A new “Avatar” movie was apparently released recently, but as I haven’t seen it yet on streaming services or digital download, reviews of it will have to wait.
I have, however seen the original Avatar movie from 2009 because I have it both on DVD and on Digital Download. I may have also seen it by streaming it on Amazon Prime, but I can’t remember now as I don’t think it’s available on there free with the monthly subscription any more.
I first finally obtained Avatar on DVD from a charity shop (or Poundland, I can’t remember now). Then in November 2020 I picked up a Digital download from the UK iTunes store while it was cheap to see if it would display any better in that format with HD Quality.
Didn’t really notice any difference.The movie seems to get mixed reviews from most normal people whenever I’ve seen it mentioned on twitter or the now defunct Yahoo Answers website.
Most people don’t seem to get what all the fuss is about.
From what I recall most of the hype surrounding the movie is because it’s a SciFi movie with cutting edge (for 2009) special effects, and it was bundled with Panasonic’s high end Home Cinema equipment back around 2010 to 2012(ish) to show off their high end Plasma screen TVs and 3D Blu-Ray players.
I seem to recall things were so cutting edge (for the time), that the director had to put the idea on ice for over a decade waiting for the technology to catch up.
The movie features Sam Worthington as a crippled ex. Marine confined to a wheelchair who gets to take the place of his dead twin brother on a space mission to a distant world.
He is accompanied by Joel David Moore as Scientist “Norm Spellman”, some people may recognise him from a couple of appearances in popular sitcom “Last Man Standing” as the leader of the “communist daycare centre” attended by Mike Baxter’s Grandson Boyd.
Also in the movie is Sigourney Weaver from the “Alien” movie franchise as another scientist, and Zoe Saldana from the Rebooted “Star Trek” movies.
After waking from a number of years in stasis travelling to the world, they journey down to the planet, which has an atmosphere poisonous to humans, and filled with numerous dangerous wildlife.
The movie gets it’s “Avatar” name through the science team having created artificial versions of the creatures on the planet that the operate like an advanced version of virtual reality.
The creatures on the planet the make up the native tribes are tall gangly blue things that kind of remind me of that woman basketball player that was recently held prisoner in Russian for carrying drugs through an airport.
Jake Sully (Worthington) gets lost exploring the world in his avatar suit, and after getting chased by one of the wildlife on the planet makes contact with one of the tribes, eventually striking up a relationship.
From there the movie starts turning into “Greta Thunberg in Space”, with the Marine starting to go rogue against the company in charge of the exploration mission exploiting the world for it’s resources.
Overall it’s a decent enough movie for showing off the the colour reproduction + black level capabilities of your fancy home cinema set-up.
6.5/10
