Avatar
Avatar has received so much hype that I thought it was sure to underwhelm. Despite director James Cameron's pedigree, I was worried that his latest film would be more Titanic than Aliens or Terminator. In reality Avatar is closest to Cameron's The Abyss. Both movies are slow at times, but never boring, and feature a simple story with archetypal characters populating a fantastically realized world.
A lot has been said about the technology used to create Avatar's alien characters and it is indeed impressive. I would say that 95% of the time I completely forgot I was watching a visual effect. The amount of depth and texture visible in closeups of the creatures really sells their realism. Regardless of the technical achievement, artistically the production design is gorgeous featuring some truly amazing alien flora. I was also really impressed by how biologically consistent the various creatures were, they truly appear as if they belong together on an alien world.
The only major criticism that I have for Avatar is that its story and characters are fairly thin. When you really get down to it Avatar's plot is essentially Dances with Wolves in space. Despite this, the concept for the world in which this story takes place is so compelling and the level that this concept is realized is so extremely high that it more than makes up for any flaws in the plot or characterization. From its design, to its effects and attention to detail Avatar is action adventure filmmaking at its best. 4.5/5
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