Avatar [2009]

[Tales]

In Theatres Worldwide December 18 - In the epic action adventure AVATAR, James Cameron, the director of Titanic, takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination. On the distant moon Pandora, a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.

[samaulle_esun]

Oh, dances with smurfs? looks cool

(think dances with wolves, south park and avitar, mix it together, and you get dances with smurfs. go figure)

[Boikat]

Totally awsome movie. If you get the chance, DO NOT pass up the opportunity to see this movie. They pulled out all the CGI stops on this one, and IMPO, hit a grand slam!

[Ariel]

Looks awesome!!

[The Master]

James Cameron's much anticipated Avatar is here. Is it everything its been hyped to be? Well...yes and no.

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The basic, non-spoiler, plot is that in some distant future on the planet of Pandora a corporation is busy extracting "unobtainium" (easily the stupidest movie name for a resource ever) via gigantic strip mining operations. Of course Pandora's peaceful, nature loving, primitive natives aren't too happy about their planet being torn apart. As part of their operations the Earth folks have created human-native hybrid Avatars that can breathe the toxic-to-humans Pandoran air and are used for scientific research as well as contact with the natives. Our hero, Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington, operates one of these Avatars.

Much of the movie, particularly the first 90 mins or so, is all about wonderment. We experience Sully's introduction to Pandora's gorgeous landscape with the added excitement he feels as a paraplegic who has use of his legs again while his is in the Avatar. It is this aspect of the movie that works best. We are caught up in the environment and feel Sully's joy and amazement as he experiences it. We meet the natives and follow him as he learns about their culture. Its wondrous and breathtakingly gorgeous with all due honor to the astonishing technical wizardry that produced it.

Unfortunately the plot quickly becomes a retread of stories already told, with comparisons by some to Dances With Wolves being dead on accurate. The natives are physically different alright, but their culture feels too Native American rather than Native Pandoran right down to the Mohawks (ug) and tribal structure. While it is clearly explained this is a corporation with hired gun mercenaries doing the fighting they still come across as being a US Military force driving the natives off the land with horrifically brutal force. Cameron even goes so far as to drop Iraq War references in, awkwardly throwing in "Shock and Awe" and "fight terrorism with terror" (the latter drew laughs of derision from my audience). Its all a little heavy handed and predicable and eventually it all comes to a head with a 20 minute battle sequence, part of which have been featured in trailers.

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Even with a cliched plot and several groan worthy one dimensional characters one thing is indisputable: visually this movie is mind blowing eye candy like you have never seen before. Pandora is amazingly realistic, detailed, and immersive. The Pandoran characters are incredibly lifelike with amazing facial expression that makes it hard to remember that they aren't actors in makeup. While the 3D was a little shaky for me at times (sometimes an odd bit here and there would seem a little out of focus, not entirely sure why) I do have to say that if you have the chance you MUST see it in 3D. If you are lucky enough to be able to see it in IMAX 3D by all means do!

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Had Cameron's story been as imaginative as the world he creates on screen I think Avatar would be one of the greatest movies of all time. Instead a predicable, recycled plot keeps the movie from reaching that lofty height. Nevertheless, its a wonder to behold and I left the theater feeling quite well entertained so I give it...

3 1/2 stars

[The Master]

Avatar earned an estimated $73 million domestically during its opening weekend, and another $159.2 million from foreign markets for a combined $232.2 million dollar opening. This is ahead of internal projections according to 20th Century Fox, who anticipated the long 2 hour 40 min run time and somewhat limited access to 3D capable theatres to slow revenues. 3D venues accounted for 59 percent of the total cinema count and 71 percent of sales, Fox said. They also noted that an enormous snow storm along the East Coast crippled business for all movies in the United States. There are reports of attendance dropping by as much as 86% on Saturday as the storm's full force impacted the heavily populated Washington-New York corridor.

Budget estimates for the movie have ranged from high 200 million dollars to as much as 400 million dollars, but Fox has not released actual budget expenses for the movie. After the successful opening weekend they are now saying they feel the movie was a good investment.

[Starfire]

You know a movie came out earlier this year was very similar plot. "Battle for Terra?" I heard Avatar looks great but the story is preachy. Looks like I will be waiting for "The last air bender" (ie the real Avatar movie) to come out.

[Boikat]

A closer plot comparison would be "Fern Gully". But, personally, I did not see it for story, I saw it for the "knock your eyes out" special effects. I went to the company Christmas party Saturday and won a $50.00 Best Buy door prize, and traded it for a $25.00 Regal Cinima Door prize so I could see Avatar 2 more time, for free, or one more time if I take someone else.

[The Master]

Battle for Terra had some general similarities you might find in any encounter with aliens movie but the story was quite different and in a lot of ways better constructed. I wouldn't call Avatar "preachy" really. Yes, there is a message there but its harder to fault the invading humans of BoT when they are the last of their kind and this is do or die survival than it is a greedy corporation slaughtering people solely in the name of profit in Avatar.

Yes, Fern Gully is a much more valid comparison. Again, it touches on the main issue I had with the plot having a "been there, done that" retread feeling instead of something unique and fresh that we haven't seen before.

[LadyFlame]

It was the best movie I'd ever saw!
AND the FIRST movie I've seen in 3D!

[Boikat]

It's going to be hard to watch any other sci-fi/fantasy film and not compare it to Avatar, as far as visuals, that's for sure.

[The Master]

Avatar is doing remarkably well for its second weekend, taking in a whopping $75 million and only dropping 3% in its second week. Its likely that folks in the now storm-free eastern USA helped boost that figure. Sherlock Holmes also opened quite strong as the two films lead the way to a new box office record for the weekend. Excerpts from Yahoo:

It was a memorable and merry Christmas in Hollywood as moviegoers shattered box-office records, responding in droves to a diverse array of high-profile releases over the holiday weekend.

The estimated $278 million in weekend box-office revenue broke the previous record of roughly $253 million set in July 2008, the weekend "The Dark Knight" was released.

A diverse group of films drew throngs to the multiplexes: James Cameron's "Avatar" pushed strongly into its second week while "Sherlock Holmes," "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and "It's Complicated" all opened.

"Avatar," the 3-D epic, topped them all, earning $75 million for 20th Century Fox, according to studio estimates Sunday. Remarkably, that was only a 3 percent drop from its opening weekend total of $77.4 million. (Blockbusters typically drop 30-50 percent in the second weekend.) In its 10 days of release, "Avatar" has made $212 million domestically — and could be on its way to a worldwide gross of over $1 billion.

"This thing is going to be playing and playing, I can tell you that," said Bert Livingston, 20th Century Fox distribution executive. "There's a lot of business out there. Everybody's got good movies out."

In second was "Sherlock Holmes," Guy Ritchie's reboot of the franchise with Robert Downey Jr. starring as Arthur Conan Doyle's detective. The Warner Bros. film opened with a weekend total of $65.4 million, including a record Christmas Day debut of $24.9 million.

It was a start that seemed sure to pave the way for sequels. Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., called the result "sensational."

<snip>

"It's an absolutely fitting end to the biggest box office year of all time," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It's just been a total roller coaster ride. It's like audience members are on board."

2009 still has several days to go, but the year is already a record for domestic ticket sales with more than $10 billion at the box office. That surpassed the $9.7 billion mark of 2007.

<snip>

Hollywood also seemed to be offering good ol' spectacle to moviegoers. "Avatar" grossed $8.8 million in IMAX theaters, actually increasing from its opening weekend. IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said they were operating essentially at capacity.

"There is no context," said Foster. "It's so far beyond where we've ever been. It's not eking past a record, it's shattering it."