Review: Avatar

Or: JAMES CAMERON’S Avatar

James Cameron, acclaimed director of films such as Titanic, Aliens and The Terminator, has been working on Avatar for the better part of ten years. Originally, his planned follow-up to the incredibly successful Titanic in 1998, Cameron felt that the technology at the time wasn’t adequate enough to capture his vision. Well, now the film is finally out, but was it worth the wait?

The film takes place on the alien world of Pandora, where an alien race called the Na’vi (think giant blue humans with tails) are the main inhabitants. In order to fully understand this race, the humans who are occupying Pandora have put together a program through which they can telepathically control a genetically engineered Na’vi body, called an “Avatar.”

After one of the scientists dies, his brother, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is brought in to replace him, because the Avatar technology works on a DNA level. As the film progresses, Jake Sully eventually gets in close with the Na’vi and is instructed by the military higher-ups that he must help them spy on the tribe so that they can better prepare to destroy their home, which rests on a large supply of rare metals.

Eventually, Jake Sully falls in love with one of the Na’vi, and his loyalties are called into question. To be honest, the plot is a little predictable and not the strongest part of the film. The story doesn’t tread any new ground, the classic "nature vs. technology" conflict, with the Na’vi simply trying to live in peace with their surroundings, and the greed of the humans causing them to destroy their land.

However, where the film really shines is in its visuals. Every massive tree or floating mountain (yes, there are floating mountains) is simply stunning, and looks magnificent. The Na’vi themselves, created with CGI, are incredibly life-like, and lack any of the uncanny valley quality often found with other super-realistic CGI characters (I'm looking at you Zimeckis).

All of these visuals are really brought to life with the 3D employed in the film. The beautiful environments quite literally pop out at the viewer. You truly feel like they are in the setting with the characters, as all of the odd and strange foliage seem that much more mystifying when it looks as though it's right in front of you.

However, at times Cameron becomes self-indulgent with these environments, taking big chunks of time to simply showcase the visuals, without progressing the story in any way. Its like having a cake. While you love cake (you know you do), if you have too much of it, it stops being special and starts being commonplace. After almost 2 hours of simply seeing the stunning environments, they do tend to lose some of their original mystique.

However, if the scenes showcasing the environments are like cake, then the climactic action scenes at the end are like a delicious pie. It’s made of ingredients you know, but somehow, when they all get put together, it works perfectly. Finally getting to see all of the airships and Pandora’s local creatures in an epic aerial battle against each other is a treat worth any tedium the first 2 hours might have.

Overall, Avatar isn’t going to change the way movies are made, and it won’t revolutionize the medium, but it is one hell of a good time. Even when the writing lacks, most people will be too mesmerized by the visuals to really care, and it all gets topped off with, simply put, one of the coolest action sequences in recent memory.

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