Avatar – Movie Review by Kate

Avatar Movie Reviews by Kate

Reel reviews for real people

Rating: PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking. (And can Kate add here, lots and lots of scantily clad CG Na’vi natives)

Genre: Action/Adventure

Plot: Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron’s return to feature directing since helming 1997′s Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters. –© 20th Century Fox

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver

Director: James Cameron

Running time: 2:43

Kate says – 3 1/2 stars “Visually AMAZING! All of the hype about the stunning special effects you’ve likely heard about this movie – all true! An absolute break-through in technology. The flow and meshing between the two worlds, the real human world and the CG world in Pandora, is so realistic and flawless that the viewer will very quickly stop noticing and caring which world he is in.  I would have given 4 stars, however, I chopped off a half of a star because the story line was a bit weak, there were a few too many action/chase/fight scenes for my taste, and because of some in your face war parallels from Cameron. All in all though , a definite MUST SEE!”

Ebert says: 4 stars “Watching “Avatar,” I felt sort of the same as when I saw “Star Wars” in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron‘s film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his “Titanic” was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film.” (read full review)

Roger Moore (Orlando Sentinal) says – 2 1/2 stars “Cameron seamlessly blends live action with live actors with the most-convincing digital people the movies have ever seen…As dumb entertainments go, it’s exponentially smarter, easier to follow and more ambitious than Transformers. A Christmas Carol looks like stick-figure doodling compared to Avatar.” (read full review)

Huffington Post (Marshall Fine) says - “…here comes Avatar, the most dazzling film experience you’ll have this year. Written, directed, produced and, for that matter, pulled whole from Cameron’s brain,
Avatar is 160 minutes of thrilling entertainment. It’s as heartfelt as it is exciting, as emotionally powerful as it is suspenseful and as brain-bending a fantasy as you’ve seen since The Lord of the Rings trilogy.” (read full review)

Eric Snider says – B- “James Cameron is justifiably proud of the groundbreaking special effects employed in “Avatar,” the actual contents of the film — the story, the characters, the dialogue — are disappointingly mediocre. Were it not for the spectacular visuals, this would be a C-grade movie at best.” (read full review)

Rotten Tomatoes says – 82% “Consensus: It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron’s singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking.”

Parental Contest (Screen It)

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