Movie Review: Avatar

Last night I went to see Avatar finally. The 3D glasses have taken a pretty big upgrade since I last saw a 3D film back in primary school.

So the film is about the humans discovering a planet called Pandora, where a mineral called unobtanium is found. 1 kg of this mineral is worth millions of dollars, and of course... being the greedy race that we are... the humans are trying to extract it. However, the area is inhabited by an indigenous race of humanoids called the Na'vi. The Na'vi resist the humans, as they are obviously going to protect their lands from alien invaders. Thus, the humans developed the Avatar project, where they grow Na'vi bodies modified with human DNA. When the body is complete, the person who's DNA was put in the body, will then be put into something which resembled a coffin to me... but is actually a machine which allows the person to mentally link to the avatar and control it.

So the main character, Jake Sully, replaces his dead twin brother as an avatar operator, since only he will be able to control his brother's avatar. He is sent to the Na'vi to learn their ways, so that they will accept him as their own and trust him. After that, he is meant to persuade them to allow the humans to come and mine the minerals. However, when you live with people for a long time and get to know them that closely... your perception about it begins to change, which is what happens with Jake and puts him in a dilemma of doing his job, or doing what he feels is right.

In my opinion, the story is rather plain and generally just uninteresting... but for this type of movie, you probably won't be going to watch it for its story. The visual effects were quite stunning, with great colours enhanced by the 3D technology. In particular, my favourite was when you see the cockpit of the helicopters with full computer interfaces, which really stood out with the 3D glasses... looked pretty amazing.

Just a couple of things to note. The flying mounts that the Na'vi use reminded me of the drakes in World of Warcraft.... at least the head portion of them... kind of bizarre. Also, I noticed one of the battlecries of the female Na'vi sounded very much like Xena's battlecry... wonder if they just copied it =P

If you haven't already seen the movie, it's definitely good to experience the visual effects of the movie. If you're after a good story... you'll probably need to look elsewhere (perhaps check my older reviews =P). It has been labelled as the stepping stone of 3D technology, so if nothing else... it's good to experience that, before it becomes a staple in movies... i.e every future movie ends up being shown in 3D. My rating for the movie is 7/10... it lost a lot for having a poor storyline, but it made up for it with the visual effects and the action.