If you read movie reviews, and I am assuming that you are if you are reading mine, then there will be ample reading for you on the movie Avatar. Many of the ones I have read are like minded in saying that the movie is visually stunning but that the story does not match up to the movie; however, Avatar is more than that.
In school we learn all the things we as a species have discovered through out the years. Be it language, history, science or math, these are the tools we use to function in society. Also, many of us then turn to organized religion to fill our spiritual needs, and this gives us the tools to deal with our existence and our mortality. But to teach us what we are, as sentient and cultural beings, we turn to art. Art is the culmination of our spirituality, our history, our science, and our existence. Be you Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, etc. you look at the Sixteenth Chapel and you are moved. You see a Rembrandt, DaVinci, or Picaso and your life is better everyday after as a result. You read Shakespere, Hemingway, Twain, or whomever and your outlook on the world around you shifts. The generations leading up to ours will be remembered for their music, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, the Beatles, and yes, Michael Jackson, and we were moved by them all. And in a hundred years when our generation's art is examined, and masterpieces are talked about, James Cameron's Avatar will be among those that are remembered.
Avatar is quite simply stunning. I am without a doubt that for at least that short moment on film, Hollywood can make anything real. The movie takes place on a planet called Pandora, and despite its name, it is as beautiful as any painting I have ever seen. Of the two and a half hour movie, much of it is spent just being in the world that is Pandora, and for this will we remember Avatar as a masterpiece. With its neon colored plants and animals and the Na'Vi's human feel, despite the fact that they are anything but, I left the theater looking to the sky and hoping that Pandora was somewhere above me. The animals are life like and amazing, the plants are something out of a dream. At times you want to reach out and touch what you are seeing, and it is hard to believe that Cameron did it all with some cameras and computers. I did not get to see it in 3-D, and admittedly I do not particularly enjoy 3-D, but let me tell you it is not necessary to experience the beauty of this film.
Will it be known for its story, no I do not think it will, but that does not mean it did not make the grade. The flaw, if it could be called such, is that maybe the story does try to do too much. While it touches you in many different ways, it does not expound on any of those feelings. To give an example I will bring up another masterpiece. The movie Cast Away is a testament to the feelings of loss, loneliness and ultimately perseverance. Tom Hanks spends the better part of the movie making the audience feel Chuck Noland's struggle to deal with isolation and despair. It is a movie that wraps us in a single focused and intricate journey of shear determination to survive. Avatar meanwhile takes on a journey, during which we experience a story of self discovery, love, domination/resistance, loss and faith. Each touch us in a personal way, but the fact of the matter is you can only do so much in less than a few hours. Where I felt the story excelled, was in its expression of faith. (Spoiler Alert) Pandora is a living and breathing entity and all if its creatures are connected. The Na'Vi can connect to this shared sentience and live as part of it. They have faith in all those things around them, and it is this that drives everything else they do. But it does not make them weak, or naive. Their faith makes them strong and gives them the power to persevere, when some would otherwise give in. I think, personally, this was my favorite tone of the movie, but trust me when I say there were plenty of tones to choose from.
The acting also did not fail. Sam Worthington was great. There is an interesting correlation between Worthington's character, Jake Sully, and the actor himself. Sam Worthington is well on his way to being an action star, especially with Clash of the Titans just around the corner, and action stars can be one dimensional at best. Jake Sully begins the movie as a crippled Marine, focused only on being a soldier once again. But what Worthington does well for Sully, and in turn for his career, is make him emotional. He makes Sully more than the jar head that he refers to himself as at the beginning of the movie, and gives the leader, brother and lover depth. I have always been a fan of Giovanni Ribisi, and while he was very good in this film I would not say it was his best. His character is the corporate monger who has to deal with his desire for money vs his conscience, with money winning. Stephen Lang is the ultimate villain and does a good job as what appears to be a representation of Cameron's view of our previous administration. And Zoe Saldanea is beautiful, both as a Na'Vi and someone who has to bring a personality through a completely computer generated being.
The only other flaw I will state, is that again I left a Hollywood creation feeling inferior physically. Even computer generated beings look better than I do, but alas that I fear that will never change. There are few movies I will say need to be watched in a theater, but this is certainly one of them. It is worth every cent of that 8-10 dollars you will spend per ticket to visit an audio and visual art exhibit. Someday a teenager will be forced to sit through a virtual lecture on the art of the early 21st century, and will probably hate every minute of it, but they will be required to watch this movie, and whether they realize it at that moment or not, the will be changed forever. Do not miss your opportunity to change too.
Though visually Avatar gets an A++, overall I give an A and urge you to see it.
Thanks for reading, until next time.
JP
