAX.

Oh and wait, there's more. I know it's too early to make a sequel but it's been done considering they made profit from the first. Avatar is coming back this July 2010. Just kidding, it's no sequel, it's just another adaptation of the animated series Avatar, and it was written and directed by none other than M. Night Shyamalana-ding-dong!