Avatar (20th Century)
Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.
Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel Moore, CCH Pounder, Wes Studi, Laz Alonso, Dileep Rao.
Written and directed by James Cameron.
GRADE: B+
REVIEWStop me if you've heard this movie plot before: A soldier immerses himself in an indigenous culture, goes native, and ends up on the opposing side of his former military affiliation. If you guessed
Dances With Wolves, you'd be only half-right, because that's the basic premise behind James Cameron's epic fantasy adventure
Avatar. It wouldn't be fair to say that Cameron's $500-million movie is entirely derivative of Kevin Costner's grand opus, because
Avatar also draws upon some of the director's own previous work.
The year is 2154, and Jake Scully (Sam Worthington) is a paralyzed Marine war veteran whose twin brother has been recently killed in an armed robbery on Earth. Jake's brother had signed up to be part of the avatar program, where humans control the body of a genetically formed member of the the Na'vi, an indigenous people of the planet named Pandora, somewhere deep in outer space. Jake agrees to take his brother's place on Pandora, since he has the same genetic makeup. The avatar program is designed to help the human inhabitants on Pandora understand the native people better, so they can find ways to exploit their planet's natural resources. The human avatars link up with their alien body doubles via a computerized chamber, and disconnect when their Na'vi bodies go to sleep or they are manually shut off. Jake understandably takes a quick liking to his Na'vi body double, since it has a strong pair of working legs.
The chief scientist behind the Avatar program is Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who is also an avatar with a Na'vi double. The Na'vi, by the way, are a blue-colored humanoid race standing about 12 feet tall, with large wide-set yellow eyes, flat snouts, long tails, and long hair that encases some kind of nerve endings that can link with other living things on the planet, including plants and all kinds of critters. By the way, the Na'vi women are mostly topless, so if you're sensitive to such tribal attire, avert your eyes. The Na'vi aren't too happy with the invasion of the earthlings and their destructive tendencies, which results in a constant war between the indigenous tribes and the apparently technological advanced humans.
The funding for Grace's expensive program comes from a huge Earth corporation (I have to assume it's an American corporation, since all the earthlings in the movie are void of any foreign accents...more on that later) headed by a slimy corporate leader named Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) whose military attack dog is Colonel Miles Quarich, a tough-talking bad-ass with a thick southern accent. Quarich convinces Jake to keep him posted on any weaknesses in the Na'vi's defenses.
Jake does infiltrate the inner circle of the Na'vi when he encounters the lovely Ney'tiri (voiced by Zoe Saldana) in the jungle. As he learns the Na'vi way, he eventually comes to sympathize with their plight, and must decide whether to join them or stay true to his own kind. This tense (and somewhat obvious) decision comes to a head as Jake leads his newfound family into a climactic final battle.
I won't tell you how the battle ends. Go buy a ticket. I mean that, because
Avatar is well worth full admission, if only for the incredible, dazzling, and innovated computer-generated visual effects and spectacular action sequences.
Cool eye-candy aside, I have a few problems with
Avatar, beyond its borrowed storyline.
First, I take slight issue with Cameron's dumbed-down script, apt to overstate the obvious, like the "all living things are connected" talk among the Na'vi as Jake learns their ways. There are other moments of silly dialogue and scientific absurdities, like Pandora's prime mineral sought by the earthlings named "Inobtainium." Phew.
Another part of the movie that induced a little eye-rolling for me is when Jake confesses to his Na'vi tribes people that the real reason the humans are there is to rape Pandora because they "killed their mother" (Earth) and just couldn't resist helping themselves to another planet. If we are to believe in Cameron's message here, humans (especially American humans) are inherently evil, greedy, environmentally ignorant and corporate animals incapable of healing. I'm not sure Cameron's heavy-handed message will resonate beyond the 3-D multiplexes showing
Avatar over the holidays, but if it inspires you to cut down on your "carbon footprint" and make the world a little less stinky, then knock yourself out. Hollywood's preaching about the environment is getting a little old, no matter how you feel about Climate Change or Global Warming. There are also a few references to "Shock and Awe" and "fighting terror with terror" that some might find a little too political for an action fantasy movie.
Besides the plot line borrowed from
Dances With Wolves,
Avatar also includes some of familiar elements from Cameron's
Aliens. One is a tough-talking latina soldier (Michelle Rodriguez)...(remember
Aliens' Vasquez?) and the slimy corporate weasel (remember Carter Burke, played by Paul Reiser?). The so-called (Continental?) "Marines" seem a little like a re-tread as well.
Avatar also caused me to reminisce on another
Aliens moment, when Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) tells Carter Burke, "I don't know which species is worse. You don't see [the aliens] [bleep]ing each other over for a [bleeping] percentage." It would seem as though
Avatar is a variation on that theme. Perhaps
Avatar is Cameron's best attempt at making a feel-good version of
Aliens, but that might not be a bad thing, since
Aliens is one of the best action-adventure movies ever made, in my humble opinion.
One other minor problem:
Avatar almost three, yes, three hours long. Don't buy the extra large soda at the concession stand, because there is no intermission. Honestly, Cameron could have cut about 45 minutes out of
Avatar and it still would have been a fantastic film.
With these minor inconveniences, I have to say
Avatar is a spectacle worth seeing. The computer-generated Na'vi, coupled with all the jungle scenery and incredible special effects are sights you have never seen before. Even as animated computerized images, the Na'vi characters are 3-dimensional in every way, and capable of expressing true emotion. At times, I had to remind myself that Pandora's native characters were not real. It would seem Peter Jackson's Gollum has been trumped in technological superiority.
I also wouldn't recommend
Avatar to small children or anyone under the age of 9. Some of the violence and deep subject matter might be a little too much, not to mention the topless natives.
Even so,
Avatar is an epic film that should at least break even at the box office, especially if you see it more than once. I know I will.
