*contains plot spoilers*
I eventually got round to seeing Avatar last night at the Glasgow IMAX. After the disappointment of watching UP in 3D I was hoping to experience what 3D can really achieve.
Plot: Where to start…well the first 10 minutes is story telling for dummies. Jake Sully, an ex-marine, is drafted into the avatar programme after his brother, a scientist, is killed. Luckily for the programme Jake and his brother were twins meaning Jake can take his brothers place as an avatar operator. Handy that. There is then an overly long scene with Giovanni Ribisi ,or Phoebe’s brother as I like to refer to him or Corey from My Two Dads (how great was that show).
Anyway Giovanni plays Parker, the Chief of the mining company looking to extract a valuable mineral in the exact location of where a clan of natives known as Na’vi live. The company has developed avatars in the form of Na’vis in the hope that they can forge relationships with the natives and persuade them to give up their land in return. The rookie avatar operator Jake ends up lost on a research trip and is saved by Neytiri the daughter of the clans leaders. The clan agree to teach him their ways in the hope that he will better understand them (or to ensure the film can run for at least another 2 hours). The rest of the film was just like watching a futuristic remake of “Dances with Wolves” all it needed was a cameo with Kevin Costner. It certainly had the length right. For those of you not familiar with the Dances with Wolves plot line – army guy ends up be taken in by the local Sioux tribe sees that their ways are better, due to their mutual respect of the Mother Nature, and joins their fight to save them from the “white men” cue the rest of Avatar.
After some intensive research (search words – avatar dances with wolves?) I came to find that I’m not the only person out there to think this.
Great minds!
Visually the film is impressive and at points you really feel part of the film scenes. The landscapes are stunning and colours used in the Pandora scenes keep you mesmerized however I couldn’t help but feel frustrated as i left the film. Maybe it was the subject matter of man yet again desecrating another poor race and mother nature in the name of greed or maybe it was because of lines like “Ha, ha! Yeah, come on! Show what you’ve got! Oh yeah, who’s bad? That’s right. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about bitch.”.
After all that, I can only say that if you are going to watch Avatar then make sure you watch it as the director intended which is in 3D at an IMAX cinema. Otherwise stick on some blue tinted glasses and watch Dances with Wolves in the comfort of your own home.
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