Avatar (2010) Science Fiction

Avatar (2009) - James Cameron's computer generated animated film about a soldier who goes native on a distant planet called Pandora. Jake (Sam Worthington) a paraplegic marine is recruited to take his twin brothers spot in the Avatar project. Avatars are lab grown bodies that appear like the local natives, the Na'vi, Jake being a twin can make the neuro connection to his brother's and soon in learning the ways of the Na'vi and feeding intelligence back to the military.
When the corporation move prematurely on the Na'vi home tree, Jake must choose sides and does just that. A mix of people and animation I found the world beautiful but also distracting. I have never really been able to get into movies with a lot of animation and I had that problem again. I thought that Cameron did a great job but in the end it just is not my thing.

The story itself was a bit silly, having the rock the mining company is after being called Unobtainium. The story just a moral play about respecting native cultures vs the exploitation of their resources. A mix of native American and eastern philosophies the Pandora, Na'vi connection is nothing really original. As I think about this review I really don't want to dislike the film. It really does hit many of the points of good storytelling. I am sure for people who can get into anim,ated characters this may have seemed really refreshing. I on the other hand am more like thinking the movie was a bit Disney for my liking. The humans in the story are secondary characters and since I just can't seem to connect to cartoons I am not impressed.
Rating (7.1)

Pandorum (2009) - Sci-FI Action

Pandorum (2009) - Imagine waking from a long hyper sleep to find the ship you are in is aging and the crew seem to be missing. At first you can't remember much because of the effects of the sleep, then in bits and pieces you realize you are the last surviving humans in the universe. You are trapped in the room you woke in and it becomes clear things are not how you left them the years and years before when you entered your hyper sleep. So it is for the crew members in Pandorum. They are soon to find out through accelerated evolution has created a group of cannibalistic hunter creatures who are between them and the resting of the generators that will keep the ship functioning. Much of this movie felt like the great "The Descent" with the ultra human creatures having a run at any human survivors they come across. It is dark and atmospheric with a subplot about space sickness called Pandorum that makes people a bit paranoid and crazy. Our main character Bower (Ben Foster) is trying to navigate to the engine room to reset the nuclear generator, with the help of his lieutenant, Payton (Dennis Quaid) he works his way through hostile ground and through chance meetings with other survivors Nadia(Antje Traue) and Manh (Cung Le) learns what has happened while he was asleep. This is not a bad science fiction movie, it keeps the set tight and claustrophobic, the action quick and exciting and doles information out at a reasonable pace. The twist at the end is decent although I have seen that some people did not like it. I enjoyed the movie well enough and definitely recommend it.

Rating (6.4)