To Me, Avatar Will Always be the Best Film Ever

In order to get the audience reacquainted with the world of Avatar before the release of Avatar 2 in December, the first movie was rereleased in North America on September 23rd. Just coming back from the theater myself, I couldn’t help but sit down and write this blog/opinion. To me, Avatar will always be the best film ever.

In the interest of complete honesty, I am extremely biased. I watched Avatar when I was a 9 year-old kid, and nothing shocked me more. The visuals — blew my young mind. The story — made me smile and weep at times. To put it in simpler terms, as a nine-year-old, I have never seen anything like this, and indeed, it blew my frickin’ mind. Avatar was what I used to learn English. Curse words like “goddamn” and “bitch” became ingrained in my brain. Since first seeing the film in 3D (not IMAX, because my hometown Dalian did not have IMAX screens back then), I have watched the film more than 50 times; and this is not an exaggeration. I am not a legitimate film reviewer; I am just a fanatic of the Avatar “franchise”.

Critics of the film often point to its lack of original ideas and borrowed storyline, with a mediocre story. While I can’t defend the film in the first two regards because I haven’t seen older films like “Dancing with the Wolves”; what I can say, is that the story is not mediocre at all. After seeing the film today, I had a brand new perspective of the storytelling.

The film is extremely air-tight, and it is air-tight on two levels. There are no holes in the storytelling, everything is extremely cohesive. The second level would be the incredible pace that the director James Cameron had for the film. We go through the storyline at an extremely fast pace because the movie needs to squeeze time in to showcase its incredible visual effects of Pandora; yet, everything is properly explained. There is no lose-ends that wasn’t tied up in the end. Every facial expression, every movement was useful to the plot in some way or the other, and it advances the story in such a consistency that it made me weep.

The late James Honor’s score for this movie was another highlight. Every important moment was followed up with Honor’s master composition. I am just a sucker for great musical cues at the right moment, and the editors for the movie delivers. At important plot points, at transitions, at exploring the world of Pandora, Honor cleverly blends indigenous instruments with orchestra to create what can only be described as otherworldly harmony (get it?).

Some people have criticized Sam Worthington’s acting as mediocre as well. I don’t disagree. Worthington’s acting seemed to be lackluster in most films. For example, in Terminator 4, his facial expressions seemed to be the same from start to end. However, in Avatar, I would say that his acting elevates the story. Worthington portrays Jake Sully, a veteran who enters into a world of fantastics where he finally has his legs again. His curiosity at the beginning, his discovery in the middle, and his anger and happiness in the end are very on point.

I have seen people compare this to Avengers: Endgame. That is not a fair comparison. Endgame isn’t really a movie; it is 10 years worth of movies bursting in a 3 hours long fan-service glory. The marvel that is Endgame (pun intended) could not have happened without the 10 years worth of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor movies. While the Avengers series had 10 years of individual super-hero movies for this ultimate buildup, Avatar didn’t have any of that. The romantic last battle in Avatar and the deus ex machina of creatures of Pandora joining the fight was just like that of Endgame’s, except, all the buildups happened within the 2 hours and 45 minutes of the film.

Let me reiterate again, I am a fanatic of this film. This film is the embodiment of my childhood; primary school, middle school, high school, and college, I watch this film when I am reminiscent of the old times. Indeed, this film is like the first Star Wars movie to Star Wars fans. While most people could again criticize that both Avatar and Star Wars (The New Hope, or just the first one) did not have “extraordinary” plot, it wouldn’t matter. Both Avatar and Star Wars are milestones of the movie industry, and a revolution for film making. Most criticism of this film can be categorized to one: how can a movie with such uneventful plot be the most watched film in the entire history of filmmaking? How did I like a film which I don’t like now? In the end, people attribute their own negative feelings to a film that is nothing but astonishing. I will always love Avatar, with 3D or not, it doesn’t matter.