Barry Attwood's "Film Ramblings" January - February 2010 “Avatar” is an extraordinary experience, whether you see it in 3-D or Flat, as we see CGI created characters, who can seemingly be alive, and interact with Human actors. The depth of James Cameron’s story, and the use of cutting art motion capture techniques, makes it possible for the actors who play the Alien ‘Na’vi’ people,to actually look and feel like Alien beings, who have a language and culture all of their own. Invaded by unscrupulous Human’s out to make a quick Buck, it turns out their planet (Pandora) is the only source of a magical mineral, and guess what, the ‘Na’vi’ just happen to have their home camp plonked straight on top of ‘Pandora’s’ biggest source of this mineral, will diplomacy work, or will the military option be invoked, well you guess! The ‘Avatar’s’ of the title are fully grown beings, a cross between Humans & Na’vi genes, and are grown to full ‘Na’vi’ size (about 8’ tall), and because they are a cross breed, the Human genes are supplied by specially trained Avatar operators, whose own genes have been spliced into one of these grown bodies, which makes the link possible, therefore they are controlled solely by their operator. In amongst this mix comes a disabled ex marine, who being an identical twin, has the same gene structure as his just deceased brother, and as Millions of Dollars goes into creating each Avatar, the company has no choice but to offer him his dead brother’s place. But here is where the story really starts, as he’s never been trained, he has to learn on the job, he soon realises he can walk and run once again in his Avatar body, but his mind is also more aware, especially of the beautiful surroundings in the form of scenery, and a beautiful and intelligent Female Na’vi “Neytiri”. His mission was to infiltrate the people, try and gain their trust, and ascertain if a peaceful solution could be sought, but when it comes clear that the ‘Na’vi’ needed nothing from us Humans, the die was cast. But the ex-marine was changing, he started to have feelings for these people, and especially “Neytiri”, and when the military option is taken, he leads the ‘Na’vi’ in battle against his own kind. That was quite a simplistic outline to the plot, there are many more strands to the story, and I urge anyone who hasn’t seen it, and can still get to see it in a Cinema, then please try and do so, as the Vista used by the special effects artists (and I do mean ‘Artists’) is really meant to be seen on the big screen, still if you only get to see it on DVD or Blu-Ray later in the year, you will not be disappointed. “Sherlock Holmes” turned out to be one of Director Guy Ritchie’s best films, as the perfectly cast duo of “Robert Downey Jr.” & “Jude Law” as the eponymous fictional duo of ‘Holmes & Watson’, have been brought to life for a 21st Century audience in a way that doesn’t diminish the source material of a mostly squalid Victorian era, where the rich were super wealthy, and the poor scraped a living from anything they can. ‘Holmes & Watson’ have just caught the evil serial killer, and so called ‘Occult’ Sorcerer Lord Blackwood , who had been the scourge of London with many gruesome killings, who has been sentenced to death by hanging, even ‘Watson’ is the attending physician to declare him dead, once done the duo hope to go back to a more sedate life, ‘Watson’ is set to Marry, and ‘Holmes’ has a distraction of old temptress ‘Irene Adler’ turning up out of the blue. But when the ritual killings start again, and they find out Blackwood has somehow cheated the hangman’s touch, the game is once again “afoot”. There is even mention a couple of times of a mysterious character who hires ‘Irene Adler’ to steal something for him, oh his name, “Moriarty”, of course (we only ever see his hands in this film), which should lead nicely into the sequel (already in the works, Brad Pitt’s name that’s been bandied around for the role). A fun action packed romp, with many well timed moments. Independent 8 Front Page 8mm Sales List Equipment Sales List Order Form [HOME]  [NEWS]  [HISTORY]  [NEXT]  [PAST]  [HOME CINEMAS]  [GETTING STARTED]  [SUPER 8 FILM REVIEW]  [FILMTEK]  [LINKS]  [CONTACT US]