Review of Avatar (2009) by Martin R — 18 May 2015

Six years ago, James Cameron's "Avatar" was breaking all sorts of box office records and there was a large amount of hype since it eventually made more money than Cameron's own "Titanic." For reasons that I can't remember, I refused to watch the movie--maybe it didn't look interesting enough for me. If that was the case, then I was right: "Avatar" wouldn't have wow'd me in 2009. But it's 2015 and, despite my initial "I'm sure it will look good, but not THAT good," I have to admit that I was wrong, and Cameron's camerawork + jawdropping, groundbreaking visual effects has a quality to it that can't be described. You can look at almost any frame on the planet(?) of Pandora and you'll swear that "super HD" has come into existence. The scale, depth, and detail of the motion capture is, again, beyond my writing ability. At this point all I can do is [highly] recommend the blu-ray because it would be a sin to watch it on a standard format. The plot is pretty simple, there simply is not anything mindboggling about the movie in terms of the story--it's actually rather predictable. Nevertheless, I found the film to be emotionally moving, something that I did not expect from this type of movie. Like when the military destroys the sacred tree, powerful stuff right there. In fact, I did not plan on watching the whole movie today but I just didn't want to turn it off! There's themes of environmentalism, conquest, anti-corporate stuff, and forced relocation; the last three almost immediately drew parallels with the Native Americans with European colonialism. Now I'm all for opinions and preferences, but anyone who says that "Avatar" sucks is wrong (well, in regards to the technical aspects), and I really don't know what it was that you were expecting to see. Regardless, I feel sorry for Cameron because his sequels are going to have live up to such a high standard BUT if anyone can do it, it's James Cameron.

James Horner's score for "Avatar" is, well, it does the job extremely well despite the fact that Horner recycles themes from his best known scores: Legends of the Fall, Glory, Titanic, Aliens, etc. There's even one cue (I believe it's called "Gathering All the Na'vi Clan...") that actually sounded a bit like Pirates of the Caribbean. The score is rich in ethnic instruments, sounds, and percussion; so even if it sounds familiar to those who have heard Horner's previous work, the music works. Especially compared to what we would have heard if *certain* other composers had gotten the job [hint: Horn of Doom, "drum orchestras," etc]. It's a solid score nonetheless, and Horner's method of re-adapting his own music is better written than anything that his younger peers can compose.