Review: Avatar

Avatar is the new kid on the block. That movie you've all heard about that's supposed to change the way we watch movies, revolutionize cinema, and make you forfeit your religion and worship heathen computer generated gods of film. If you're anything like me, you really want to dislike this movie. The trailers aren't all that impressive, the CG doesn't look that groundbreaking on TV, and for some of you I'd gather that it looks like Dances with Wolves in space. On all three of those points, you'd be absolutely correct and if I were not to preface this review with the fact that I shared these sentiments as I walked into the film I would be committing a great omission. Instead, I believe it is important to acknowledge the decks stacked against Avatar by a large percent of its potential audience because when I state the fact that it almost effortlessly crushes all of these preconceived notions, I want you to realize the gravity of what I am trying to say.

Let's take a moment here to emphasize the absolute NECESSITY of seeing this movie in 3D. Don't be a fool and scoff at the extra three to four dollars you're paying to walk into the theater and put on the silly glasses. I actually hate to admit it, but this movie does things visually that will change your perception of what it is to 'experience' a movie -- and YES, I am perfectly aware of how pretentious that sounds. That's the thing I discovered early in Avatar and it will be a running theme of my review: for all the grand statements of revolutionizing movies and changing your perception of 3D and how horribly stock it all sounds; it's all shockingly and begrudgingly true. Visually at least. Critically this film had already gained some impressive inertia early on, and having read a lot of it I cynically assumed that it was reviewers being reviewers. Of specific note, a particular review boldly told me that there are moments in Avatar that will, regardless of the story, have you shaking your head in amazement at what you're seeing on the screen. This particular point stuck in my head as the movie progressed and even with that in mind there were moments my jaw almost dropped and I had to marvel at the scope that this movie was operating. Assuming you're not extremely jaded, this movie will grip you visually at some point or another. For me, it was early in the film during a nighttime run through the jungles of Pandora which at night apparently becomes lit by phosphorescent plant life and micro organisms. It's during these scenes that you suddenly feel uniquely drawn right into the scene in a way that feels ten times more immersive than any film I can think of in the last half decade. The film continues to impress as the movie bit by bit reveals more and more of the gorgeously lush and magnificent world that the filmmakers have crafted. Like I said before, I actually very much dislike to admit it, but this movie will knock you on your ass a few times.

All of this would be completely distracting if you could not get behind the main characters -- an entirely CG albeit motion captured race of nine foot tall blue aliens called the Na'vi. As a benchmark, I've considered Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy to be the most fully realized computer generated character of all time. Thinking back, I believe his effectiveness relied heavily not only on the skill of the technology, but the degree to which the filmmakers made him feel like he was in the world interacting with other characters and objects. To say the Na'vi have moments in which I had to stop and wonder if there wasn't at least some practical element to their portrayal is the highest praise I can think of. They feel tactile and weighty; their eyes don't seem 'dead' as with most of the Robert Zemeckis mo-capped films recently; and most importantly you start to believe this could be a real race on this planet. The amount of emotion displayed on their faces and the reality of their movements do wonders to immerse you as opposed to pulling you out of the experience (there's that word again).

You may notice at this point that I haven't really mentioned the plot of Avatar, but that's not to say it isn't worth mentioning. In the most sobering terms, the plot of this film is probably it's weakest link but it simultaneously demonstrates director James Cameron's greater strengths. The story itself is one that is pretty standard and it's been told many times over. Any reasonably astute viewer will be able to predict the film from the first moment to the last in the first half an hour, but the thing about good science fiction is taking something conventional and familiar and making it new again. Personally I took the fact that Cameron was able to take a plot I knew before the Na'vi had been properly established and make me genuinely invest and care in its proceedings was one of the more astonishing things happening in an otherwise astonishing film. It's been suggested elsewhere that the plot was knowingly simple in order to fully exploit not only the revolutionary setting constructed around it, but the various emotions intended to be evoked. I have to agree with this idea as its not so much about what is happening on screen, but the sum of everything together. Cameron seemingly takes something that in the hands of pretty much any other director would fall to pieces and mediocrity and handles it with such a degree of mastery and craft that you never stop to break it all down.

Of the few negative things I can assign to Avatar, many of them are minor enough to not detract from the overall experience. Firstly, a small deal of the suspense usually generated from such a huge movie is removed because of the decidedly generic plotline. Some would say Cameron overcame the same hurdle to a degree with his last movie, Titanic. Everyone knows at the end the ship is going to sink and a lot of people are going to die, but it's the 'how' of it all that Cameron proves to be in the most control and this carries over to Avatar as well. The second negative here is that if you're really scrutinizing there are moments when humans are interacting with Pandora at large and the Na'vi in particular where you definitely get the feeling that you're looking at CG elements mixed with green screened humans. It's easy to ignore, yet it's still a problem. Lastly, Avatar suffers from being a bit too heavy handed in it's allegorical elements at times and for those of you like me, this will be a bit tasking from time to time. The Na'vi in particular and their struggle to fight off more powerful usurpers heralds a bit too strongly to Native American archetypes, and obviously the idea of lesser equipped natives overcoming great militaries is as common as Return of the Jedi. The environmental allusions as well add to the moments that it feels like Avatar is trying to force-feed half heartedly veiled messages to you and it grates after a fashion.

All of these things aside, Avatar can be marked largely as a success. While watching the movie and silently reviewing it in my head as I watched (a funny habit I've developed since writing this blog), the word 'spectacle' continued to pop into my head. The movie is so epic in scale and scope that you feel dwarfed by the whole thing. The technology, in 3D of course, is enough to change the way you define the word 'epic' in correlation to movie going experiences and the story is primal enough that it speaks to parts of all of us regardless of how many times we've heard the tale. If you're on the fence about venturing out to give Avatar a try, I would wholeheartedly encourage you to make that venture because even if you go in with a jaded mindset chances are good you will walk out surprised in at least one way. Will this be the next cultural phenomenon some of the ads make it sound like? No, I don't think so. Is Avatar something special? I would like to think it is and worth seeing now so you can remember what it was like when 'epic' took on a new meaning.