I went and saw Avatar last night. For anyone who has spent the better half of their life under a bridge, this is a new movie by director James Cameron, that has been hyped as the second coming of Star Wars, and other ridiculous statements. So here’s my movie review:
Story: Predictable in the way that a good human story is predictable. Unfortunately, this was an alien story, so you kind of wanted things to be a little more…alien. The humanoids were odd, but still more human than not. Hard to believe the sentiments of characters like the manager Selfridge, who thought of them as blue monkeys, especially in what is ostensibly a “future of humankind” setting.
Acting: Outstanding. Thanks to the effects, the acting came through on the avatars, allowing for much more effective emoting than in past effects movies. It was understated in many of the supporting characters, but it was very compelling in the main characters. Giovanni Ribisi’s character Selfridge and many of the military characters were totally one-dimensional, but that suited the tone of the movie well enough to fit the story, rather than to distract from it.
Casting: I’m still not convinced that Worthington is A-list material, but the cast was good, and the characters seemed realistic. In particular, I liked the characterization of Stephen Lang’s Colonel Quaritch. The man had obviously had some of his soul ripped away by the harshness of Pandora, and it left him mean. MEAN. It made him an excellent villain to counterpoint an otherwise understated protagonist in Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully.
Direction/Art/Effects: Incredible, but enough to call a movie revolutionary? No. Nor were they in my opinion ground-breaking. The effects of the Avatars were the only really compelling new effects, in that they simply overlaid alien appearances over the actors’ live performances, instead of trying to mimic them with animation. The 3-D aspect of the movie was, in my opinion, completely over-hyped. I would have enjoyed this movie much more, without the distraction of 3-D glasses, occasional out-of-focus effects that wore on my otherwise perfect vision, and dust motes behind which the story was actually happening. Perhaps I will re-watch it in the theater in standard 2D, just to compare. I believe my suspicions will be upheld.
Cameron has delivered a solid action picture with a contrived romantic undertone, and a strongly delivered dislike for corporation-driven exploitation and colonialism. I for one would have found it much more realistic if Jake had fallen in love with the planet but had ultimately been rejected by it and by Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri, as he was an obvious outsider, even when in a pseudo-na’vi body.
The story was, as I said at the beginning, predictable, in the way that good human behavior is predictable. However, the overt corporate exploitation seems out of place in a future where, one would assume, such things have been governed away. Perhaps that is just my own naiveté regarding the progress of humanity. I also was continually distracted by behavior from the na’vi that was all too human. They should have been more inscrutable, and their goals, desires, and motivations more obscure. I suppose that would have added an extra hour while dimwit Jake fumbled through his learning of na’vi ways, though.
Okay, final word: great movie. It kept me in a grin the way that Jurassic Park did when it first showed us what realistic dinosaurs might look like, just before they ate you. It was a wonder land that kept me smiling for hours. Cameron’s vision was my dreamscape, and I reveled in it. Star Wars-ian? Perhaps. Do I want five more blurry 3-D movies about the na’vi? Probably not. Overall, I have to say that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is still more of a cinematic achievement, even without an original story.
Edit: UPDATE: Cameron is all set to deliver sequels to this movie…I better save those 3D glasses. I paid five bucks for ’em!
