Film Review

Worlds Apart
Avatar
Director: James Cameron

Figure 01. Poster: Avatar

Release: 2009 Director: James Cameron Screenplay by: James Cameron Produced by: James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis, Jon Landau Genre/subgenre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy Country: UK, USA Cast: Sam Worthington (as Jake Sully), Zoe Saldana (as Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (as Grace), Stephen Lang (as Colonel Miles Quaritch), Michelle Rodriguez (as Trudy Chacon), Giovanni Ribisi (as Parker Selfridge), Joel David Moore (as Norm Spellman)

The basic storyline of this film is an ex-soldier by the name of Jake Sully takes his dead twins post in a science project on a far moon that humans have decided to harvest minerals from. The issue is that the native species are against the human interference and mining of their sacred planet. The humans move with acts of war so the natives respond with likewise behaviour and through a deadly battle Jake switches sides and becomes a sacred leader of the Navi through intense and sensual emotional exploration. Being that he has the knowledge of how humans run military operations he uses this to the advantage to overpower the aggressive humans and claim back Pandora for the natives. Figure 02 shows Pandoras forest in daytime light, with Jake as his avatar, this shows the sheer scale of lifeforms and organic matter as he is roughly twice the hight of humans in his avatar form and he still looks like an insect in a vegetable patch. Avatar is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. Its a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. (Ebert, 2009)

Figure 02. Pandoras Forest.

Figure 03 is a screenshot of the sumptuously luminous night time beauty of Pandoras forests. In 3D, its immersive, but the traditional film elements- story, character, editing, theme, emotional resonance, etc. - are presented with sufficient expertise to make even the 2D version an engrossing 2 1/2- hour experience. (Berardinelli, 2009) Scenes such as the one shown in Figure 03 feel almost magical even just at the sight but mixed together with the harmonious existence the native share with these living organisms asks questions about the real world connections to nature.

Figure 03. Pandora at night.

The floating mountains of Pandora, shown in Figure 04, are fabulously imaginative concepts. It is all these different types of scenes that really let the audience fall into the world of the Navi and imagine themselves amongst such a tremendous rich, living planet. As this film was announced as a technological spectacle the movie world had great expectations of the CG quality and overall film quality. The computerised creation that is Pandora overflows with beauty and terror that dwarves the mundane stuff where the villains, military and corporate, bluster with predictable results. (Travers, 2009) This of course is non-stop attention to detail and masterful animation technology at its best at least until the point of Avatars release. A milestone in the history of special effects in movies.

Figure 04. Floating Mountains of Pandora. In conclusion avatar is a completely immersive piece of creativity in 2D or 3D. It gives the audiece the ability to detract themselves from the real world for the 2.5 hours they have Pandora for and to feel the emotions and indulge in the production design and concepts known as the different natural landscapes of Pandora.

Film Goofs: from IMDb

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The human Avatars in the movie all have 5 fingers and toes while the natives only have 4. The reason for this is to show subtle differences in the Avatars due to the mixing of human and native DNA. Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the scene where Jake is looking at the photographs of the Na'vi on the refrigerator, the photographs themselves are 3D. This is an invention which exists since 1940 and is called lenticular printing. We can only assume that, like much of the technology in the movie, the quality of those prints has advanced by 2154. Continuity: During the shot where Quaritch says to Jake "That's called taking an initiative son", Jake's hands are rested up on the hologram table. In the next shot where Quaritch says "I wish I had ten more like you", Jake's hands are down at his sides. Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During one of Jake's video logs, Grace can be seen working on an experiment in the background. In the process, she draws up some liquid in an Eppendorf pipette. However, in the process of transferring the liquid to its intended vessel, she inverts the pipette, which would severely damage it. Revealing mistakes: The first part of the credits are shown over panoramic views of Pandora. Most of these shots are recycled from the movie, and reversed left to right to make it a bit less obvious. One in particular was taken from Jake's ikran first flight sequence, but with Jake and the ikran removed. But you can still the ikran's shadow pass over the rocks. Continuity: In the scene where Parker is shown playing golf on the indoor golf course in RDA, the first time he hits the ball, there are two other balls lying on the course side by side. In the next shot, two are distant from each other and in the shot after that, they are in their original position. Continuity: Jake is reviewing the structure of the home tree with Quaritch and Selfridge around the rotating 3-D map. When Jake makes a comment about the Na'vi studying him, his watch reads 2:19. Selfridge makes a comment about how the tree is sitting right over the richest Unobtanium deposit. When the camera cuts back to Jake his watch now displays 2:53. Continuity: In the colonel's robot there is a rear-view mirror. When we see the robot from the outside, it is very close to his head. But when we see shots from inside the robot, there is plenty of room around his head and we don't see the mirror. Continuity: When Quaritch is scolding Jake for making out with a Na'vi, Jake moves his head to the right. In the immediate next angle, his head is straight. Continuity: In the scene where Jake wakes up from his link and Grace asks him, "Is the avatar safe?" and he replies, "Yeah Doc, and you are not gonna believe where I am," her hand is on top of his shoulder. But as the camera angle changes back and forth her hand switches to the side of his upper arm and back to the shoulder without time to have made the move. Continuity: When Jake is recording his first video log entry, he moves the recording camera around a little to get a better view of his face, and is looking directly at a screen to his right to see if he's centered his face correctly. In the very next shot, he is staring straight forward at the camera.

List of Illustrations:
Figure. 01. Poster: Avatar. (2009) From: Avatar. Directed by: James Cameron [Film Poster] UK, USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment. http://myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=null&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard %2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_18396_1%26url%3D (Accessed on: 22/10/2011) Figure 02. Pandoras Forest. (2009) From: Avatar. Directed by: James Cameron [Film Still] UK, USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2056684800/tt0499549 (Accessed on: 22/10/2011) Figure 03. Pandora at night. (2009) From: Avatar. Directed by: James Cameron [Film Still] UK, USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2861991168/tt0499549 (Accessed on: 22/10/2011) Figure 04. Floating Mountains of Pandora. (2009) From: Avatar. Directed by: James Cameron [Film Still] UK, USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1416531456/tt0499549 (Accessed on: 22/10/2011)

Bibliography:

Berardinelli, James (2009) Avatar. In: Reelviews.net 17.12.2009 [Online] http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php? identifier=1931 (Accessed on: 22.11.2011) Ebert, Roger (2009) Avatar. In: suntimes.com 11.12.2009 [Online] http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/ 20091211/REVIEWS/912119998/1023 (Accessed on: 22.11.2011) Travers, Peter (2009) Avatar. In: rollingstone.com 14.12.2009 [Online] http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/ avatar-20091214 (Accessed on: 22.11.2011)