Avatar (2009) review

I may have been the only person up until now to never have seen Avatar, not because I haven’t had time but simply because, I just didn’t feel it was necessary. I had loved James Cameron’s earlier films (Terminator, Aliens and T2) and whilst True Lies was a good fun film, it was overlong. The same can be said about Titanic and it was by this point that I came to realize that James Cameron was one of the most overrated directors in the business. I can now say that Avatar joins his list of overrated films giving us nothing but visuals to drool at.

A group of marines are sent down to a planet called Pandora in search for some precious material and paraplegic Jake Sully is one of them since he becomes a replacement for his dead brother. Here, Jake begins to bond with the native Na’vis as he learns about their lifestyle and falls in love with Neytiri whilst failing to obey orders given to him.

Here is a premise that has been done before but the issue to Avatar arises with James Cameron and his overuse of CGI to dazzle his audiences. Since 2009, it has become absurd to think how people have truly fallen in love with this film hailing it as one of the greatest ever! This has always annoyed me but having seen the movie, this is absurd. If the visual effects to Avatar weren’t as dazzling and there was no 3D to marvel at, then you have a movie that is absolutely nothing special. Whilst I am not criticizing the visuals, the story is so poorly told and the characters are stereotypical, with none of the characters coming off as interesting in the slightest. Even Neytiri, who we as an audience should be able to connect to, comes off as rather irritating. Whilst Cameron’s earlier films, mainly the first two Terminator films and Aliens were able to convey emotion effortlessly making it very subtle and natural, Avatar truly overdoes it making many of the sequences involving the natives mourning rather laughable.

Though audiences have drooled about the visuals and the 3D effects, I myself saw no true brilliance about each whether it was due to the fact that I knew the overuse of CGI or whether it was the fact that I was able to concentrate on the story and characters. The film itself is paced quite poorly and inconsistently. The first hour drags along as Jake attempts to get in with the natives and the last hour and a half suddenly becomes a much livelier and more action packed feast than it was before. The problem with this is that the first half of the film doesn’t provide much about Jake Sully to truly care for him and too much is given about Neytiri and her people that it comes to the point where it becomes rather difficult to take in anymore. This is overkill!

Even with the poor story and attempt to overly humanize the Na’vi by providing possibly too  much story, the action sequences towards the end of this film are truly engaging even if the characters in them aren’t. It is mindless eye candy thrown onto the screen simply because Cameron knew that there was no way that the film would be received the same without a huge ‘Helm’s Deep’ of his own. Whilst ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ had an engaging story, relatable characters, great character development, great performances, strong writing and directing that eventually deserves to be payed off with a huge action feast, Avatar rarely accomplishes any of the following I listed and so the huge action feast at the end is Cameron’s way of attempting to erase his audience’s mind of all the poor things about this film.

I am rather surprised to say this but most of the performances in the film come off as extremely poor when compared to Cameron’s other films such as Aliens which had some of his better performances by actors. Sam Worthington isn’t anything special as Jake Sully. I am still unsure on who to blame for not being able to like Jake. Sigourney Weaver, surprisingly, gives an extremely poor performance when compared with her performances in the Alien franchise. Most of the performances were extremely weird making the characters they played hard for me to take in seriously.

Those who simply praise the brilliant visuals and simply forget about the poor story and poor character development are those who do not truly think about this film and give it a simple pass for its revolutionary visuals. I just ask of them to view the film had the visuals not being at the standard that they were. As a young George Lucas once said, “Visual effects are used to tell a story. Special effects without a story is a pretty boring thing!” We all know what became of this man later in his life but this is a principle that James Cameron himself followed, until Avatar came along.  

Grade- 3/10

Beautiful Creatures (2013) review

This year has definitely got off to an unstable start with most films turning out to be a major disappointment. Amongst some popular films, so far such as Gangster Squad comes one of the small films, a teen romance called 'Beautiful Creatures' 

Just by taking a look at the cover, it doesn't seem like a promising movie at all. But thankfully, this movie does deliver in many ways to be an enjoyable enough experience. The story telling wasn't perfect but it was good enough to enjoy the story and the characters

I myself would never sit down and watch one of these teen romances, simply because it seemed like it would be Twilight. My choice was to watch the 2013 action flick, Parker but unfortunately it wasn't working so I, for some strange reason put this film in. As I was watching this, there was somewhat a smile on my face! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not that its one of the great films or anything but it was definitely exceeding my expectations. 

Beautiful Creatures focuses around a young eccentric, mythical girl named Lena who is soon about to turn 16 and then she will either be cast as light or as dark, when she meets a young boy from school named Ethan Wate, with whom she starts a relationship that may well effect who she grows up to be. 

The plot along seems too much like Twilight for my tastes and even when reviews came in saying that this wasn't Twilight, it didn't change the fact that I thought it was going to suck. Beautiful Creatures is one of those 'guilty pleasures' of mine. For some reason, most elements of the film worked really well especially the dialogue which was at times, extremely funny. It often made me giggle and kept me entertained. Something that I did not expect with this film is how depth some of the characters are, particularly Lena. Most of her past is explained throughout the film but not in any frustrating and time wasting way. A lot of it is emotional and is something that I would buy. 

The main reason I eventually began watching this film was for Jeremy Irons and his amazing performances in films such as The Lion King. He was outstanding in this film and easily gives the best performance of the film. Jeremy Irons is the one that ensures that we take the world presented in this film very seriously, with his very serious performance. Alice Englert plays Lena, and honestly up until now, I've never heard of this actress. She seems extremely young in the film but actually gives a rather decent performance. Sometimes it is evident that she cannot give what is required of her but overall she does a good job. Another name that I've never heard of is Alden Ehrenreich, who plays Ethan and gives a fantastic performance! He possessed every trait required for the role and gave a truly fantastic performance. Emmy Rossum plays Lena's cousin, who prior to being casted was afraid she would cause harm and left her cousin for her safety. She was also good in this film, giving yet another believable performance and yet another funny and likeable performance, even if her character isn't supposed to be! 



The characters are written well in this film, the premise is corny but on screen, it actually works. Now, this is adapted off a novel which I have not read so whether this is loyal to the novel and whether this will please fans of the book, I cannot tell. That said, this film is definitely an enjoyable film, mainly due to the writing.

The special effects in this film are extremely lame yet that is forgettable simply because the film keeps you invested in the characters and story enough for you to put it aside. There are many scenes where the effects are clearly bad such as the spinning table sequence, after Ridley annoys Lena and a scene involving lightning to keep back Lena and Ethan. These sequences did look rather awful yet forgettable. The fact that special effects are only required to tell a story are clearly evident and the bad effects isn't a huge downsider to the film. 



Laying aside the poor special effects, most of the film is actually interesting and somehow, enjoyable. Mostly great acting, followed by an interesting story and characters, mixed with good writing make 'Beautiful Creatures' a good film. Perhaps ten minutes too long but the film keeps you invested enough to forget about that. Not the greatest film of the year but a film that possesses the traits of a decent film. What mainly hurt the film was some elements of the story, but not too much. Overall, a good film. 

Grade-7.5/10 
Definitely not Twilight, a rather enjoyable experience still suffers in many ways such as unnecessary scenes and a tad overlong. Not perfect, but enjoyable enough