Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Avatar (2009)


Academy Awards, USA
YearResultAwardCategory/Recipient(s)
2010 Won Oscar Best Achievement in Art Direction
Rick Carter (production designer)
Robert Stromberg (production designer)
Kim Sinclair (set decorator)
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Mauro Fiore
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Joe Letteri
Stephen Rosenbaum
Richard Baneham
Andrew R. Jones
Nominated Oscar Best Achievement in Directing
James Cameron
Best Achievement in Film Editing
Stephen E. Rivkin
John Refoua
James Cameron
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
James Horner
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Christopher Boyes
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Christopher Boyes
Gary Summers
Andy Nelson
Tony Johnson
Best Motion Picture of the Year
James Cameron
Jon Landau

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by James Cameron
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray 3D, Fox)

A handicapped Marine volunteers for duty on the planet Pandora. He becomes the "driver" of an alien "avatar" which he controls remotely with his mind. The only drawback is that when he falls asleep as the alien avatar he wakes up in his "real" body. How all this works is not adequately explained, so it's best just to accept it. Pandora has a large supply of a valuable mineral, but the indigenous life is in the way of getting it. Macho military types plan to take it by force by destroying their habitat. The driver/avatar is sent on a mission to become one of the native people. For awhile he happily supplies critical information for the impending attack like a good Marine. However, when he falls in love with one of the natives his allegiance changes. It all leads to a long, drawn out Big Action Finale between the military and the native people. The plot is rather formulaic and the characters, especially the military, are too often stereotypes. Nonetheless, even at 3 hours I was never bored, just try not to think too much.

No comments:

Post a Comment