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Pattison delivers another brooding performance in this self-indulgent film about young love and deliverance

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Avatar (Film)

by Erin Free | December 14, 2009 16:12 | Edited December 14, 2009 16:14

Not as groundbreaking as the hype may have you believe, but still a superior story and spectacle well worth your attention.

If a film ever faced the fate of being a victim of its own ballooning, overpowering hype, it's James Cameron's Avatar. The first film for the uncompromising, visionary director since the cultural phenomenon that was Titanic, this hotly touted flick has been brewing for years in post-production, ratcheting up anticipation to code red levels. There has also been fevered talk about the film's revolutionary possibilities - that its advanced special effects will "change the way that we watch movies" and "break new ground." In short, this is, well, untrue. Avatar's use of CGI and stop motion animation is no more impressive than that used in Beowulf or A Christmas Carol; its 3-D techniques add dimension and a rich sense of immersion, but in no more dramatic a fashion than those seen in Coraline or Up; and its plotline hollers with near-deafening echoes of everything from The Last Of The Mohicans and Dances With Wolves to The Power Of One and The Last Samurai. Sure, it's nowhere near as new or groundbreaking as the pre-release hype would have you believe, but that doesn't mean Avatar isn't good. In fact, this big, exciting, utterly gripping sci-fi/action/adventure epic is very, very good.

 

It's the distant future, and Earth is dying. As a result, far away planets have been targeted for strip-mining. The rich, exotic forest planet of Pandora is one such world: its resources could solve the various environmental crises on Earth, and it's now well and truly in the sights of the dying Earth's power brokers. Pandora is populated by the Na'vi, a peaceful race of tall, lean, blue skinned tree dwellers with their own complex set of moral and social mores. Because of Pandora's toxic atmosphere, the humans have constructed a complex means of communicating with the Na'vi by creating "avatars" - lab-engineered, telepathically controlled Na'vi bodies which are dropped in amongst the indigenous population. One such avatar is controlled by Jake Sully (the largely unexpressive Sam Worthington, ironically making for a surprisingly engaging, old-style stoic hero), a paraplegic US Marine charged with learning all he can about the Na'vi, so they can be manipulated into going quietly while their beloved planet is reamed from pillar to post by Earth's colonialist powers. Smitten with a Na'vi princess (Zoe Saldana) and turned on by their cool customs and warrior ways, however, Jake soon sides with the Na'vi, eventually leading them against the marauding machinery of the "sky people" of Earth, who have come to pillage their planet.

 

Despite its position as a major studio tentpole picture, there's something deliriously perverse about Avatar. For a start, in these loopily patriotic times, the bad guys are not just the faceless military/industrial complex, but the US Marines themselves. Peopled with moronic thrill-killers who bark idiocies like "Hoo-ha, get some!" before machine-gunning Na'vi warriors armed only with bows and arrows, and led by a scarred, psychopathic martinet (Stephen Lang) who likes to kill and ask questions later, Cameron's intentions are not only alarmingly clear, but strikingly in opposition to the current slack-jawed, worship-the-military mood of his nation. Dropping in historical references to the massacre of the Native Americans, the Vietnam War, and the current political hot potato that is America's relationship with The Middle East, Cameron has perhaps concocted the biggest lefty, peacenik film in Hollywood history. Also layered in is a very deep and committed sense of environmentalism, with Cameron's love of the Na'vi - who have a spiritual, physical relationship with their planet - plainly obvious.

 

Outside of the boldness of his own political/environmental agenda, Avatar is further proof of James Cameron's striking skill as a visualist and storyteller. The film is rich and imaginative, and despite its hefty running time, it moves at a cracking pace. Cameron's Na'vi are a largely fascinating bunch, and give the film a strong emotional core. The performances are fairly impressive, with Sigourney Weaver a standout as a humanist scientist, Michelle Rodriguez enjoyable as a tough Marine helicopter pilot recruited to the Na'vi cause, and notorious hams Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang hilariously taking large, toothy chunks out of the scenery as the nasty, hateful, boo-worthy bad guys. Though certainly not the pioneering experience it's been touted as (Cameron's epochal Terminator films were far more original and imaginative), Avatar is an exciting, visually arresting, and occasionally powerful slab of Hollywood filmmaking driven by one of the industry's most committed, passionate, stand-alone creative forces.