"Avatar: Special Edition" Movie Review

"Avatar: Special Edition" Movie Review

Directed by James Cameron, Written by Cameron, 171 Minutes, Rated PG-13

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

In one of the most blatant instances of double dipping since George Lucas' multiple re-releases of his Star Wars films in the past twenty years, visual master and more importantly smart moneymaker James Cameron has returned last year's massive hit "Avatar" to theaters under the moniker of a "special edition." In this case, what's special is about ten extra minutes of material that cost about $1 million to add to the film and has no reason to exist other than to line Cameron's pockets a bit more--you'd think his wallet was already getting a bit heavy the first time around.

For those who still haven't been brought in by the hype machine, "Avatar" follows disabled former marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who is recruited into the Avatar Program. The year is 2154, and while the Earth is overpopulated and quickly running out of resources, a research team has been working on the planet Pandora, and the Avatar Program is the team's way of transferring the minds of its members to bodies of the Na'vi, the indigenous humanoid species of the planet, in order to befriend them and learn about their planet. The military group funding the project, however, is only interested in taking the resources of the planet for themselves, and they're willing to kill anything, human or Na'vi, that gets in the way.

The plot draws from various other famed action and drama films, most notably "Dances With Wolves" and "Pocahontas," but the main draw of the film has always been in its pure spectacle. Cameron promised to show people a world they had never seen before, and though his outstanding 3D technology has become rather tiresome with the wave of 3D films this past year, the visual splendor of the film is still very present. Cameron truly does make Pandora a unique world of its own, and one of the few decent additions in this new edition is some footage of some wildlife he didn't include the first time around.

Most of the other new stuff could've been left on the cutting room floor without anyone noticing--well, obviously, since that was the case upon the film's first release. An extra action sequence, an extension of the awkward love scene, and some bits of vague extra character development are all that are added, and none of it is particularly worthwhile.

So the film is forced to stand on its original quality--meaning, yeah, it's still a pretty entertaining movie that tends to succeed solely on its visual mastery. It's no classic, and it doesn't quite stand up like it did when everything in it was really new and unlike anything before, but it's a fine action film if there ever was one.

Grade: B

View WeekinRewind.com's video commentary on the film's re-release below.  What are your thoughts?