Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition)
by James Cameron
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DVD details
Actor: Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe SaldanaDirector: James Cameron
Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
Producer: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 162 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2010-04-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition)
DVD Review: PRETTY AND AMBITIOUS, BUT UNDERWHELMING
Summary: 3 Stars
The hero is a grunt of the "Jarhead Tribe" which is to say, a Marine with a young, plain face, who wears two outstanding characteristics; (1) he is paraplegic and weelchair-bound, AND (2) he is twin brother whose sibling has only very recently taken the dirt nap. Somehow he is drafted into a hyped-up "Hearts and Minds" effort to subvert a native population on a distant planet rich in strategic minerals as a last-minute replacement for that brother.
Here we are: We find ourselves immediately on a recognizable next-generation Marine Outpost movie of Sci-Fi flicks like the second ALIEN movie, in the company of characters that seem virtually identical to those trigger-happy guys 'n gals, and not only that, there's a familiar, older version of Ripley. She's a chain-smoking Science virago in an orange marcelled wig, and she's running the remote-conrtrol neuron-link "Hearts and Minds" thing, with irritable ineficiency, hampered by yet a new version of the Corporate A-hole smartypants.
The first scenes of what appears to be a fairly complex exposition, take place in a series of metal pre-fab shelters and control pods overlooking a landing field and exercise yard in which newer versions of Sci-Fi Military hardware grind, zip about, hover and stomp by. (These would be newer, larger helicopters like olive-drab dragonflies; armed, transport battle-barges like Herculese lifters, but bigger with multiple fan-wings; and occasionally large armed steel exo-skeleton walkers out of the one Ripley debuted in her hand-to-hand battle with the Alien Queen, and the morphs of those machines the defenders of Zion used in MATRIX REVOLUTIONS. The way the movie is laid out, this military-industrial complex is to this story as the modern version of the old Western Stockade of Indians vs. Cavalry movies would be. (Its Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan again.) Outside of the perimeter, a dangerous and hostile world of painted savages, and creature hungry for blood.
Ripley, here called GRACE, is diffident about the paraplegic replacement (Grunt) for her prize subject in the experiment, which depends on a kind of mind-meld between the human (controlling partner) and an artificially-grown replicant of one of the savage in habitants of this new star. All the Grunt has is a twin's identical DNA to the dead replant-subject. He hasn't been trained! We glimpse the large humanoid the Grunt is to animate, floating in his tank of amniotic fluid, an elongated 8 or 9 foot male like a computer blend of an Massai warrior and a leopard, with yellow eyes and a tail and not-quite super physical powers. He is about ready to be born, or activated. The mind of this blue humanoid will be totally animated by the mind of the paraplegic grunt while he lies unconscious and dreaming in a kind of sensory deprivation box, wearing an electrical harness. This enormously complex system will enable the Grunt to spy on the natives and to become 'one of them.' That's the scheme. Once he is accepted by the tribe or one of the tribes, he will persuade them to abandon their rights to the minerals coveted by the Americans. Meanwhile, during those times he sleeps as an humanoid savage, awake and out of his box, the Grunt will betray whatever strategic information he learns while undercover.
Now, it happens that the Grunt is not the only human being to work in this way on these people; Grace herself also travels among the natives in a syntho-body, and we learn that it was she who so disguised set up what little contact and communication there is when she opened an english language school -- the equivalent of a Missionary School -- and made some progress with the foreign culture. What progress there was, was taken over and is now completely controlled by the Corporation, and managed by a smug, unprincipled manager, aided by his harsh, bigoted military captain.
That's the set-up. The rest is the beautiful wallpaper of artificially contrived flora and fauna, or "nature" of this planet PANDORA. We are plunged into that colorful scenery when Grace takes her small crew into the jungle for a brief 'drop.' There, the Grunt (who is often called stupid or inattentive) wanders away from his mates, following his senses in a new world of plant life that bears many of the characteristics of earthly acquatic life. Aside from the flashy and benign life-forms, he contacts some dangerous mega-forms -- the Sci-Fi equivalnts of wild dogs and rinos and elephants -- and after losing himself completely in the phosphorescent gloom during a defensive fight against predatory animals, he is contacted by one of the natives, a female, who saves him by killing one of the predators. He is as thrilled by the presence of the female of his species, as a teen-aged football hero would be, meeting the head cheerleader at a prom. This biological truism is apt, because we fill find out soon enough, that the female is the Chief's daughter. And this inescapable cliche is apparent when she leads him to the Great Tree (or village) of her people. Then, true to form, we get a bit of renactment of the Pocahantas and John Smith situation, with grunts and body language right out of Central Casting in the generations of American movies where the native princess brings the white intruder to her village. There, of course, he will have to prove himself in order to be accepted into the tribe. And there, true to form yet again, the daughter of the chief will be instructed to teach him. (Sometimes it's Polynesia, sometimes Arizona. Gary Cooper did it in Kubelai Kahn's China, in MARCO POLO.)
All this is wildly delightful to the Americans back on base, as the Grunt awake and functioning on his own out of his box, tells his story reviews maps, and begins to narrate his daily diary. One of the things he or his alter ego will do with the native people, is to find a mount in the native way. Now, we've entered DANCES WITH WOLVES on steroids. You see, the Princess rides or rather flies around, on a kind of blended or synthesized version of a flying dynasauer, (or peridactyl) but with the head modified to look like one of the flesh-eating earth-bound animals. Beautiful animation. She rides the thing through the skies like a rodeo trick rider, high-pitched shrieks and all. Well, obviously the Grunt has to have one too; all the other males have theirs. So, the group sets out for "the land of floating mountains," where enormous vine-draped clods float or hover. Its rather like a Chinese lamdscape painting on a mirror. There, at the very tippy-tops of these mountains, in noisy nesting gaggles, the peridactyls live and squawk, crawling about not like birds, their wings folded against their pectorals, but like repriles who must walk on four legs, their extended skin-stretched digits folded. Like a group of irritable umbrellas, they are annoyed by the intruders. The Grunt must choose one, or as the Princess says in her Plains Indian way, it must choose him. Well, that's done with a struggle, but the animators have chosen an interesting, parallel way to show the collaboration between mount and rider. The beast's crest ends with a kind of long tassel. All the natives, male and female, wear long braided pigtails. What the Grunt must do is touch the end of his pigtail to the tassel of the flying lizard. Tendrils will spring from both ends, grasp each other, entwine and be covered by a kind of skin cocoon. That is the way the natives communicate with their mounts.
This pigtail tendril device is important because it is an unique method of joining with or tuning into various beings; trees, often. And particulaarly the Soul Tree, or thickets of them, which is an essential part of the symbolism of Earth Worship and its resultant sympatico the natives have, and Americans (the Sky People) do not. (NOTE: the tails of the Pandorians serve no spiritual function.)
The plot lumbers on: The Grunt is accepted into the tribe and into the princess' arms in a mercifully brief Teen Love episode. Meanwhile, inevitably, driven perhaps by Stock Market Pressures, the Company makes the first move by buldozing a sacred grove, one day, with bulldozers as big as those used in open pit mining. There's an armed protest, which the natives cannot possibly win, but there's a stalemate wherein the Grunt's hidden identity is compromised. Rows with the Princess. Rows with the Chief and the Tribal Council. Rows when the Grung's awake in the Strategy or Briefing area. The Corporation intends to use the US Military to attack and destroy the giant Tree (native village) in order to capture the minerals underneath it. Grace protests. The Grunt protests. Pleads for time to persuade the natives. Granted little or none, and the attack takes place. Fleets of olive-drab flying machines attack the tree with incendiary missiles and bring it down in flames. Many natives are wounded. The Chief is killed. The Princess is PO'd. The Grunt is driven away. But... But... A prfoundly butch Latina-looking pilot deserts, refusing to fire on civilians, presumably (or civilian females) and returns to base.
At Headquarters the Grunt is relieved of his duty. But, before he can be returned to earth, the Latina-traitor-chopper jockeyette facilitates a plot whereby the Grunt, one of his buddies and Grace, will be transported back into the bush, with one of their control pod dwellings, from which, in suspended animation, they will be able to re-enter and re-animate their native bodies and sieze control of the situation. This is done, but the action animates headquarters, and the Corporation authorizes the Military to mount a full-scale bomb attack on the center of native culture, Soul Tree Central.
Drums. Big music. Everybody's on the march. The armed might of the USA takes to the air for a little Shock and Awe. The Grunt gets a mind-flash from native history and decides to appear as the Racial hero of the Planet, riding a mega-lizard. He finds one, its orange and huge, captures it and appears to the assembled, dispirited people, a Geronimo among men. Like a Fazenda bodybuilder in a loincloth, they accept him as leader and the word is sent out to all the people on the planet who hurry to join in the defense of the Soul Tree. (It is the open air equivalent of the MATRIX's Zion.) But, after a very interesting and colorful battle, though Grace is killed and cannot be regenerated, the natives win the war and the Military Sky People are sent back to Eath, their machines of war in ruins. The moral seems to have been that you are not permitted to take whatever you want from others simply because you want it.
(Do I have that right? The moral, I mean. I wonder.) One thing particularly sticks in my mind, more than any other in this elaborate and occasionally fascinating movie. It is this detail from the great battle scene. There's an actor who plays the formidably muscular and scarred Marine Commandant, ol' Steel Sphincter. He looks the part and plays it well throughout the movie. During the final battle scenes he's shown in the command cockpit of a huge bomber loaded with incindiary explosives, standing just behind the pilot's seat, huge muscular arms folded, giving orders. His body is shown full length, with that of the seated pilot through the machine's window. The camera is not far away, and we can see clearly that there is an emblem painted on the side of the plane, immediately under the window. It's where one would expect to see one such war emblem. Strangely, it is a painted Chinese dragon in red and white, with gold stripes, and one has the impression that the Commandant is standing on the back of, or riding the dragon in the angle of attack. This shot only appears twice, and the second time the impression is inescapable. This is the only time in the entire movie that any political or national emblem is seen. We know these are Americans in the mobvie, on the planes, armed and in battle uniform, but no American emblem is ever shown anywhere. The flag is never shown. And I wondered, although the dragon is not the national symbol of China, and is not shown on the Chinese flag, it is the universally recognized symbol of the Chinese culture. Can that be intentional? Are the producers of this show attempting a little subliminal propaganda here? Is somebody trying to forge an imaginary link between China's participation in the Nigerian Oil industry (and some say their exploitation of Nigeria) and tentative rumors of dread out of Washington about Chinan's global intentions? Hard to tell. Easier to imagine the original art on the plane to have been the Stars 'n Stripes, fluttering, until -- who knows? -- after a screening, somebody high up in the Money end of the biz sent a memo suggested that it wouldn't be a good idea to suggest that possibly the USA once used its Military to attack a small nation for its mineral wealth. And that might suggest Iraq to some and Arbusto. Or Viet Nam to others. Or the forced Regieme Change in Iran in '52, or Haiti twice in one century, or even, God! The war to bring Christianity to the Phillipines. (Never mind they were already Catholic.) The Korean War? Or the Hawaiian takeover and annexation? Or it might just put people in mind of the fact that most of the wars of the 20th century have pitted the USA against one after another of populations of brownish people all over this world, never mind our own indiginous population, we call Indians. Maybe by portraying Pandora's "Natives" as 9 foot blue-striped leopard people with yellow eyes, the intention is to soften or diffuse that recollection. But that's Pandora's Elixir. An expensive 3D illusion, doubtless, though no Gilliad's balm. Like cheap, artificually flavored and brightly colored gin, it deadens as it insults the mind.
Description of Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition)
Please note: This edition of the film is not in 3D.Versions of Avatar on Blu-ray, DVD, and Video On Demand
| Edition | Format | Release Date | Special Features |
| Avatar (Extended Collector's Edition) | Three Blu-ray Discs | Nov. 16, 2010 | Three versions of the movie including the previously unreleased extended cut, plus more than eight hours of bonus features including over 45 minutes of deleted scenes, interactive scene deconstruction, Pandorapedia, documentaries and featurettes, and BD-LIVE content (requires compatible player and Internet connection) |
| Avatar (Extended Collector's Edition) | Three DVDs | Nov. 16, 2010 | Three versions of the movie including the previously unreleased extended cut, plus more than three hours of bonus features including documentaries and over 45 minutes of deleted scenes |
| Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) | Digital Purchase | Apr. 22, 2010 | None |
| Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) | Digital Rental | May 9, 2010 | None |
| Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) | Two-disc Blu-ray/ DVD combo | Apr. 22, 2010 | None |
| Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) | DVD | Apr. 22, 2010 | None |
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KIDS FIRST! Review: Director/screenwriter/producer James Cameron brings his science fiction roots to DVD with the award-winning film, "Avatar." The almost three-hour epic is considered by many as the most beautiful movie ever produced thanks to its groundbreaking 3-D and graphics technology. Set in the far future, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), travels to Pandora, a lush, jungle-covered extraterrestrial moon and home to a sentient humanoid race, the Na'vi. The 10-foot tall, blue-skinned Na'vi fight when a human corporation attempts to remove the indigenous people from their native lands. Human scientists create genetically-bred human-Na'vi hybrids known as Avatars to overcome the fact that they can?t breathe Pandora air. Jake participates in this program and encounters many dangers and beauties on Pandora as he scouts around. ?Avatar? exhibits cinematographic and artistic excellence and creates interest in issues such as the environment. KIDS FIRST! Child Juror Comments: This DVD had great cinematography and amazing visual effects. One of my all-time favorite parts of the film was when Jake was walking through the forest of Pandora - everything lit up and looked amazing. The movie had a great soundtrack. It had a new age feel that felt like it was inviting you into a new world. It made the whole thing seem tangible, which is great. I wanted to be part of that world. The acting was great, too! You could tell which characters were bad and which were good with some bad sides. Overall one of the best movies I've seen. The actors roles fit their appearance, and there was a lot of foreshadowing and hinting throughout the movie.
After 12 years of thinking about it (and waiting for movie technology to catch up with his visions), James Cameron followed up his unsinkable Titanic with Avatar, a sci-fi epic meant to trump all previous sci-fi epics. Set in the future on a distant planet, Avatar spins a simple little parable about greedy colonizers (that would be mankind) messing up the lush tribal world of Pandora. A paraplegic Marine named Jake (Sam Worthington) acts through a 9-foot-tall avatar that allows him to roam the planet and pass as one of the Na'vi, the blue-skinned, large-eyed native people who would very much like to live their peaceful lives without the interference of the visitors. Although he's supposed to be gathering intel for the badass general (Stephen Lang) who'd like to lay waste to the planet and its inhabitants, Jake naturally begins to take a liking to the Na'vi, especially the feisty Neytiri (Zoë Saldana, whose entire performance, recorded by Cameron's complicated motion-capture system, exists as a digitally rendered Na'vi). The movie uses state-of-the-art 3D technology to plunge the viewer deep into Cameron's crazy toy box of planetary ecosystems and high-tech machinery. Maybe it's the fact that Cameron seems torn between his two loves--awesome destructive gizmos and flower-power message mongering--that makes Avatar's pursuit of its point ultimately uncertain. That, and the fact that Cameron's dialogue continues to clunk badly. If you're won over by the movie's trippy new world, the characters will be forgivable as broad, useful archetypes rather than standard-issue stereotypes, and you might be able to overlook the unsurprising central plot. (The overextended "take that, Michael Bay" final battle sequences could tax even Cameron enthusiasts, however.) It doesn't measure up to the hype (what could?) yet Avatar frequently hits a giddy delirium all its own. The film itself is our Pandora, a sensation-saturated universe only the movies could create. --Robert Horton
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