Movie 176: Avatar

Avatar (2009) by James Cameron
starring Sam Worthngton, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver

In a nutshell: A truly groundbreaking visual experience whose decent accompanying story, I fear, will not hold up upon closer inspection

Quick synopsis: Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-marine fills his late brother's spot in the Avatar Program, which allows humans to control alien bodies to interact with natives on a foreign planet on which humans cannot survive but whose resources they still hope to exploit

Content: Here it is...the review 10 years in the making. A this point in time there is nothing else out there quite like Avatar, and its originality goes a long way toward covering up its shortcomings. First of all, the visuals are such a giant step forward that everyone should see it for that reason alone. See it in 3D imax for the full effect. Never have I seen CG and live action so seamlessly mixed together, so that you honestly forget that 95% of the things on screen aren't really there. Intense. I am just afraid of the effect Avatar's quality will have on my enjoyment of slightly older films like Lord of the Rings whose seams will suddenly be much more obvious. Gollum (who was a great CG achievement in 2001) will probably stick out like a sore thumb. Avatar's CG also accomplished one thing that has proved to be an elusive prize through the years for computer animators: creating very expressive faces on non-humans that can convey a wide range of emotions and making each of the Na'vi (the race of blue aliens) unique, just as humans are.

The lush jungle world in which the story takes place is nothing short of magical. Cameron hired scientists of all types to ensure that the flora and fauna of Pandora (the alien planet on which the film takes place) is fantastic but still believable. It is very fun to explore the jungle for the first time along with Sam Worthington.

The story is decent. The dialogue is merely ok. It doesn't get in the way of the effects, but I don't think it will hold up that well to repeated viewings. Star Wars, it is not. I liked the concept of controlling a body remotely and how they handled the people popping in and out of their avatars. I even liked their take on the somewhat generic story of the rebel sympathizer. I was compelled by Sully's conflict, unlike some critics. I also liked the Na'vi characters that we spend time with and the big bad Colonel. But some of the other important supporting characters came up way short. Great peripheral characters can mean the difference between a good movie and a classic, and Avatar's weren't good enough to get the movie to the next level. Sigourney Weaver's scientist, Grace, teetered on the edge of being one-dimensional much of the time, and the Michelle Rodriguez (the pilot) and Joel David Moore (the other guy in the avatar program) characters were pathetic. They were cliches, through and through. And what's worse, we get very little character development for these people even though their attitudes towards our hero, Sully, change drastically. We are just kind of expected to accept the changes at face value, without being given any of their motivations. Moore even succeeded at making me downright uncomfortable when he lets out a huge and incredibly fake-sounding "YES!!!!" accompanied by a Tiger-esque fist pump when he find out they are going to the floating mountains.

Michelle Rodriguez might have been worse though. She takes a liking to cheesy one-liners to punctuate scenes which she delivers without even a hint of irony. But we have no idea what motivates her. I can only assuming that some of her important scenes were cut out because Cameron can't be that inept.

Avatar is and always will be considered a milestone, but I predict that it will be upstaged when another movie uses the same technology but compliments it with an equally strong screenplay. Avatar will be remembered as the movie that introduced a new medium, but another film will have perfected it. Avatar 2? I certainly wouldn't rule it out. Especially if Mr. Cameron keeps his ego in check and enlists the help of more talented screenwriters to give the sequel some more complex characters than the original.

Rolling rankings:
1. Inglourious Basterds (#168)
2. Where The Wild Things Are (#169)
3. Jackie Brown (#173)
4. Avatar (#176)
5. Adventureland (#170)
6. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (#172)
7. Duplicity (#167)
8. Julie and Julia (#175)
9. Angels & Demons (#174)
10. The American Nightmare (#171)