Worth: $12.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, CCH Pounder
Intro:
… an ambitious technical showcase where the only display of depth is the display itself.
With the long-awaited sequel set to come out in December, the original sci-fi epic Avatar has been brought back to cinemas with new and improved picture and sound.
Thirteen years since its initial release, and even with its towering box office impact, it is still quite easy to forget just how much of a big deal this film was when it came out. It was a genuine breakthrough for CGI, and it helped move 3D technology past the era when it just made everything look purple.
Unfortunately, this latest re-release only serves to emphasise what has been this film’s biggest problem from the very beginning: the disconnect between what is shown and what is felt.
Both the film’s story and its production are fixated on the capacity of technology to transport people to other places, letting them do and see things that weren’t thought possible before.
Jake (Sam Worthington and his perpetually shaky American accent) is the audience’s avatar into the world of Pandora. Seeing him run through gardens when he first enters his avatar body resonates on a pure escapist level, and it’s even taken on added texture in context to technological advancements to do with physical disabilities.
However, while Pandora looks as beautiful as ever with the shiny new coat of CGI paint, and James Horner’s soundtrack still gets the heart rate going, James Cameron is far more interested in the world he’s created than any of the people in it. For a film relying so heavily on its visuals, we end up being told about all the seemingly-important things. Character motivations, aspects of the Na’vi and their culture, Stephen Lang’s Colonel openly declaring his need to inflict generational trauma; at nearly three hours, one would think there would be enough time to develop the people in this world into more than just cardboard cutouts. Much like the name of the precious mineral all this is being fought over, it feels like a placeholder for the writer to actually come up with something.
This remaster further divides the stunning production values, and the flat, one-dimensional writing is. If this were a Quentin Tarantino ‘the style is the substance’ situation, that’d be one thing, but since there’s real intent in its messaging on environmentalism, colonialism, and technology as a way to expand human consciousness, the film overall underwhelms in a quite disheartening way. There’s merit behind its ideas, and there remains hope that the sequels will flesh out both the universe and its inhabitants, but Avatar remains an ambitious technical showcase where the only display of depth is the display itself.
