Henry Saw: Avatar

You have to see this movie...in theaters...


Let's get this out of the way: You must see Avatar. On the big screen. In 3D (if possible). I don't care how cynical you are about the hype, how much you dislike recent "event" movies or James Cameron's last film Titanic...I don't care. You must see this movie in theaters. Because if you wait to see it on DVD you may as well not see it at all. And that's because Avatar isn't actually that good...

Except that it's amazing. That's what makes this film so hard to write about...it's one of the most visually astounding movies I've ever seen. I was, and still am, really weary of the idea that 3D is the future of cinema. I still don't like wearing the glasses, I still find focusing on the image more taxing than watching a normal film, and I've never before felt like a movie I've seen in 3D was enhanced by the process...until now. Avatar really is the future of cinema whether I like it or not. And for now...how can I not like it?



Before I go further here is a quick plot summary via IMDB: When his brother is killed in battle, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's (Giovanni Ribisi) intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch Stephen Lang), while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora. (Not mentioned in this description is Sigourney Weaver's role of Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the Avatar program, who is committed to a peaceful alliace with the Na'vi.)

It's hard to describe how fantastic Avatar is visually. From the very first shot, a single drop of water hovering over our protagonist, I was blown away. The 3D effects in this film are only used to put you into the world of the film. It's never showy, it never has a yo-yo coming out of the screen at you, it's only there to serve the film. There are sequences where our heroes are flying on top of winged beasts that are more beautiful and more thrilling than any ride at Disney World. The best thing I can say about the 3D is how often I forgot that the film was in 3D; that's how immersive it is.

It's not just the 3D that astonishes...the CGI and motion capture work is also the best I've ever seen. Outside of a few of the animals (who are all well designed but not that real looking), and the battle suits that the evil soldiers end up using, almost everything in the movie seemed photo realistic. There is more creativity and skill in this film, at least in its design and execution, than in just about any movie I've ever seen. There is one scene where Jake (in his Na'vi avatar) and Neytiri kiss...and no one in the theater laughed. Two 9 foot tall blue things kiss on screen and it doesn't look ridiculous. That's impressive.

Then there is big battle scene which can only be compared, in terms of scale and ambition, with the battle scenes of The Return of the King. I was debating with Ben which of these two films was more visually impressive and the fact that we can even have that debate, when one considers how unbeatable The Return of the King seemed at the time, is high praise for Avatar. Cameron was inspired to get back into film-making after watching the Lord of the Rings and he's made a movie that, in terms of its look, is right up there with Peter Jackson's masterpiece.



So I could go on and on and on about how much you MUST see Avatar in theaters (again, in 3D if possible). It's easily the most "impressive" film since Return of the King, it's a landmark achievement, and I would love to just stop right here and give the movie an easy "A".

Unfortunately...the movie has a plot. And it's a really derivative and lame one. The film is exactly what it looked like in the trailers: Dances with Wolves meets Ferngully meets bizarro Aliens (Cameron's true masterpiece and my favorite film of all time). Not one thing that happens in the film is surprising, even beyond the fact that we all know the hero will win, but down to the fact that I could predict what would happen scene to scene.

Also, not one character, save perhaps Zoe Saldana's Neytiri, is in any way compelling. Jake Sully is an incredibly bland hero who struggles to hide his Australian accent. The villain, Colonel Quaritch, is one of the most one-note, generic, and boring villains I've ever seen in a major film. He wants to kill the Na'vi because....because. He has no motivation, no depth...every scene with him is painful to watch. Giovanni Ribisi is just playing a lamer version of Paul Reiser's character in Aliens. Sigourney Weaver is solid, I was always happy when she was on screen, but I can't promise that isn't because she's Ripley. I'm always happy to see Sigourney Weaver on screen. In fact, I kept waiting for her to push Worthington aside and declare "Move over boy...I've got this."



Only Saldana, who never "appears" on screen, stands out. She's the only one of the Na'vi we meet who actually feels both alien and completely relatable. True, a great deal of the credit must go to the animators, but Saldana can be very proud of her contribution to the film.

And then there's the script. Holy lord the script. Avatar contains some of the worst writing we've seen since Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (Episode 2). Lines like "Yeah, who's bad?!", or "Bring the pain!", or "You're not the only one with a gun bitch", or the repeated use of "I see you" as a romantic device...ugh. UGH. There were multiple moments where the dialogue was so bad that it took me out of the film. As hard as it is to describe how great the visuals are, it is equally difficult to describe how bad the script is at times. It's never boring (the film looks to good to ever be dull) but I'm just not sure the movie will work on the small screen. The plot is in no way compelling and the action, though visually perfect, is not that exciting. Partially because we don't really care about the characters and partially because the choreography just isn't that great.

Also, and this is admiringly a personal thing, but the amount of times I was reminded of Aliens was very jarring. There are characters in Avatar that are flat versions of Aliens' characters (For example, Michelle Rodriguez shows up as the worst carbon copy of Vasquez ever). There are musical cues that are, I think literally, right out of Aliens. And the big final fight is between a human in a big mech suit versus an alien...I mean really.



Anyway, I might have more thoughts after I've had some time to think about the film some more, and I apologize for the kind of rambling nature of this review, but I've really never experienced this kind of dichotomy with a film before. I completely recommend it - again you really should see this film ASAP - but I also think it was flawed in a fairly serious way. So believe the hype: Avatar really does bring the "awe" back to movie going (I guess it was on a 6 year vacation after Return of the King) and it offers an experience in the theater that I've never had before; yet I can't say that the movie is actually that good due to the horrible script. While the story offers the framework and set-up for Cameron to go wild with his effects crew, it's also fascinatingly uninteresting, and filled with some of the cheesiest dialogue I've heard in quite some time.

So if Avatar gets an A+ for it's visuals and innovation...and a C for it's plot, dialogue, and "acting"...then overall...

Grade: B

Best Scene: I'm tempted to say the opening moments when I was immediately sold on the look and 3D...or the scenes of Jake's avatar flying on a winged creature on Pandora...but I'll say the battle scene (even if it wasn't all I hoped it would be) just because of the size and scale that Cameron was working on.


P.S.: So after writing this up I went and checked out what other critics had to say and found a lot of forgiving reviews of the hackneyed plot and bad dialogue because the movie is just so amazing to look at. For a review that captures some of what I've tried, and probably failed, to say here please check out Tom Maurstad's review from The Dallas Morning News. (I swear I came up with the blending of the two letter grades thing before reading this)

P.P.S.: I tried really hard not to compare this movie to Aliens throughout the review; that wouldn't really be fair. While it's hard not to think of due to Cameron directing both films, and the fact that Avatar has many elements that are so reminiscent of his 1986 classic, it would be asking too much for Cameron to have made two films as good as Aliens. Still, I wish he could have remembered why that movie is so great, and given us characters and moments in Avatar that we cared about like we did in Aliens, rather than seemingly focusing solely on Avatar's look and technological advancements.

I also tried to avoid comparing it to Titanic because that is such a polarizing film. It is worth mentioning, however, that Titanic is a movie that worked very well on the big screen. No matter what anyone says now, Titanic was a massive achievement and one of the more memorable nights at the cinema in my life. But what do people (rightfully) think of Titanic now that it is 12 years old and only available on DVD...?