A much anticipated movie it is: Avatar the movie. Not too be confused with Avatar the last Airbender. I watched the movie last night and i will say that it left me glued to my seat. It had strong actors, fair script, wonderful editing, gorgeous ‘backdrops’ rendered in CG and a mesmerizing soundtrack. The movie was made with a budget of 230million and about 5 years to produce.
Synopsis in short
An ex marine, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is ported to the world of Pandora so that he can take on a research project which is to understand the indigenous clan called the Na’vi, a humanoid tribe. The project is funded by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribis) and he is trying to come to a compromise with the Na’vi, with the aid of the research scientist Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and military Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Instead the ways of communication turn into a battle between the humans and the Na’vi. Jake steps into his new life as an Avatar and meets one of the local people, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who at first wants to kill him. But instead teaches him the ways of their tribe. Along the way Jake has to decide where his loyalty rides, to the people who hired him or the people who have brought him in as family?
**Oh and how cool is this you have a Pandora Encyclopedia. Think it like another Star Wars in the making?
Acting
Superb performance by all actors. Considering that nearly 80% of the film was done with CGI, i can understand how hard it would be for the actors, to try and imagine a magnificent world when all they have around them are grey walls.

Worthington, is becoming a fast rising star and he’s showing his skills as an actor gallantly. Sigourney does not disappoint at all in this film as the sarcastic hard-headed no nonsense scientist. But the one that blew me away had to be Zoe Saldana.

I’m very very impressed and happy at how she is growing in the industry. Despite the fact that a lot of motion capture (yes i do that for a living ^_^) is involved, it doesn’t deter the actors from showing the raw emotions they need for their role.

CGI
Amazing! Everything looked very very real. As real as it can get anyway. It was almost magical as you stepped in the world of Pandora. Everytime a character stepped on the ground, a part of the ground will light up. Nothing cheap about the effects here. You can tell i’m taking more about the background and environment in the movie.


The trees, mountains, skies and weird animals were gorgeous! As for the alien race, well they weren’t perfect, but as far as animation goes, it was still a very well done job. If you look close enough you will be able to recognise the facial features of the actors who played the alien race. I didn’t know Zoe was going to be in it, but judging from the mannerism and how Neytiri was made, it was not hard for me to put two and two together and recognise it was her. Being a Guild Wars fan, i couldn’t help but feel it was like the landscape of Ascalon and
Action
Jam packed with bows flying in the air next to bombs that are ready to explode. I loved the scenes here.  Just watch the show and you’ll get it.


(pictures courtesy of OfficialAvatarMovie’s photostream)
Soundtrack
What can i possibly even say? It is James Horner, the man who composed the Titanic OST and made the Celion Dion song “My Heart Will Go On” shoot to stardom and irritate me as i could never NOT hear it whenever i went out for that entire year! So yes the music is fantastic. With hints of tribal, asian, and sci-fi elements. Think Battlestar Gallactica OST. Listening to the theme song “I See You” written by James Horner and sung by Leona Lewis is enough to get my hair standing
All one needs for a 10 star rated film. But i will give it 9/10 because some small parts felt just a tad draggy and also storyline was not entirely original. Imagine Avatar to be a mix of Pocahontas, Titanic and Atlantis all into one. Still the movie was told beautifully by James Cameron.