What to say about James Cameron’s Avatar now that it’s the second highest-grossing film in history? Cameron’s groundbreaking, 3-D spectacular is less than $500 million away from usurping his previous film, Titanic, as the biggest blockbuster of all time, with everything pointing to that becoming a reality.
I saw the film at a critics’ screening 8 days before its release last month. Certain personal issues prevented me from writing about the film until now. In those 8 days before its release I debated back and forth with myself about throwing caution to the wind and publishing a review despite the “embargo” placed on writers by the film’s studio. Pretty much every critic in the world ignored it, but I didn’t want to be the one jackass that wasn’t allowed back to other screenings for doing so.
Once the reviews came in, with a surprising number being ecstatic even when many agreed that the film’s script/dialogue/plot was the weakest, I have to say I was surprised.
I say surprised because, aside from its technical genius, rich tapestry of amazing new takes on fauna and flora as well as its eye-poppingly transcendent usage of color and 3-D (don’t drop acid for this one, kids – or maybe you should, who am I to stop you?) Avatar is a jaw-droppingly empty film.
Cameron used to be an expert at making lean, mean action films filled with stock characters that were still imbued with some genuine “life” and he cast actors that could take those characters’ bare bones and put some flesh on them. And, even when his budgets grew, and his visions realized, he still kept things rocking all around.
That is, until Titanic. Now the merits of that film have been debated to death, but I truly believe that it was at this point where Cameron’s love of technology won out over his love of true film making. If he had cast anyone other than Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the lead roles, that thing would truly have sunk as many had predicted. The storyline is limp and is only helped by that pair’s immense talents as actors. Overlong and overwrought, Titanic was grueling to watch for this reviewer, to the point where I was began to desire rooting for the iceberg.
In Avatar, we find Cameron dumbing things down even more, with the only help being the few glimpses of good acting courtesy of Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. These are the only things that perk the non-”WOW” moments up. Lead Sam Worthington is the perfect empty vessel for the film. Worthington registers more interest in his avatar’s form, which says more for the technical workers than for him.
But Rodriguez’s character, like all of the film’s, barely registers a blip; Weaver sparkles at the beginning and is pushed aside pretty quickly and Lang’s character inexplicably goes mad a third of the way in, becoming the sort of stock villain that even the deplorable Michael Bay wouldn’t foist upon the viewing public.
I haven’t bothered to discuss the plot because, well, what’s the point? Avatar has nearly made $1.5 billion dollars worldwide, if you haven’t seen it once or more by now, chances are pretty good you won’t be seeing it and are probably not even reading this.
As a visual wonder, as a giant leap forward in film technology, Avatar is probably one of the greatest accomplishments in film history. As actual filmmaking, it’s a soulless, by-the-numbers piece of garbage. The fact that Cameron received a Writer’s Guild nomination this week is a joke. Plain and simple. There must be some sort of mind control embedded in the film is the only explanation as to how anyone could give the film praise for its script.
Cameron’s “Green” message is childish, his “theft” of a main plot line of Dances With Wolves deplorable, his resolution in the third act immature at best and retarded at worst.
If you’re going to have a big battle at the end of your film you have to back it up with some genuine drama and emotion that will work on audiences of all ages, not just 12 year olds (no offense to 12 year olds – I was one once). Here Cameron just blows shit up real good, killing supporting characters with little care and defeating the enemy with B-movie precision. It’s clumsy writing on Cameron’s part and a disservice to his earlier work (The Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, The Abyss) for him to have gone so far astray. It’s ridiculous that Cameron spent so much detail on beauty only to counter it with an incredibly basic “Humans bad – natives good” finale.
But what do I know? After all, audiences have nearly spent $1.5 billion to see Avatar. To most, for a film to do that on a global level, equals “good”. All I can say is I’m glad I got to see this for free. I’d probably be really mad if I had paid cash money to be pissed on by Cameron.
