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After his brother is killed ex marine Jake Sully has the chance of a lifetime. Jake is sent in by the human race to gather information on the Na’vi the race that inhabits the planet of Pandora. But once Jake is sent in and begins to earn the respect of the natives, he learns that they are a race just like the humans and he begins to question the mission that he was sent on. Jake begins to fall in love with Neytiri, which came a surprise to him. He then learns that the humans had no intention of bargaining with the Na’vi they want a mineral that natives have and they will not rest until they have it.
James Cameron created Pandora from scratch, and I will give him credit, the end product is stunning. There was a mass of colors as well as life on Pandora. Cameron plays with the colors which enhance the 3-D effects. James Cameron creates a world that is embraced, and there are claims that people who have seen Avatar are depressed after viewing because they wish they could live on Pandora. Take a deeper look into Avatar and you will see that it is in fact just another flick. Just another movie, with planets much like Star Wars, and Star Trek, Cameron just brings to life his own group of beings and gives them a set of morals and beliefs, that are similar to natives here on planet earth.
Upon further look into Avatar, one could come to the conclusion that the hype is warranted, and it deserves all these awards and claims that it is the greatest film of all time. But look deeper, take a second or third look, read into it beyond the effects and you could come to the second of two conclusions. Without the effects, what is there that we would really be talking about. Does anything stand out beyond other films we have seen over the last 70-80 years of film. The answer in the end would have to be no for me.
What do I want out of a film? Acting, first the acting needs to be flawless when playing with a far off race or even the issues Cameron was looking to tackle in Avatar, the unwavering faith of the Na’vi, the greed of the humans. Take a look at just Zoe Saldana’s performance as Neytiri, take away the blue and the over the top animation, and what are you left with. She is the strong female warrior of the tribe, who falls in love with the man who knows nothing about the Na’vi, which is stereotypical of a script featuring a blossoming love. Now to the humans performance, or as many would word it “Unaltered” performances. You have Sam Worthington, who everyone claims to be the next big male lead star, came up about as Cliché as Dicaprio was in Titanic. Sam Worthington did Terminator Salvation alongside Christian Bale, did James Cameron just look at the current stars of the franchise he built over 20 years ago? It seems that way. Other human performances Sigourney Weaver, who at first was a cold hearted bitch and realized what the na’vi were and how they were strong believers in their own faith so she switched her views, almost instantly, she was a mean middle aged woman one minute, and then the next she was the most caring and compassionate woman on Pandora, your views don’t just change like that.
Another issue I had, was with the way Cameron wrote the script bringing up odd facts and then tossing the answers aside. Like the scars on Colonel Quatrichs head, he brings up that it happened, yet Quatrich only ever says it happened his first day on Pandora. I didn’t like the no answer as to how it happened, we could all clearly see he had scars on his head, so don’t bring it up only to dismiss it. Yes I know this is small as far as the plot was concerned, but bringing it up and shutting down doesn’t further the plot anymore then the audience just getting the visuals of the side of his face. Also the fighter planes the humans had, at one point weren’t being pierced at all, but bullets or arrows, then all of sudden during the final battle the Na’vi arrows were strong enough to cut through the glass and kill the pilot. Did the Na’vi find a new material for their arrows, were the planes built out of different glass all of a sudden. Because of Na’vi arrows broke the class they would have been able to win easily the first time they fought yet their homes and most of their forest was brutally destroyed.
Also I want to move on to the thing that many people have already expressed displeasure with and that is the plot. This film somehow very similar if not a carbon copy of other films such as Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves. One of the Frequently asked Questions on IMDB is how similar is Avatar actually to Dances with Wolves. Here are a few points that the site was able to compare.
1. Both movies have a soldier/marine that is a little world weary and decides to take on a new job that is a little out of the normal realm of their training.
Nothing out of the ordinary really that could be the case with any story.
2.. Both movies have a soldier/marine that gets to know the native people/aliens of the strange land/alien world in which they are assigned, learns their language, participates in a hunt, and visits their most sacred place.
3. Both movies have a soldier/marine that decides to side with the Indian tribe/alien tribe in which they have come to know and love, and is persecuted by their former comrades.
IMDB has seven points, and I chose three that really stand out. Avatar enthusiasts might claim Cameron began with this idea in the mid 90’s and not a bad claim, but still it doesn’t explain the massive similarities to Dances with Wolves and even making that claim doesn’t help Avatars case, because Dances With Wolves was released in 1990.
I don’t hate Avatar, I actually liked most of it, but it isn’t the complete film package, it features many plot devices that have been the focal point of clever twists in other films. Avatar isn’t the greatest movie of all time, and my question is if Cameron was a first time director, and forget Titanic would everyone have rushed to see this film? I have to say no, but people are fascinated with this idea of 3-D being the deciding factor of how great a film is. I don’t begrudge anyone who likes this film, but for me this film has become an overhyped mess.
Which brings me to my final point of discussion, and any fan boy can correct me at anytime if what I say is wrong. The Na’vi were all about balance of life and faith in the living creatures and living as one, yet before the final battle Jake had to unite all the tribes. The Na’vi preached balance of life, faith and peace for all, but how did they tribes separate then? Clearly I missed something here, the first Na’vi would have existed as one united group, I am assuming, same with here on earth as we have evolved into many different people due to Europeans discovering other places, but at one time there were places on earth that were not occupied and had to be discovered. So with the Na’vi what lead to the different tribes, which would also have to mean different belief systems, because here on earth we all don’t agree on one religion, which was due to people seeing it differently. Now there are people on earth who believe peace and unity is still attainable, but we cannot right now as a planet claim we have it. So if the Na’vi aren’t unified as one race, and they are divided they cannot claim to have found the balance of life and unification as a race, because as we saw at the end they were divided and this happened for a reason.
Now to conclude, Avatar is a good film, with choppy dialogue, over the top action, stunning visuals, but with all this come the complications of creating your own world, and that is backing yourself out if need be, and Cameron just throws way to much at us at one time with one culture and then we see some faults and there just isn’t enough room for him to wiggle through.
Sources
IMDB.com
7/10
