Avatar
Published May 27, 2017
Film info
- Title Avatar
- Director James Cameron
- Year 2009
- Run time 2hrs 42m
- Genres Adventure, Action, Science-Fiction, Fantasy
- Tagline Enter the world of Pandora
From Academy Award-winning director James Cameron comes Avatar, 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.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 2:02 | I’d be hungry after five years too! |
| 6:56 | “If there’s a hell, you might want to go there for some R&R.” |
| 7:32 | Naturally occurring carbon fibre is not possible? |
| 10:22 | “So here I am… doing science.” |
| 13:56 | Unobtanium really is the most rubbish name. |
| 19:12 | Loving the giant obstacle course. |
| 24:42 | Yea! Love that Ana-Lucia is a cool pilot in this. |
| 33:13 | Assume that’s Zoe Saldana, hard to tell seeing as she’s twice her normal size and blue. |
| 39:10 | “You’re like a baby, making noise, don’t know what to do.” |
| 43:33 | Their horses have too many legs. |
| 55:07 | The Legendary Floating Mountains of Pandora. I mean. |
| 1:07:11 | This seems like an awful lot of effort to find a flying creature. |
| 1:11:28 | The Ecran picking process isn’t as consensual as you’d like. |
| 1:15:17 | The music and general feel of this is intensely Titanic. |
| 1:28:07 | That massive thing probably doesn’t need to beep to reverse, it’s huge, you know it’s there! |
| 1:36:00 | Ribisi is so brilliant. Awful, obviously, but brilliant. |
| 1:43:37 | I don’t think you can shout ’timber’ loud enough for a tree that big. |
| 1:52:57 | “Why would they help us?” |
| 2:03:41 | This is our Independence Day! |
| 2:13:25 | Their best solution is to just throw explosives out the back of a plane? Seems a bit inelegant. |
| 2:18:00 | Rogue One! |
Conclusions
This is a film that’s been on our “To Watch” list for such a long time, but there never really seemed like a good opportunity, it’s quite long, you know? But it’s also groundbreaking and one of those cornerstones of cinema, so eventually we squeezed it in.
I’m glad we finally got round to watching it, the film is really, very good. The story is the most interesting part of the whole thing - a tale about outsiders moving in and taking over, where indigenous people are left to fight for their rightful homes. Moving and, of course, quite relevant.
The special effects are one of the things that made this film so important, and I did think they were incredible. The only issue is when you’re deep in the blue people’s world, with bizarre flowers and stuff lighting up in odd ways, it really does feel like you’re watching a cartoon. Where Pandora intersects with real life, it’s brilliant though.
The music and the flow of the film was very Titanic, epic and sweeping and plenty of moments where you feel like you’re the king of the world. Talking of which, love that the main character was in a wheelchair - not often that happens. Oh and Sigourney was amazing, naturally.
Rating: 4/5.
Rating: 4 / 5