“Avatar”
Written and Directed by James Cameron. Stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi and Joel Moore. Story centers on Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, brought in his late twin brother’s place to take part in the Avatar program on distant planet Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a jungle-dwelling race with their own language and culture. Jake is charged with infiltrating the Na’Vi through his avatar (a biological replica of the Na’Vi that humans can control remotely with their minds) in hopes of getting them to relinquish priceless land, but Jake soon comes to question where his home really is and who his allies are.
Seen December 19, 2009, by Lars Bastholm and Adam Wohl
LARS:
Logline: A small step for movies, a giant leap for movie making.
When I was 8, I saw Star Wars and my mind was utterly blown. It was the beginning of a life-long love affair with the medium. I don’t think there’s been a comparable movie to sway young minds since. I can only imagine what a screening of “Avatar” will do to a young, impressionable mind. I am pretty sure that this will be the film that a generation will refer to as a landmark in their love of all things film.
It is close to impossible to review “Avatar” only as a movie and not talk about what went into the making of it. Which in a way is unfair, but when technology takes a sudden leap forward like this, it threatens to over-shadow the product itself. So let’s get it out of the way: there has never before been anything remotely close to “Avatar” in terms of immersive world creation. The only things that come to mind are Star Wars, The Matrix and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yet, “Avatar” makes those movies look like they were shot on super-8 cameras, using torches for lighting.
Cameron’s technological quantum leaps in 3D, performance capture and CGI makes you forget completely that most of what you’re looking at doesn’t exist. The world of Pandora and the Na’Vi people seem utterly real. Cameron doesn’t use 3D to make stuff fly at you, but to subtly pull you into the world of Pandora. I’m sure the movie looks good in 2D, but if there ever was a movie where seeing it in 3D was an absolute necessity, this is it. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing an uptick in 3D TVs, when “Avatar” eventually comes out on Blu-Ray.
The world of Pandora is immaculately realized. Reputedly, Cameron has a 300+ pages book that details the flora and fauna on Pandora. I believe it. Even when your mind tells you that you’re looking at a creature that doesn’t exist, it looks so real that you just accept that, well, I guess it does exist on Pandora. The floating mountains and the banshees that fly among them are two of the most breath-taking things put on film ever.
The film wouldn’t work at all, unless the Na’Vi, the indigenous people of Pandora, seemed real enough that the audience connect emotionally with them. Especially Zoe Saldana’s Na’Vi character, Neytiri, comes across as a wholly believable ‘person’ and I never once thought that she was a giant Smurf, even if the color of the Na’Vis makes that an easy joke. Her face is capable of running the gamut of emotions and even though she’s obviously alien in look, movement and language, she’s never less than completely real. If she, and the rest of the Na’vi, weren’t the whole movie would fall apart, so good thing that Cameron sat on the script for 15 years and waited for technology to reach a point, where he could actually bring them to life.
If “Avatar” has any flaws, it’s the story. I only snickered once or twice at the dialogue, but if I’d been less enraptured with the world, I would surely have laughed out loud at the many inanities. It’s easy to see the whole movie as a parable for what we are doing to our world and as a defense for indigenous people and for living in more close contact with nature in general. Perhaps a screening at the failed climate conference in Copenhagen would have been a good idea?
It’s a classic good guys versus bad guys story, and it’s all been seen a million times before. I don’t think, however, that this is going to make one whit of a difference for the aforementioned 8 year old, so it feels wrong to harp on about how a little more subtlety and less cartoony characters would have made for a better movie.
So here’s to you, Mr. Cameron for dreaming big. “Titanic” made you king of the world. With “Avatar” you now wear the crown both on Earth and on Pandora. No small feat, sir.
ADAM:
So, you’ve seen trailers, you seen interviews, maybe read things and you want to know – is what you’ve heard true? The answer is yes; James Cameron is a control-freak, egomaniacal know it all. If that upsets you or makes you resentful, I’ve got bad news for you. Even though Cameron (and Twentieth Century Fox) expect Avatar to be the highest grossing movie of all time (which I don’t not think it will become), the director and self-dubbed member of royalty has proven with his latest film that when given complete control over every detail of what ends up on screen, he delivers with what may in fact be the standard of all digital filmmaking for as long as we know it, or until the audience is literally placed inside the film. And if that becomes possible within the next 20-30 years, my money is that Cameron will be the person that introduces that as well.
Now I realize that the “I’ve never seen anything like it before” is the professional and personal review du jour on “Avatar” and may be as difficult to understand as the language of Avatar’s Na’Vi people who inhabit the planet of Pandora. So I’ll do my best to qualify it. The film spends all its time on Pandora and travels deep within its forest, exploring wild life, the lush surrounds and its people. Much of the time, Cameron places the audience in an over the shoulder view of all of this, and the result is the visual feel of the BluRay set of “Planet Earth.” It looks that real. But you’re not watching the people, plants and animals of Earth. This is Pandora. That means herds of animals resembling elephant/triceratops hybrids, eight foot cosmic cousins of lilies and a massive weeping willow tree that is a gateway to the heavens. Comparisons to effect-heavy movies of the past? This is the first film about which I said to myself, “There will not be an updated version; they will never go back and try to make this look better, because it cannot look better.”
So, what else? A story? Yeah it’s there. You’ve heard it, read it, seen it before. And with the exception of a few twists, you know where it’s going. The performances are pretty good, the standout being Zoe Saldana as Neytiri; not surprising, as her character is the most interesting. The story is one part “Total Recall”, three parts “Lord of the Rings” and two parts “The Emerald Forest.” Yes, I’m serious. Enjoy that combo plate. It’s easy to follow and to root for the good guys, just not that engrossing. And I’m sure that may have been part of Cameron’s strategy. Surely he wanted to keep things simple and accessible (PG-13), so kids will love it and want to see it repeatedly. But make no mistake; the story and its characters are not the stars. The effects, the world — read: James Cameron is the star. May I never say it again, but Lars may have misspoken above; he says Cameron is now king of two worlds. I say it’s still only one. On Pandora he’s not a king; he is God.
