I wasn’t really planning on watching Avatar in the theater until I heard a raving review of the 3D version from my brother-in-law. He told me he immediately knew he wanted to watch it again. I have never seen a 3D movie before, so I was pretty pumped to go see it. I had heard some reports of people getting sick from watching the movie, so I admit I was a bit apprehensive during the first few minutes. The 3D didn’t really bother me initially, but after about 30 minutes I found myself getting a bit of a headache. I think it was from me trying to look around the screen checking out the different levels of depth during each scene. I decided to just relax and look where I normally would and I started to feel better.
As for the movie itself, it wasn’t an amazing, earth-shattering experience for me like many people have said it was for them. The whole idea of controlling another body remotely was rather interesting. This concept has been around a long time, but I don’t think until now controlling another biological being built with parts of your own DNA has been described. The movie was fun to watch and is most definitely a milestone in cinematography. I haven’t really gone to movies in the theater in the past few years because it has started to become so expensive, but Avatar is worth the money. If you can see it in 3D without getting sick, I’d recommend that as well.
The main plot of the movie has been done many times before in one way or another. In this movie, humans discover a rich deposit of some precious mineral on a moon. The Na’vi, natives of this moon, of course live right on the most concentrated deposit of this mineral. Humans want the resource, so try to get the Na’vi to move, but they don’t want to. Where have we seen this theme before? English settlers vs. Native Americans? Conquistadors vs. Aztecs? I’ve seen quite a few people bash James Cameron for this obvious parallel, but honestly, it’s been done many times before. Where were the critics then? I don’t really understand all of this controversy.
Also, I’m a bit amazed that some people are reporting that they feel depressed after watching Avatar. I think that anyone sad that Earth doesn’t live up to a fictional world had some personal issues before watching this movie already. Don’t blame Avatar! Enjoy it for what it is, a movie. It has great action, decent story, and the best special effects I’ve ever seen. Don’t try to read more into it than you need to. I would watch it again, especially with someone that hasn’t seen it before, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to do so by myself.