When I first heard about the movie I was intrigued, and when I also heard about the enormous budget for the movie I was even more intrigued. Alas, becoming a parent during a full time school schedule meant no goin' out to movies for Mikey.
So I waited till it came out on Blu-Ray disc and picked up a copy.
All you get is the Blu-Ray version of the movie along with a regular DVD version with no extra features. So if you like extras you might want to wait till the apparent beefed up version which will be released I suspect around, wait for it, Christmas! I could be wrong about that though.
So, Avatar got mixed reviews, a few bad reviews and a few excellent reviews. I went into watching the movie with an open mind though I couldn't help compare this movie to some of James Cameron's other action epics like The Abyss and Terminator I and Terminator II. Technically, Avatar surpasses anything that James Cameron has done.
Overall, I felt a little a let down by the end of the movie. Don't get me wrong, as I said previously, technically the movie is near flawless from a direction, editing, sound and cinematography sense. For those reasons alone seeing this movie on a big screen would have been worth it. Where the film loses marks is in not convincing me to buy into what is happening to the characters. Even Terminator II had some really good dramatic moments that I bought into. Can you say Ahhnold!
The acting is fine, I just didn't buy into the motivations of the characters. Is it that they aren't developed enough? Is it that there isn't enough tension and conflict between certain characters? I think it is something along those lines that left me a little disengaged as the movie rolled along.
The theme of the story is a tried and true human journey kind where a character gets involved with another culture with his or her motivations in mind, but then changes as the narrative progresses and sides with the culture he or she is supposed to be working against.
With that in mind I give Avatar 3 stars out of 5 stars overall. Most of those stars go for the effects which were criticized by some as being either cute or fake or some combination of the two, but I found the visual and special effects to be spectacular.
Overall, if you are looking for an original sci-fi adventure flick then Avatar might not be the ticket, but if you want a decent story with top notch effects then Avatar will be right up your alley.
The picture quality of the Blu-Ray disc is second to none with vibrant colors and rich black levels. The sound is engaging with a host of alien sounds filling your speakers on Pandora and the rumble of the subwoofer when there are explosions in the big action sequence at the end of the third act.
Picture: 5 out of 5.
Sound: 4.5 out of 5.
Story: 3 out of 5
I enjoyed Avatar because of the beautiful visuals...it looked amazing. But I saw it in theatres, so I wonder if I'd like it as much on DVD? They didn't transfer the 3D over, eh? I suspect they'll do that on a later edition of the DVD.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a 3D version in the pipe because James Cameron has been pretty vocal about 3D being here to stay, rather then a cult like technology that rears itself every now and again.
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