Avatar: Review By Yahzee

Twelve long years. That's what it took for a new James Cameron film to be released. It was worth the waiting? Well that depends entirely on what were your expectations with the movie. One thing it's true: James Cameron is back with a vengeance.

Avatar is opening worldwide over this weekend and is sure to become a huge box office success. James Cameron is no strange to this naturally. Nearly every movie he made has gone to become a big money maker, loved by the public and praised by the critics.

From his forgettable beginnings in Piranha 2, to The Terminator all the way to Titanic, with Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day in Between, Cameron has become a legend in modern moviemaking.

After the huge behemoth that Titanic was, the director left the public eye to focus on developing new technology that ultimately would be used on his long gestating project, Avatar. Using revolutionary visual effects technology, it has been said that Avatar would change the way movies are made and seen. Well, it's not quite like that, but sure it's a fun leap forward.

In the year 2154 humans have arrived to a planet called Pandora, home of beautiful but dangerous creatures, searching for an expensive mineral that is worth millions on Earth. The only problem is that the native humanoids, the Na'vi aren't willing to move from their settlement, which happens to be right over the biggest source of the mineral in the planet.

In an effort to avoid war with the locals the Avatar project is developed by which humans controlling an artificial version of the native species would try to learn and reason with the Na'vi.

The story follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), an invalid marine who's chosen to participate in the Avatar project, after his twin brother is killed, against the wishes of Dr. Grace (Sigourney Weaver) who thinks a soldier is useless if they are trying to find a diplomatic solution to the problem.

But there are those who wish to take aggressive actions at all cost and Jake as the dedicated soldier he is, follows through the orders of investigating the weak point of the Na'vi home. Thus he struggles through his avatar to gain the trust and become one of The People, who naturally doesn't trust him.

As he spends more time into his avatar world he becomes less interested in following his military orders against those who he now sees as brothers, and when all diplomacy is lost, he and a small group of humans join forces with the Na'vi to stop the invasion o their world.

As with all James Cameron films, (let's forget about Piranha 2 shall we?), you can expect stunning visual effects, action and a deep storyline.

The Na'vi are shown as a species that respects the environment where they live. They feel and protect all life forms and only kill when they have to, and not without giving the spirit back to the Eyra, the mother of all things. They also make bounds with the animals the ride, with each other and Eyra itself through the tip of their hair. Jake's teacher in the journey to becoming one of them is Neytiri, daughter of the leader, who at first is unwilling to help him, but in the process falls in love with him, as he falls for her.

The humans on the other hand, except for a select few, are driven by financial and superiority reasons and will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Here's where a similarity with Cameron's Aliens can be made, as the superior race with advanced technology underestimates the local "savages". At the time of the release of Aliens, a parallel was drawn between that film and the Vietnam war, and I think the same can be said here, with the obvious update of the war in Iraq, which some say is only an excuse to control the reserves of oil.

Whether this was intentional or not, is up to Cameron, but anyway, it's part of the human nature to kill the so-called undeveloped cultures in order to take what they want.

Jake's journey is the one known of the man who rediscovers himself, becomes an outcast from his own people and joins and leads the "weaker" side. One of the things that left me with good taste with Terminator: Salvation was Sam Worthington, and here he proves that he's got what it takes to become a fan favorite. He perfectly reflects the playfulness and joy Jake experiences, and the strength he shows as a leader. The last time I remember I felt so excited with a character flight scene was with Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. After watching him with two great performances in 2009 I'm really looking forward to watch him in Clash of the Titans next year

The rest of the cast plays their parts with confidence as well. Sigourney Weaver is once again the strong female only she could play, and I must say, her avatar is just as beautiful as her. It was nice to see her on this kind of film after so long. Giovanni Ribisi plays a Burke kind of character, another reminiscence from Aliens which is more evident with his characteristic trembling voice. Michelle Rodriguez plays the tough girl once again, a role that she is surely very comfortable with.

And what about Pandora? The planet itself seems like a reflection on our word where everything is bigger. The creatures look familiar, but often with four eyes, or six legs, or both. There are floating rock formations given the low gravity field, and the air is breathable for human beings. At night a lot of things acquire a beautiful glow, even details in the skin of the Na'vi.

The special effects are the best I've seen since Transformers. Make no mistake, in here you'll not find funny silly creatures ala Star Wars prequels (ok, the digital Yoda is great) or too fake-looking Lord of the Rings beasts (take notice, I'm not arguing the quality of those films, I'm talking about unconvincing visual effects). Just like Transformers robots looked genuine, in here every creature, every landscape and the Na'vis themselves look impossibly real, deep and marvelous. And when the things you see on screen look so real, you stop thinking of them as effects and start relating to them. That's the power of Avatar.

James Horner is by the third time writing music for Cameron. As usual with the composer you could take the Avatar music and start drawing comparisons to his other works. All his trusty cues are here, some stronger versions of the old ones, others not so much. I was able to get glimpses of Troy, Titanic and Apocalypto throughout the score.

Some people use the fact that Horner uses and re-uses his own compositions to accuse the composer as unoriginal and unimaginative. I on the other hand like the way he uses those old cues and mix them with new ones to create a specific sound for a movie, all the way remaining inside his own style. In Avatar he is able to use the things he wrote in Apocalypto to provide a musical identity for the Na'vi. And of course the actions cues are exciting enough, although somehow overpowered by the sound effects.

And about the song at the end credits by Leona Lewis, I could live without it. People is sure to compare it to the infamous Titanic song, and because of that, I think this one will not get nearly as much success.

What else can I say about Avatar? Aliens, The Matrix and even bit and pieces from Titanic are all here, but above all James Cameron has showed once again that when it comes to revolutionary effects, spectacular scenes and engaging stories he truly is "the king of the world".