Avatar - Movie Review (Spoiler Free)

   So I saw that movie Avatar yesterday with the fim fam.

   Now my first impressions of this movie didn't particularly inspire me to want to see it overly much. First of all the name, "Avatar," smacks so strongly of wretched internet chatrooms that it immediately brings a great deal of negative connotation in my opinion. And then, I'd never seen any trailers on TV, being as I don't watch TV. I had seen clips somewhere or other (on the internet I suppose) and they gave me absolutely no sense of a plot, just fantastic creatures seeming to be doing constant battle, so in my opinion it just looked like World of Warcraft, the movie (and I'm not a WoW fan so..).

   Father-unit however seemed convinced this movie was worth seeing and eventually sold the entire family on going to see it in the giant IMAX 3-D theatre. When we're all back for the holidays we all usually go see a movie together as a once a year kind of thing. Which accounts for half the movies I see in the theatre probably.

   Now, having seen it I must say: whenever a particularly good movie comes out critics like to hail it as "the next generation's Star Wars" they said it about that movie Independance Day (hah!) and about the Matrix (too bad the sequels sucked so hard everyone forgot how good the original was). Well, I think this movie might be it, the sought after "Star Wars of the next generation"
   It has the necessary engrossing new world, ultra-simplified dichotomy between good and evil, and, most importantly, characters and elements which lend themselves to fandom.

   That is to say, it's a really good movie. Really beautiful anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to find it even had a plot! Not exactly full of great subtle allusions and symbolisms (hey they're mining for a rare mineral called Unobtainium) but definitely worth seeing, especially in 3-D.

   My least favourite aspect, however, was how the alien natives (well, the humans are technically the aliens here) looked exactly like ... furries from the internet!!! Except that they weren't furry. But the cat ears, large eyes, general body shape, broad flat nose to give a more cat-like face, TAIL, telepathically communicating with horse-like creatures and dragon-like creatures. It was like someone took all the most base fantasies of the depths of the intertron and decided to splat them into an otherwise beautiful movie.
   But the fans of such things are legion, which is sure to spur the movie's popularity and enduring cult status (and was probably intentionally targeted for this purpose).

Without any signs of industry how do they make all those beads and things?

   But yeah definitely worth a see in 3-D.