AVATAR

After hearing about how great a movie Avatar was and after reading endless reviews and the like, I have finally seen the movie for myself. Granted, it was not in 3-D like everyone who recommended this movie suggested, I did get to see it in blu-ray instead. How did it stack up to me? In a nut shell, I enjoyed damn near every moment of it and I thought it had some really imaginative ideas mixed into it.

+ Obviously the graphics for this movie is unbelievable and seeing it in blu-ray made me really wish I made it a point to watch this in 3-D (apparently this movie is being worked on for a theatrical re-release in August, which will apparently include some extended scenes, so I may get my chance yet). I mean the environments were absolutely beautiful! There were moments where I even forgot that what I was watching was CG at all!

+ The pacing of the movie was pretty well played out, though I thought it did start a little slow in the beginning. But after watching for a while, I realized that everything happens for a reason here. The action doesn't just happen for the sake of it, for example. When the actual fighting comes, it has a purpose and I got the feeling that they were truly fighting for a cause and not just because. And truth be told, I love movies like this, which actually takes the time to tie everything together and after it all ends, I can walk away from it not being at all confused and actually feeling satisfied (for the most part anyway). Whew!

+ Touching on the story or at least the attention to detail, I loved how the Na'vi were actually explained. It was cool to see Jake Sully (the main human character) learn everything about them, from how they speak and walk, down to their hunting methods and even how they share memories. A unique aspect that I liked was how the Na'vi could link to their mounts and basically become one mind with it. Did I geek out on all this stuff? Absolutely.

- Having bought the blu-ray, I thought the disk would have to be LOADED with extra features like the usual behind the scenes stuff and the like. I mean the movie was such a big deal, how could there be anything less right? But to my surprise, there was absolutely NOTHING. Not even trailers for other movies. Wow. Ouch.

After seeing the lack of extras, I get the feeling like all of that is being saved for a near future re-release (probably after the August re-release to theaters I assume). While I am a little peeved about that, I am just glad that the movie was as good as it was. I had fun and I I actually enjoyed watching this movie. How can I be that mad about the lack of other features?

My real disappointment remains with the fact that I passed up on watching this in 3-D. When I heard about it, I didn't think it would be that great and generally disregarded the movie as such. But after seeing it in blu-ray and being blown away with how beautiful it looked in that format, I honestly think it would have been worth the extra money to see this in 3-D after all.