Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Is there anything left to say about writer-director James Cameron's years-in-the-making epic AVATAR? Well first of all let's look at something about that question and notice the term "writer-director." AVATAR is not another special effects-driven studio film made by committee to please a target audience; instead, it is the vision of one man whose ability to wow and entertain us is nearly unrivaled in film history. Sure, thousands of people helped make this movie, but the spectacular 3-D images on the screen come straight from the brain of Cameron, who hasn't helmed a feature film in 12 years. Apparently he simply waited until technology could catch up to the worlds he wanted to create. And let me just add for those critics who have seen it and dismissed it for the most part for all the things AVATAR isn't to see it a second time with fresh eyes and recognize all the things it manages to accomplish quite well.
Now make no mistake, I have a small handful of real issues with AVATAR, beginning and ending with the fact that it's so damn derivative--both of Cameron's previous work and some fairly high-profile works by other filmmakers--that it's almost distracting. I've read a couple of critics who compared the movie to DANCES WITH WOLVES, and that's not exactly right. Avatar isn't similar to DANCES WITH WOLVES; it's a fucking carbon copy of DANCES WITH WOLVES at times (I might also throw in a little THE NEW WORLD). Granted, there hasn't been a truly original movie plot for a big-budget studio film since the silent-film era, but holy Christ was I surprised to see this story of a military man sent in to tame an indigenous population and ends up "going native" after falling in love with one of the locals. Some people might not be able to forgive Cameron for this lift, but I eventually looked past it and into a world and palette of images that simply robbed me of words.
The future setting for AVATAR is Pandora, a moon orbiting an unknown planet that looks a lot like Jupiter. Planet Earth is without oil, and this world contains the only known source of a mineral (with a name so stupid, I won't ruin the surprise of hearing it yourself) that would seem to be a worthy energy source to save our planet. A military-industrial complex has been firmly established on Pandora. Their main objective is to clear the mining sites of any indigenous peoples and dangerous animals to make way for the biggest bulldozers you've ever seen. The diamond-hard Stephen Lang plays Col. Quaritch, who runs the military, while the weasely Giovanni Ribisi plays Parker Selfridge, representing the mining company. Ribisi's character seems poured from the same mold as Paul Reiser's character in ALIENS, or at least the two characters had the same mother. Speaking of ALIENS, Sigourney Weaver plays Dr. Grace Augustine, who leads a small and largely powerless band of scientists who are not only exploring Pandora but also attempting to learn the customs of the native humanoid-feline-blue race known as the Na'vi in the hopes of negotiating them off their land rather than having them scorched off by the military.
Armed only with spears, poisoned arrows and fierce loin clothes, the towering Na'vi are painted as a people connected to the land and creatures around them...literally. They all have long ponytails with filaments that link them to certain plants and animals. It's an interesting concept, but I'm not really sure the conceit pays off in the plot. Perhaps the most useful thing the scientists have developed is the ability to mix human and Na'vi DNA to make Na'vi Avatars that can house the minds of humans. The thinking is that the Na'vi would feel less threatened by creatures that look like them. There's something inherently condescending about that logic, but let's move on.
Playing the man caught between three worlds is TERMINATOR: SALVATION's Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, a marine who has lost the use of his legs. When his brother is killed, Jake steps in to use his Avatar, at first as a means to get his legs back. But Col. Quaritch uses Jake's loyalty to have him spy on both the scientists and get in good with the Na'vi to learn where their defensive weaknesses are and the primary sources of the valuable mineral being sought. During his first trip into the wild of Pandora, Jake meets Neytiri (voiced and motion-captured by Zoe Saldana, who played Uhura in STAR TREK), who might be the single best thing about AVATAR. And it's through Saldana's performance that we begin to understand what Cameron is attempting to capture with all of this new technology that forces us to not only reclassify special effects but also, in many ways, to redefine animation. There are entire lengthy sections in AVATAR that are 100 percent digitally rendered--the backgrounds, vehicles, vegetation, characters, everything. I don't have a problem with this, but it made me really ponder where works with this level of special effects fit in the world of film.
I liked that Cameron made the human Avatars sort of look like the actors, while the Na'vi characters don't look anything like the people performing the parts. You really notice how lifelike the Avatars appear when you watch Sigourney Weaver, who is quite good and brings a much-needed intelligence to the proceedings. But it's Saldana who steals the show. There's something about her movements and facial expressions that illustrates the precise differences between human behavior and reactions and those of the Na'vi. The way she smiles, gets angry, hisses at a foe or focuses her attention just before she attacks an aggressor is captivating. During any scenes features Neytiri, I could have turned off the sound and simply watched her performance without missing a thing.
Much of the final third of AVATAR is a mixed bag for me. We're well aware that the inevitable battle between machine and nature is on the way, and I hate that Cameron has become so predictable. Still, the actual man-vs.-Na'vi war is astonishing and the destruction is massive, and that's all that needs to be said about that. Then there are other moments that didn't work at all for me. The Na'vi teach Jake about riding a Banshee (this particular scene isn't in the final thrid of AVATAR, but the Banshee come into play prominently during the final battle), a dragon-like creature that once chosen is yours for life. Here's my problem: I've never been impressed with CGI dragons. They never look real or any better than some videogame creation, and while the creature isn't technically a dragon, it basically is, and I just wasn't buying it. Any frankly, watched a group of Na'vi flying around mountains and waterfalls on the backs of these creatures is kind of boring. That said, I was largely impressed with the other previously unseen creatures of Pandora, and not just the wild animals but also the flora and fauna, some of which look suspiciously like some of the rare forms of life that live near the bottom of the ocean that Cameron seems endlessly fascinated by. I like the idea of Cameron bringing these majestic and freaky things to play on the surface; it's a great idea. Just get rid of the dragons, dude.
The truth is, there's only so much you can read about AVATAR before you finally just have to decide whether to see it or ignore it. I know I need to see it at least one more time to really get my head around it and see which elements hold up and which fall apart. But there's no denying that so much of what you'll see you have never seen before, and not just the Pandora wildlife. Cameron has created war machines, computer technology, and even a wheelchair that simply don't exist, and it's just as fascinating to look around the corners of the screen away from the action to see what little touches Cameron has invented for his canvas. There is so much to like here visually that it almost seems like too much of a good thing to watch AVATAR in 3-D. I said after seeing the first footage from the film at Comic-Con back in July that the immersive nature of the 3-D is quite simply overwhelming at times. That's a good thing. Go see it, come back, and let the endless debate begin. My guess is that you'll go in a skeptic and leave a lot less of one. I'm not saying you're going to worship the screen this film plays on, but I dare you not to be impressed.
-- Capone
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