Sam Worthington

Avatar is the latest masterpiece from the genius mind of James Cameron that is sure to win dubious honors and be the talk of more than just a movie. No doubt this will spawn graphic novels, toys, and possibly a side series to go along with it. I went into this unsure of what expectations lead me to. Would this be another overhyped CGI movie with very little plot and brains? Or will it be a movie that has proven hype and showed it is bigger and badder than anything? Avatar is proven to be in a class of it's own. Avatar, next to The Dark Knight, are two of the biggest blockbusters of my time. Both showed off impressive graphics, but I feel the caped Batman lacked majorly in terms of storyline and in depth mention of what they were trying to accoplish. Avatar, at least follows a specific storyline, one not many kids would understand (I think I got the message). The sculptured storyline and decent character development was just the tip of the iceberg for Avatar. The storyline, is very hard to explain, but Ill do it with the best of my abilites. In the year 2154, a handicapped man named Jake Sully is sent to an RDA corporation in replace of his brother who had recently passed away. Unlike his brother, Jake has basically no idea of what to do or what to expect for that matter. The main objective is to create avatars the humors control to explore the world of Pandora. Pandora is populated by a paleolithic form of blue skin creatures, taller than humans, and resembiling a feline form. The texture and detail in the creatures is spectacular and a true visual work of art. I was really impressed at the in-depth plot. I was unknowing of the plot of this movie and expected the plot to be near non-existent and just have the movie be amazing visuals. This proves that James Cameron can still have a full storyline simultaneously having stunning graphics. Like internet-phenominon, James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd) said. "James Cameron can take to his grave that he mad two of the greatest movie sequels of all time. Terminator 2 and Aliens." How Cameron does this? I have no idea. He truely spends hard earned time and money on his films and actually comes up with a good storyline as well as showing off fantastic visuals. No other director puts time and effort into his films like Cameron. According to sources, I hear that two sequels will be spawned with the success of the film. I just hope that Cameron doesnt feel rushed with the sequels. Avatar took James Cameron fourteen years to make. Originally planned a release after Titanic Cameron stated technology needed to "catch-up" for the movie to be worthwhile. It shocked me because Cameron was patient in the time of the release. I would love to show the person who invented the saying

The film had some great acting, and some awe-inspiring cinematography. And yes, I loved all the action scenes. However, there was no real substance to the plot; instead, we get typical Hollywood quasi-intelligent cliched conversations that try to sound deep and meaningful. Needless to say, it ends up being cheesy. Another problem I had with the movie was it's PG-13 rating. Hollywood insists on making money; to their credit, they do it well. But to take an R-rated franchise and dull it down to a PG-13 is just obnoxious. They did the same thing to the Die Hard movies (Live Free or Die Hard's unrated version was SO much better than the theatrical one). It's not that I love blood and f-bombs, it's that it makes the movie feel more like it's predecessors. Bottom line: while obviously not being anywhere near as good as the first two due to some script flaws and it's weak rating, Terminator Salvation still managed to entertain with it's loud and exciting action. Plus, it was better than the Rise of the Machines.

Although Avatar has startling special effects, which are no short of beautiful, the rest of the film is unfortunately mediocre... the poor script is basically a rip-off/re-hash of Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, and other movies of the sort. It tries to be more "profound" than it actually is, and ends up seeming pretentious and corny. The acting's not too great either.

Disappointing to say the least. The movie is a one note bore until late the film. The dialogue is atrocious. Slipping in the "I'll be back" line was as forced a line as I've ever seen. In fact, it drew an audible groan from the crowd I saw it with. Leaps in logic and rather mundane action drop this film to the bottom of the barrel in terms of summer blockbuster material. I honestly can't think of one thing the director did right. Shooting this one note crapfest through panty-hose to give it a grainy feel may have seemed like an artistic touch but all it did was add to the unsavory feel and genuine disappointment this movie will generate.

Salvation is pretty good as a post-apocalyptic war movie with spectacular visual effects, but as a Terminator movie, it has a completely different vibe from the other three. I went in expecting something less than T1 and T2, and thus was not really disappointed. Salvation is probably almost as good as T3 (which I happen to like), but it almost feels like it's in a completely different genre. You have men fighting against all manner of machines, and the Terminators themselves are almost incidental, at least until the finale. Anton Yelchin is great as a young Kyle Reese and, as Marcus Wright, Sam Worthington completely steals the movie away from Christian Bale. I would likely watch it again, but this is definitely a different kind of Terminator movie.