Movie Review: Avatar (2009)
A technologically advanced civilization shows up in a previously virgin place full of highly desirable resources but the native and “primitive” population is sitting right on top of it and is unwilling to move. Naturally, this native population lives in harmony with nature while the new comers destroy everything in sight with no regards. One of the young newcomers falls in love with the native princess and has to straddle the line between two colliding worlds. In case you are wondering, this is not a review of Pocahontas or Dance with the Wolves but James Cameron’s new movie Avatar.
Avatar is set in 2154 AD on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri system which is home to the Na’vi, a “primitive” indigenous population of giant blue dudes and dudettes who are twice as tall as the average human being and quite frankly more awesome physically. The Na’vi live in complete harmony with their natural surroundings and only take what they need without wasting. Fortunately, some nameless corporation has set up a colony there to show them how it’s done back home in America. Pandora is also rich with Unobtainium (I’m not making that one up), a precious mineral for which humans will do anything for. Unfortunately, those stinky blue people live right on top of a massive quantity of this resource and that’s where the Avatar program comes in. In a diplomatic effort to solve the tense situation without turning the ground all blue and mushy, human scientists such as Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) were able to create avatars, human-Na’vi hybrid clones, which can be mentally controlled by its human owner. Those Avatars can then used to gain the trust of the local populace and convince them to relocate. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic Marine, is sent to take control of his now-defunct twin brother’s avatar. He visits the world of Pandora and is enamored to be able to use “his” legs again. Jake soon is transformed by this alien culture and falls in love with alien Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who teaches him how to live in harmony with nature, and forces him to question his loyalties.
The highly anticipated Avatar has been in the works for some 15 years as James Cameron has been waiting for the technology to catch up to his vision of how the movie should look. The production cost which was reported to be around $237 million doesn’t make this movie the most expensive in history but add in $150 million for marketing and promotion and it does make for a pretty expensive price tag which may or may not be fully recouped. Anyways, let’s put it aside right away: I saw Avatar in 3D and it is a visual feast well beyond anything that can be seen currently and probably for the next 24 to 36 months. Much like seeing the liquid metal effect in Terminator 2 for the first time nearly twenty years ago, watching Avatar’s world will blow your mind the same way. The Na’vi computer-animated characters are as flawless and realistic as the real actors. The eerie world of Pandora is lush with strange looking vegetation, intriguing wildlife and those are so photo-realistic, it rarely looks like you are watching extended CGI sequences. The 3D glasses provided are fairly sturdy and decent but do dim the picture a little bit. When will we get non-dark 3D glasses or better… real 3D screens?
Avatar’s technical mastery is one brilliant aspect of the movie, however when you come back to basic story-telling principles the movie is overly predictable and uses too many cliches. Hang on to your seat because I will say it: Take away the phenomenal visuals and you have a fairly ordinary movie. Most of the turn of events are telegraphed from 10 miles away. The climactic 20-minute ending, although spectacular, is only an all-out battle scene with fancy explosions and military hardware. It feels like the story was used to showcase the visuals and not the other way around. There is a few feeble attempts here and there to lighten up the mood that extracted only a few soft chuckles from our audience. The movie also pushes a green agenda and attempt to comment on a profit-driven society that is pushing the Earth toward the breaking point but only in a very superficial way.
The characters are simplistic stereotypes that are never developed beyond the obvious. You have Colonel Quaritch (the fantastic Stephen Lang), a perfect stereotype of the gung-ho military officer who only wants to blow up everything in his path without any consideration whatsoever for anything but the body count of bad guys. Lang did a great job with a one-dimensional character making him larger than life and charismatic every time he appeared on screen but yet you have to be disappointed to have such a one-dimensional antagonist. You also have your usual arrogant corporate executive (Giovani Ribisi) who is predictably asked to look sorry and disgusted when his orders to blow everything up are followed. You have the geeky and slightly douchy scientist (Joel Moore) and I could go on and on. This is not to say that Avatar’s cast did terrible, far from that. Sam Worthington gives a worthy performance as Jake Sully and he looks primed to become Hollywood’s next big action movie star. James Cameron also continued his tradition of portraying strong women with Zoe Saldana who is entirely CGI-modeled and who gave an effective performance as Neytiri and provided a believable PG-13 romance. Sigourney Weaver and the heroic Michelle Rodriguez complete the tough-as-nail female cast.
Last but not least, the musical score by James Horner is a bit questionable since the first few notes of his main score are recycled from the one from Titanic. I had Titanic’s main theme going full blast in my head every single time I heard those first few notes in the movie. Not a good thing… While the musical score for Titanic was haunting and emotional, the one for Avatar was mostly generic and did not elevate the movie at all.
Avatar is a bit too predictable and has a fairly ordinary story-line, however it is such a technical masterpiece that it is still one of the top movies of the year. The gorgeous creation of the world of Pandora is by itself worth the price of admission. Here is to hope James Cameron doesn’t wait 12 years to come up with another movie.
B
Notes: PG-13 (of course… can’t make the budget back with an R-rated movie), 162 minutes. Seen in digital 3D non-IMAX theater.
16 Comments
Don’t even mention the music! Is it a coincidence that Leona Lewis was made to sound exactly like Celine Dion? I know Cameron thinks he’s the real deal, but it shows that he has his insecurities when he tries so hard to emulate his biggest hit.
I swear I was expecting Jake to ask the Na’vi to promise they’d never let go by the movie’s end.
Still it’s so difficult not to like this movie. I’ll see it in 2D next to see if it holds up.
Exactly! My friend and I were wondering if the singer at the end was Celine Dion. The musical aspect was a downer
I haven’t managed to see it the other day. I’m planning to very soon, though. I’ll be honest and say I’ll forgive Cameron for making a shallow film and I’ll be happy just to see another well made epic.
Because we all know Cameron CAN make truly engaging films, maybe he just needed to let off some steam, so to speak. As for James Horner’s musical score, I agree it sounds somewhat disappointing. But, I’m through my second listening as I write this and I feel it’ll grow on me slowly. I don’t mind cliches. One of my favorite composers Harry Gregson-Williams has been copy/pasting most of his scores for years now. But hey, if it sounds good every time – happy me.
Hope you can see it in 3D, it’s worth the extra few bucks
Yeah, I can see it in 3D but I was actually meaning on seeing it the “normal” 2D way. Because “Avatar” is almost 3hrs long and I don’t want to go home with a splitting headache and dizziness.
A friend of mine had seen “Up” in 3D which is only 96mins and he said his eyes hurt, and he has almost eagle sharp sight.
It’s worth it in 3D. I haven’t heard of any complaint with the 3D glasses except that the picture may be darker if your theater did it set it right
“There is a few feeble attempts here and there to lighten up the mood that extracted only a few soft chuckles from our audience.”
Frankly, that was the only part of the movie that left me feeling truly disappointed. When you look at movies like Terminator, Aliens, or The Abyss and some of the great one liners present, it was kind of a let down not to have any real good chuckle moments. The only one that got me was one of Sigourney Weaver’s toward the end. I also found myself wanting more of her character present. I felt like she really grounded the film in “both” worlds.
I liked Horner’s score, but now that you mention it, the song at the end does have a little Titanic feel, though it didn’t bother me throughout the rest of the film.
I won’t dwell on the movie we have discussed that on my comments page but would like to make a point about the 3D. Firstly I haven’t had a problem with the 3D glasses dimming the picture of ruining the colour as some people complain about. The glasses are tinted so if you take them off it will be brighter but my understanding is that is compensated for. There is a reduction in colour saturation but that is a minor concern especially with such a vivid movie as this one. I have seen several 3D movies and have not had a headache as a result,, maybe some people are more predisposed to suffering this problem. Having said all of that I do think 3D is a real gimmick and adds little to the experience. As for the glasses they don’t fit well on people like me who wear glasses and children with small heads. This is something that should be addressed if 3D is going to take off.
By the way I have added you to my blogroll, I am interested in what you have to say about other films.
I actually wondered before the movie how the 3D glasses would fit on people who already wear glasses so thanks for the input.
Also thank you for the add, I will do the same thing on my blogroll!
Man, this movie fucking rocked. 3-D was totally the way to go. Dug the review and I think I would totally see this one again. That James Cameron is no effing joke.
Great article on Avatar.. I just read the Avatar Movie Review over at MVP and they seemed to love it, so ill be seeing it this weekend.
I’m curious what everyone would think of Avatar’s original script, the one Cameron wrote right after Titanic. It was called Project 880. I suggest a reading, it makes the movie feel sad. I wish all of these elements had been implemented. Then it wouldn’t have been just a fun and beautiful movie, but actually feel like a CAMERON movie.
http://www.chud.com/articles/articles/21969/1/PROJECT-880-THE-AVATAR-THAT-ALMOST-WAS/Page1.html
Very interesting read but many of those story line would have added significant time to a movie which is already fairly long. I think I would have liked to see about 2-3 minutes on Earth environmental problems so we have a better view of why human crave so much for unobtainium. Some of the other story line like the raid on Gate’s Hell would have been neat but this would have added a good 15 minutes to a movie which is already has plenty of action
great job keep it up
I saw this epic last night at the Empire Leicester Sq in London, which is a superb venue in which to view this film. Huge screen, excellent sound and an extraordinary Dolby, 3 dimensional image. The whole effect is mind blowing.
This is a ‘Must see’ movie, innovative, and extraordinary. I think it will be regarded by most cinema goers as another milestone in the history of the art. The level of realism achieved is remarkable, and although the film is relatively long in real time, it retains it’s excitement and holds the audience’s attention to the end.
Performances are good, but this is not the sort of film that dwells on big star value for the actors, although Sigorney Weaver does shine and delivers a very convincing performance, as do the rest of the cast. But as there is so much entertainment and action value on screen the human element does not dominate in the usual way.
As Writer/Director, James Cameron deserves high praise for this creation and in my opinion it will break box office records. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.
Not gonna lie, I loved James Horner’s score. Granted it’s been a while since I’ve seen “Titanic,” but I thought it set the perfect mood at all times. I listen to it every once in a while when I’m trying to study or do intense work…
And another thing: what exactly do you mean by “real 3-D screens?”
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