Film Review: Avatar

It’s been more than ten years since James Cameron directed the Academy Award-winning Titanic (1997), and the hype surrounding this monster of a film has been of leviathan proportions. Does it deserve the title of ‘epic’?

The year is 2054, and the human race is colonising the alien planet Pandora, so that they can mine for the imaginatively named mineral ‘unobtainum’ (presumably once they have it, it becomes obtainium). But the indigenous people of Pandora – blue-skinned Amazons, with a connection to the forest – are not willing to give up their homeland so easily. Earth sends in Avatars – human minds, linked to alien bodies – to convince them to leave. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, Terminator) is one such Avatar, thrust into an entirely new world, and out of his body. But as Jake learns more about the native people, he finds himself torn between two worlds, fighting for the forest – and his life.

The story is straightforward: Pocahontas on another planet, Dances With Wolves to the tune of a space opera, romanticism of the savages in space. Unfortunately the dichotomy between civilised/savage is slightly overwrought. The aliens are somewhat complex characters, but the army and corporate thugs are mindless, testosterone-powered machines. The human characters are ironically more two-dimensional than their animated counterparts.

The plot is predictable, the politics somewhat preachy, and the dialogue clichéd: but this is a remarkable film nonetheless. The formula is still interesting no matter how many times we’ve seen it, but it is the alien planet Pandora that makes Avatar so watchable. The lush and luminescent world is filled with detailed plants, and fascinating and frightening animals. The thick atmosphere of the planet means that mountains float suspended in the sky, and slow-moving reed-grasses are reminiscent of underwater scenery.


Avatar was made for 3D, so it would be remiss of me not to mention its effectiveness. Does it live up to the hype? The 3D effects are amazing. Most impressive are not exploding aircraft, or airborne missiles, but the more subtle scenes, where 3D is merely used to add depth to the scene. Watching Avatar, one feels like they are really standing in the room with the characters, or watching the lush forest stretch out before them.

Despite the predictability of plot, Avatar is an amazing technical achievement. It is worth seeing, if only so that one can see the future of filmmaking. It is an out of body, out of this world experience.


Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver


- Melissa

Movie Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Review by Melissa.




Based on Maurice Sendak’s best selling children’s book, director Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers have stretched ten deceptively simple sentences into an atmospheric two-hour feature film, ‘Where The Wild Things Are.’

In the picture book, Max is a wild child who escapes to an imaginary world where he rules the monsters – and returns home when he realises he misses his mother. The film expands on the book, sharing more of Max’s (Max Records) life in the real world. With a shaky and intimate hand-held camera, we see Max being pushed away by his teenage sister, frightened by the apocalyptic prophecies of his science teacher, and struggling to steal time from his preoccupied mother. After a fight with his mother, where Max acts out to get attention, he flees his family home and – through a dream-like sequence – finds himself in a world closer to his liking. A world filled with friends in the shape of scary monsters, and without the rules and regulations of the real world. The monsters in the film have names and personalities, where in the book they were only ever an unclear collective, a blur of feathers and fur. As Max learns to interact with each of these creatures, he learns about himself. But the line between childishness and wildness is indistinct, and dream worlds can be the most dangerous.

‘Where The Wild Things Are’ has had a ferocious amount of hype surrounding, and it thankfully lives up to the indie-kid expectations. It retains the darkness of the original story, as well as the straightforward look at childhood, and doesn’t compromise for the sake of the kids. The faithfulness and frankness comes from, one feels, the minds behind the project. With the hippest kids of Hollywood involved – Jonze (of ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Being John Malkovich’ fame), Eggers (author and founder of ‘McSweeneys’ alternative literary journal), and composer Karen O (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) – this was never going to be a typical animated children’s film. Young actor Max Records might just be the least annoying child actor I’ve ever seen. He manages to capture the varied emotions required for the role, from irrational anger to wide-eyed wisdom.

Also impressive are the wild things of the island. By giving each monster a personality, we can see Max tangibly grapple with reconciling the warring aspects of his own personality: the love he feels for his mother, his fear of abandonment, and his need for fun. The large-scale suits that make the monsters also seem more real than any CGI creature ever could be – the sometimes shaky and cumbersome movements, and the stiff fur only add to the texture of the film. It feels more like a children’s dream than an animated Pixar production, and is the better for it.

This is a film that represents a child’s psychological landscape, much more realistically than Neverland did (from the classic ‘Peter Pan,’ a world which was supposed to be a map of a child’s mind). Because children are not solely concerned with pirates, fairies and mermaids – they feel elation and isolation, irritation and dejection in equal measures. Max’s confusion and lack of control are seriously considered in this film, not merely branded as bad behaviour. It attempting to present the film truly from a child’s point of view – not merely through a sanitised, candy cane-coloured lens – the viewer is a child, too. It is an assault on the senses, and at attempt at authenticity.

While children themselves might find this film slow moving or scary or sad – they might also sympathise. Adults should definitely enjoy it. It is a visceral and violently imaginative film. I’ll eat it up, I love it so.


Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Michael Berry Jnr, Chris Cooper

-- M