Avatar, the best selling movie of 2009, follows the story of Jake Sully, an ex-marine who has lost the use of his legs and takes the place of his brother in the avatar program on the planet Pandora. They are there for one reason alone, to obtain unobtainium, an incredibly rare material and Pandora is full of it. The only problem is the Na'vi, a race of large blue aliens who inhabit the planet. Na'vi bodies have been acquired and Jake Sully is sent in to learn about their race and report back but he soon falls in love with their people and becomes one of them.
Avatar is without a doubt one of the most gorgeous films of the year. I'll give it that. The special effects are quite astounding but they wear off quickly. They are so astonishing that pretty soon we don't know there are special effects. What makes this film work is exactly that, the effects. The story is basically Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves (take your pick) mixed with Fern Gully. I enjoyed Pocahontas and Fern Gully and I'm sure that Dances With Wolves was good, but Avatar was a waste of great special effects on a poor story.
I went into Avatar knowing all the hype. I told myself I would enjoy it despite the fact that I didn't want to see it. In fact, I refused to see it unless I didn't have to pay. But yet, I wanted to enjoy it. But I couldn't. Less than halfway into the film I was checking to see what time it was. I was impressed that they could bring such a vivid world to life but I was less impressed with the overly preachy nature of the film. I got the message in Fern Gully. I didn't need the message in large blue naked native Americans, because that's basically what they were. At least in Fern Gully Robin Williams voiced a bat that added some humor.
I do think that Sam Worthington will be the next great action celebrity of our time and Sigourney Weaver is a good actor but that doesn't save a mediocre script with a lot of film cliches. You know what is going to happen and you pretty much know almost how it will happen you just don't know exactly in what stunning visual way it will happen.
Avatar may have been the most expensive movie to make of all time and the highest grossing movie of 2009, but that doesn't make it a great film. Story is what makes films great. It's never changed. The best films have great stories. Avatar is a great technical achievement. It is a reverse in story achievement. James Cameron has found a way to sink ships and make them work. People loved Titanic, now they love Avatar. Come fifteen years from now, like Titanic, people will see that it was just alright. It was a fun ride (at least for everyone else) but that was about it.
Paranormal Activity was the highest grossing movie with the lowest budget of the year and I thought that was near. Now there's Avatar, the highest grossing movie of the year with the biggest budget and I didn't like that. There is something about hype that somehow makes films great. Avatar is basically one long beautiful painting with very little underneath.
I can't begin to say how much I disaggree with your foundational attitude about this movie. Just because the story of Avatar is similar or even the same as another does not diminish the quality of that story. West Side Story employs a great story, however, it had been done before, namely by Shakespeare, same goes for The Lion King, another great story. The best stories are told often, it's not about whether or not the story's been told before, but in what new ways it is being told. Nowhere did you mention whether or not you saw it in 3D, so I assume you didn't which would make sense regarding your boredom halfway through. I sense an unfortunate amount of cynicism behind much of this review.
ReplyDeleteI actually did see it in 3D. And yes, great stories can be done again and well, but I didn't feel this was one of those cases.
ReplyDeleteThere is no dispute the achievement Cameron has pulled off, but he merely put the pieces together of the expected 3D fad. It's true, Cameron has invested an enormous amount of time and money into this movie, and 3D is definitely here to stay in some fashion, but everything about this film seems over-hyped. Indeed, Avatar is a wonderful spectacle , but contains hardly any substance. I always prefer a good story over a bedazzling display.
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