I Don't Know How To Feel...

Today was the day, I finally saw Avatar! Going into the movie I tried to keep a clear mind and ignore everything I've read, all the clips I've seen, and all the opinions I've heard. I wanted to go into Avatar with a clear mind so that I could take it for what it is worth in raw form. I'll have you all know that I studied this movie more than I have ever done before. A few people in the group I was with even pointed out after the movie that I was really intense in the theater and that I seemed to be studying the film, which I was. The film really has me torn and I don't know how to feel about it yet, and the fact that I went and talked to people about it isn't helping. I shouldn't have talked to anyone because they point out things you might not have noticed and it can mess with your perception because you start to see things their way, IDK. Anyway, now that the movie is over and I've had a moment to let it all sink in and for me to really contemplate what it was about and how I interpreted it I think I can write this review. Warning don't bite my head off this is just how I'm feeling right now and to make things easier I'm going to break the movie down into parts.

Visuals

Perhaps the strongest element in Cameron's corner is the breath taking and beautiful visuals used in this movie. The CGI world that was created literally blew my mind from the second I saw it. The technology made you feel as if you were one of the Na'vi or one of the marines on Pandora, no longer was it the feeling of watching from the outside, we were placed on the inside on the scene with the characters and it just magnified the intensity of the world. The colors especially were something I really enjoyed in the film. The vibrant blue of the Na'vi's skin was captivating to me and the way the creatures of Pandora looked was so glossy and polished I was truly amazed by it all. While I loved the 3D effect when it came to the Na'vi scenes or any shots of the Pandoric (is that a word now?) landscape the scenes in the human world kind of hurt my eyes and I continually lifted up my glasses to relieve some of the pain. I know you're not supposed to take the glasses off because it takes away from the beauty of the movie but to me those scenes really didn't need to watched in 3D to have to same effect. The rest of the movie, the glasses are a necessity!

The Acting

There have been arguments that Zoe Saldana was overlooked for her performance in Avatar but I will have to disagree with those arguements. While Saldana did captivate me as Neyriti her role wasn't that amazing when compared to some of the other nominees. I will say that she did a wonderful job and I loved her, as I always have. As for her co-stars, I don't exactly share the same love and affection. Sam Worthington was up then down for me, at times I like his role and felt like I could connect to his character but at others I was completely like WTF this guy is a terrible actor but maybe that wasn't his fault perhaps it was the best he could do with the script, which we will get to in a second. Whoever the actor was that played the corporate representative, don't wanna give to much away, he was highly annoying. Everytime he came on screen I wanted to punch him in the mouth, him as well as the colonel. They were the most annoying characters in the entire movie. On a final note about the acting I felt like at times the Na'vi actors were acting to much like the indians in Pocahontas. IDK it's just my opinion

The Script

The final and perhaps most disputed part of the movie is the script. I'm going to be straight forward when I tell you that to me Cameron simply took Pocahontas and Fern Gulley mixed them together and set in a futuristic society. I wanted so much more out of the plot and character development in the movie. I hate to say it but after the first hour you're 120% sure how the rest of the movie is going to play out. I wanted him to add in more twist and not rely so much on the visuals to distract us from the not as strong script. I will give credit where it's due because there are some scenes that are very well written but those are few and very far between for the time period that the movie encompasses. I'm more of a story person than a visual and it's just really hard for me to overlook poor writing.

Overall

In summation Avatar did and did not live up to my expectations. It was a beautiful and stunning as everyone had described to me but it was as completely mind blowing and awesome as everyone described. I still don't know whether I can say I liked it or not, hopefully that will come in a few days but for right now I'm just going to say that I've seen it and that if Mr. Cameron wants to make a sequel please spend more time on the script. As of right now I give James Cameron's "Avatar" a B+.