Movie Notes: Avatar

December 20th, 2009

= 5 stars

Starring Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Directed by James Cameron

Synopsis

Future humans descend upon the planet Pandora to mine its resources, but native aliens called Na’vi are getting in the way. Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is mentally linked to a human-grown Na’vi clone called an “avatar” and sent to infiltrate the tribe, in hopes of negotiation.

The Good

• Amazing, completely immersive CGI. With the exception of the blue Navi (a mere inch away from crossing the uncanny valley) and the human actors, I couldn’t tell what was real vs. CGI. The jungle landscape is flawlessly detailed and mesmerizing. But the illusion is maintained in simpler ways: camera movements and cuts are reality based (shaky, human camera moves and zooms), the human scenes seem filmed in HD plus lighting that lends a near CGI look, and the plot rarely has the CGI Na’vi and actual humans interacting with one another.
• Satisfyingly primal plot of good vs. evil: think Star Wars but humans as the Empire, more specifically, the military working in cahoots with a profit-first corporation, and the cutesy innocent indigenous aliens along with the wussy scientists as the rebels. Then sprinkle Dances With Wolves, Little Big Man, Lord of the Rings, Princess Mononoke, and Braveheart. There’s even a requisite, cartoony, over-the-top villain in the form of Colonel Quaritch (Steven Lang). The human military vehicles, all steel, metal and fire commanded by translucent touch monitors, are a great contrast to the green, bioluminescent, vegitative natural environment.
• Eventually became caught up in the Na’vi’s fate, specifically through a few emotionally effective scenes where Na’vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) reacts to the hellish destruction of their world. I’m also very glad Cameron included one moment where Neytiri meets Jake himself, instead of only interacting with his avatar.
• Nearly three hours long, and I barely noticed.
• Much to my surprise, the spouse liked it — responded to the environmental message.

The Bad

• I found the “avatar” concept hard to swallow, and it ultimately seemed a contrivance to provide an “entry point” into a new, foreign culture — basically believing an audience can’t relate unless there’s some (human) character like them to personally identify with.
• A few unintentionally funny moments: The Na’vi make the cliched, head-slapping mistake to welcome Jake into their culture. One wonders what happens to Jake’s avatar body while he’s awake — it seems it’s just left lying about until his return. There’s a group-hug thing at a sea-anemone tree that took me out of the moment, and an alien sex scene (thankfully, no bizarre blue genitalia) between Jake and the Na’vi chick you just know he’ll fall for. I was occasionally reminded of A Bugs Life (save our home) or even the Smurfs (the tribe doesn’t have much individuality or dissent). Lastly, there are stock action movie cliches — the good guys of course escape from jail, and the bad guy must survive a plane crash. Taking a step back, the weak plot takes this odd movie dangerously close to ridiculousness.

Conclusion

Despite plot quibbles, and waffling between 4 and 5 stars, the overwhelming CGI won over even this CGI-o-phobe to squeak into a low 5 stars. Ultimately, Avatar is an epic, barn burner movie that begs to be seen on the big screen — an increasing rarity. Its marriage of CGI and a cartoony, good verses evil on an alien world results in a movie George Lucas surely wishes he had made. He’s probably green — or Avatar blue — with envy right now.

IMDB: Avatar
Wikipedia: Avatar
Rotten Tomatoes: Avatar 83%