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There
are great movies
made all the time.
Really, there are
probably two made
per year. But every
so often there’s a
movie that comes out
that is so amazing
that it becomes
intertwined with our
culture. James
Cameron has done
this three times
now. He did it first
with
The
Terminator.
He did it again with
Titanic.
He’s done it again
with
Avatar.
The remarkable thing
about
Avatar
is that it
overshadows both of
the previously
mentioned films, not
making them
irrelevant, but
making them second
and third mentions.
That’s incredible
for one director.
Avatar
is amazing and it
will be forever
linked to James
Cameron as the first
thing that gets
mentioned, and
that’s an
accomplishment.
In
Avatar
Jake Sully is a
grunt. He’s an
ex-marine that
suffered a high cost
for his duties. He
lost the use of his
legs. He’s paralyzed
from the waist down
but he hasn’t let it
get him down too
much. When Jake’s
twin brother dies,
Jake gets the
opportunity to take
over for him in a
mining company’s
avatar program. His
DNA is combined with
alien DNA to make a
unique creature that
Jake can ‘pilot.’
Jake flies out on a
spacecraft to the
planet of Pandora.
The planet is being
overrun by humans
for its natural
resources. It’s
filled with all
kinds of plant life
and species foreign
to humans and an
indigenous people
called the Navi. The
Navi worship the
world that they live
on and aren’t fans
of the humans that
are digging up their
ground and killing
their land.
Jake lands on
Pandora and gets put
to work in the
avatar program. The
Avatar program is
the big
corporation’s way of
making peace with
the native Navi.
They’ve mixed Navi
DNA with human DNA
and produced bodies
that can be
temporarily piloted
by humans. Jake’s
brother was supposed
to pilot an avatar.
But since he died,
it’s up to Jake to
take over for his
brother.
So Jake is an
avatar, but he
doesn't belong in
the program. He's
not a scientist.
That's not who he is
and that's not who
he's about. When he
first meets the Navi
people he says that
he's a warrior and
not a scientist. The
Navi people embrace
the first warrior of
the 'sky people' and
they seek to show
him their ways. Jake
learns to be one of
the Navi
and embraces
everything about the
people. But he knows
that his people and
the Navi don't mix
and he knows that no
matter what he does.
Things are going to
end badly. He goes
through
inner-conflict and
then normal conflict
trying to save
Pandora and The Navi.
This is a very long
movie. A special
edition of The Blu-Ray
will have some
extras on it, but
this standard Blu-Ray
release contains no
extras. What it does
contain is picture
that's more amazing
than a lot of us saw
in the theatre and
an amazing audio
mix. The audio
through this movie
is twice as
enjoyable in a home
environment because
you can enjoy the
subtle noises in the
back channels more
than you could at a
movie theatre. The
picture and audio of
Avatar on
Blu-Ray is amazing.
We hear a lot about
how
Avatar is
the #1 movie of all
time and the #1 DVD
of all time but
that's not what the
impressive part of
it is. It's
impressive but it's
not nearly as
impressive as the
money that Fox
dedicated towards
the project. They
put an amazing
amount of money into
making the movie,
into marketing the
movie, and into
marketing the home
release of the movie
too. Because they
dedicated all of
their resources and
because Cameron
delivered with an
outstanding movie,
Avatar
turned into #1 movie
of all-time. It's a
classic and if
you're one of the
dozens of people who
haven't seen it yet,
you need to do so.
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