Everything GREAT About Avatar! (Part 1)

I unapologetically love this movie. It’s not subtle, it’s not nuanced - but what it is is big and bold and powerful, unflinching in its convictions and unafraid of the emotions it’s portraying. We need more movies like this.

"Pandora. You grew up hearing about it." It's amazing to me how much worldbuilding is packed into those seven words.

8:12 I also didn’t get why she tasted his blood, but now I think she did it because she could taste the difference between a naturally born Na’vi and a synthetic human hybrid one. Hence her next question isn’t about who he is, but why he came.

One of my favorite details about this movie is how Jake (and, by extension, the audience) doesn't experience Pandora's incredible bioluminescence until after Neytiri saves him from the nantang/viperwolves. Up to that point, he's been led to believe that literally everything in the wilds of Pandora is hostile and dangerous (though not for no good reason), so when Neytiri shows him mercy and spares his life, it's his first indication that there's another side to Pandora. Then, Neytiri snuffs the torch Jake was using to see, inadvertently forcing him to start seeing the world as she does, and that's when the flora begins to glow...

I don't care what the hate train seems to be over the past decade with Avatar. This is one of the few movies that really transports me somewhere and actually relaxes me to a degree I never get in life. Props to James Horner for creating one of the most soothing scores in movie history. The theme of "I see you" always gets me, such a simple melody but it gets me every time. Bring it on, Way of Water, I'm ready.

Unpopular Opinion: I have always thought that this movie is the perfect example of how you can take the most cliche story arcs, and still turn them into masterpieces of art, with the right director and the right filmmakers. Of course, everyone knows the plotline of the protagonist having a change of heart and switching sides. Of course, everyone is familiar with the protagonist changing because of love. Of course, everyone has seen the money-and-power-seeking military leader villain before. However, you can either describe those plotlines and story arcs as "cliche" or as a foundational classic. It all depends on how good the rest of the movie is, and how well it works with those classic story arcs. And I will always stand by the opinion that this movie captured that perfectly.

I love the theory that you mentioned about Grace’s avatar might be an older ‘model’ due to her looking more human than the Na’vi or even Jake and Norms avatars. I never thought about it that way but with the amount of time she’s spent on Pandora it totally makes scene. Also it’s horrible to think that since the avatar program is a thing, they probably had to dissect a lot of Na’vi bodies to be able to fully understand how they work and to be able to replicate it.

I never understand why most peoples thoughts on this film became so jaded since it was released. The “cliche” story never bothered me due to the beautiful and rich word that was showcased. This movie became the highest grossing film in history for a reason.

I know this movie gets a lot of flak but I have always loved this movie because I was so enamored with the world they built and the culture of the Na’vi. So glad to see you highlighting it before the sequel comes out. Edited because I couldn’t spell Na’vi right the first time lol

14:28 I believe that scene was in the Directors Cut. I swear it was in the theatrical too. The idea being, if 2 people have a literal psychic connection during what transpired, then the experience is intensified for both. Plus it's sorta that final line that can't be uncrossed, besides making babies under Eywa.

it’s funny how I’ve waited practically my entire life for the sequel to drop.

One of the things that I really love that nobody talks about is noticing how every vertebrate on Pandora has six limbs while the Na'vi only have four, and the movie wordlessly explains the seeming discrepancy by showing the prolemurs whose two forelimbs are evolutionarily fusing into one.

Fun fact: that little trumpet trill is an easter egg James Horner leaves in almost all of his scores! Sometimes it's more obvious, but his fans call it the danger motif. Keep an ear out for it and you'll start hearing it EVERYWHERE...

I saw this film in 3D with my family back when it was new, and hand-on-heart it was one of the most visually spectacular cinema experiences of my life, if not THE most 😊

14:45 In the deleted scenes, they actually show that Parker had second thoughts about attacking Hometree, and going to all out war. He has some misgivings about his work. Quaritch on the other hand, was full on evil, to the point he pulled off a coup and snatched power out of Parker's hands to go to war.

If it helps, the ponytails aren't the sex organs themselves. Na'vi have reproductive organs similar to ours, the bonding of the ponytails allows them to feel each other's sensations and such. They consider it highly erotic.

The tendril on almost all creatures on pandora has is a way to show they are all connected, they are all one and can all communicate is some way. It’s used for mating, praying, connected, bonding, communicating, everything! And even the trees have their own version of them. The na’vi are especially evolved to be able to communicate with aywa, their god, which is actually real as far as we know. Some sort of force. It’s so cool, the amount of effort that went into this movie is amazing

this movie is and always will be a masterpiece for me...james cameron wanted to make this movie way sooner, but the technology he needed did not exist yet so he personally funded the development and i admire it so much because he had a vision of the movie and he did everything to make it real...i saw this movie when i was 11 and it completely sucked me into the world of pandora, it's immersive and the world building from the natives, through the fauna and flora to the smallest details- it looks and feels so real it's believable and the visuals still hold up to this day...i studied CGI, VFX and motion capture in highschool and when i watched Avatar again i kinda anticipated to get disappointed with the visuals like you do when you come back to a game you played as a kid and see the outdated graphics, but this was not the case...i was surprised how good the CGI looked even after 8years and i dare to say that it's still better than CGI from recent movies...so little scenes are filmed on real set, almost everything we see in the movie is computer generated and i can't even imagine how many years it took to render everything in that quality...i am so damn excited for the sequels, i've been waiting for 13years

I've always liked this movie because both the shots, the style and Jake's struggle of not only to fill the shoes for his brother but also the choice between his own kin and the Navi. I also think is beautifly depicted how he slowly falls in love with the culture and essentially chooses to adopt it as part of him.

Sometimes the simplest stories can be the most impactful. This is one of the few movies that gets me to cry, particularly during the scene where the giant tree falls. You can really feel their entire world coming apart at the seams and it's awful and it makes you hate your own species.