Avatar in IMAX 3D - A review

I went to see the Avatar last Tuesday (22nd Dec) in IMAX 3D. This meant driving through to Glasgow, as the Science Centre there is the only IMAX theater in Scotland. That was on the day of a severe weather warning for Glasgow and Central Scotland so I was prepared with my shovel in the back of the car :). However I forgot about the Glasgow traffic. Having left early and reached Glasgow two hours before the movie, it took us a whole hour to move one mile towards the movie theater. In the end I had do ditch the car (in a private car park, hoping I wouldn't get clamped or towed) and we half ran the two miles of traffic jams to the Science Centre making it just in time for the movie but way too late to get good seats - all the shows at the IMAX have been selling out.

Anyway onto the actual review. First a short plot summary - No Spoilers: "The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional inhabited Earth-like moon in a distant planetary system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi — the sapient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon — resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives."
As you may know I don't really watch many movies so I can't really compare Avatar with other storylines although I have heard it being compared to Dances with Wolves, Delgo and another animation Something Blood Something Terror (I can't remember the name, I'll update this as soon as I ask Ray J at work about it for the umpteenth time). I thought the story line was classic. Nothing spectacular but simply easy to get along with with no major twists and turns to give you headaches. The Avatar concept itself was portrayed fairly well in an original manner. The storyline did work in my opinion. It was predictable and cheesy but that was what made it work. It also helped me identify with alien characters very well as thus meant that I was drawn in but this may not be the case for everybody and most people would most likely be disappointed with the story overall. But it was good enough to make this long movie (nearly three hours) flow by.

For me Avatar had traits similar to a Documentary. Something I struggle to describe but that was the feeling I had.

However this movie is all about the special effects and CGI, hence the reason we went to see it in IMAX. This was very impressive, visually this movie beats everything else in my albeit limited repertoire of movies. We had pretty poor seats at the IMAX and that ruined it a bit in my opinion, for this movie you want to sit right in the middle of the theater to get the best of the image onslaught. Again I'm no expert but I do remember many movies where the special effects and CGI were not convincing enough. Avatar managed to blend in the CGI, effects and characters flawlessly, the integration of human characters on a CGI world was very very good. The soundtrack was a bit of a let down though, I did not feel the rush or excitement a good soundtrack should have brought to a film like Avatar.

Things I did not particularly like were Sam Worthington's, accent. An Australian actor speaking with an American accent was very grating to my ears. This wasn't helped as it was a stark contrast to others making his voice stand out out even more and even more so as he tried to interact with the Na'vi with whom he was supposed to blend in with. Also the female lead played by Zoë Saldaña also started out with an African accent (in my opinion) then switched to a more general one then back again (although the African accent seemed to occur only when she was angry or tense). Apart from our poor seats this was somehow what stuck in my mind hehe.

I loved Avatar and may even go see it again which is unusual for me. Also a definite buy on Blu-ray when it comes out. I would higly recommend it so go see it but make sure you get good seats.