AVATAR: Special Edition (2010)

So I got to see this before Scott Pilgrim and at first I thought it didn’t deserve it’s own review but after some thinking I realised there was a few things I needed to get off my chest. Not just about the Special Edition but about Avatar as a whole. 

So okay the 9 extra minutes of footage added was great, around 98% of it could have been left in the original cut of the film, but towards the end of the movie is a scene which seemed a little out of place but still it was interesting to see. I particularly loved the hunting of the sturmbeests, which glued certain scenes together that slightly confused me when seeing the theatrical cut for the first time.

The big thing people tend to complain about when it comes to Avatar is it’s lack of originality with it’s story. Now I just want to point out that when the trailer was released it basically told the story in 2 minutes, it doesn’t take an idiot to work out what was going to happen, and it surprises me when people complain about how generic it was. I knew what I was getting and the reason I went it to see it was to see if James Cameron could tell it well, which I believe he did with flying colours.

Looking back at past films like Ridley Scott’s Alien, you could say it’s story and plot is unoriginal even for it’s time (the haunted house/slasher/monster movie) yet it’s unique look and outstanding cast made it an instant classic. I see Avatar in the same light. Yes it was a story that had been covered before but it’s look and feel was totally new and awe-inspiring, which ended up being a lot of fun.

All the hate and judgement this film gets is childish. People nowadays are forgetting about what the cinema is truly about storytelling! Now it doesn’t matter what the story is as long as it’s told well, Avatar is a film that has been told before but never in a way like this.