Baum Reviews

AVATAR has finally been unleashed on the public after years of hype and for the most part it doesn’t disappoint.  The story is fun, the acting and motion captured acting is great, and when the 3D works it REALLY works.  The formula of the movie is basically…

Take the characters from ALIENS, add the “we are one with nature” message of FERN GULLY, make the movie as long as LORD of the RINGS, and lastly pepper in the beasts from JURASSIC PARK.  Oh, and DANCES WITH WOLVES wrapped around the whole thing.

Coming out of the theater, I was so exhausted from the viewing experience that I swore I would have no need to see this film ever again.  Now that I have been able to sleep it off, I feel like maybe a second viewing is due when a Blu-Ray release happens.

My problem with the film is that the CGI (computer generated images) are wildly inconsistent.  When a texture looks real things are great, but too many times during the film I felt I was watching a bad-ass PIXAR film with human actors dropped in for good measure.  Sorry to say it Mr. Cameron but you are right there with George Lucas in terms of making the mistake of digitizing everything when a real prop could have added some weight and texture.

Still, AVATAR is a great film and definitely one of the only “worth the high ticket price” films out right now.  See at least once in 3D or don’t even bother.