James Camer-thon: A Review of "Avatar"

"Ok, I have the arrow pulled back. Where should I aim?"
"At that creature... the one just around the riverbend."
"Ok seriously, knock that shit off. I can smell a lawsuit."

Happy Friday, my fellow digitally-rendered blue cat-people. Sorry I missed a week, but I was busy with travel and work, and whatnot. The usual white collar excuses. Welcome back to James Camer-thon, and we're on the final two posts of this thon before we move on to other movies/shows. James Cameron sure has been a busy body when you look at his filmography once per week.

"You guys ever get the feelin you're being watched?"
"Jake, for the last time, we're cliché enough!"

After Titanic, James Cameron had pretty much conquered Hollywood. I mean he did everything. He made a funny-kind-of action movie, he had two of the best sequels ever made by mortal men under his belt, and he crafted an epic love story against a backdrop of a real-world tragedy and turned it into a $1.7 billion (at the time) and eleven-Oscar triumph. He ticked off any up-and-coming director's "to-do" list... so much so he took a TWELVE YEAR hiatus from directing after Titanic. He did some producing and documentary work, directing the documentary Ghosts of the Abyss after he did Titanic.  During August and September 2001, Cameron and a group of scientists staged an expedition to the wreck of the RMS Titanic and dived in Russian deep-submersibles to obtain more detailed images than anyone had before. Other than that, his filmography remained mostly blank until 2009. That's when a certain movie came out, the likes of which we hadn't seen before. It pushed the boundaries of motion capture animation! It re-designed how a world can be built inside of a computer! It brought us a rich, powerful world full of lore and awe-inspiring visuals! It... blatantly copied the story of Disney's Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves... but OOOOOOH look at the ten-foot, blue cat people! See how they jump! Run! FISH! FIGHT THINGS IN THE SKY!

"James! What look should I give Tsu'tey here?"
"Act like he's dancing with your girl at prom,
and you're stuck watching on the sideline!"

Yes whether or not you can tell already, Avatar isn't really my favorite work from James Cameron. I think it's his biggest ambition, easily. I think he gets credit with the vision and the scale of the setting, but again, it's a story done so many times already in different other forms and mediums that it easily answers the question of which one was Cameron's motive for making the movie; make it look pretty or make it break ground in storytelling again. Let's dive into the world of Pandora... *shudders* even the name is cliché... and dissect this very "blue" film. This is James Cameron's Avatar... a movie that teaches us if you're bound to a wheelchair and given a chance at ghosting your own race in exchange for working legs and sex with a chieftain's daughter, you DO IT no questions asked!

In 2154, the natural resources of the Earth have been depleted. The Resources Development Administration (RDA) mines the valuable mineral unobtanium on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Unobtanium, you say? Do they even obtain any? Or is it unobtainable? Eyoooo.... anyway. Pandora, whose atmosphere is inhospitable to humans, is inhabited by the Na'vi, ten-foot-tall (3.0 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids... which is a nice way to put "cat people"... that live in harmony with nature. To explore Pandora, genetically matched human scientists use Na'vi-human hybrids called "avatars." Paraplegic Marine Jake Sully (Same Worthington)... the "John Smith" of our story... is sent to Pandora to replace his deceased identical twin, who had signed up to be an operator. Avatar Program head Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) considers Sully inadequate but accepts him as a bodyguard.

"Does this pistol make my scars look BADASS?"

While escorting the avatars of Grace and Dr. Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), Jake's avatar is attacked by Pandoran wildlife, and he flees into the forest, where he is rescued by female Na'vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the Pocahontas of the film. Suspicious of Jake, she takes him to her clan (or tribe, right? Hahahaha... ok I'll shut up, you get the point). Neytiri's mother, Mo'at (CCH Pounder), the clan's spiritual leader, orders her daughter to initiate Jake into their society. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), head of RDA's security force, promises Jake that the company will restore the use of his legs if he provides information about the Na'vi and their gathering place, the giant Hometree, under which is a rich deposit of unobtanium. Learning of this, Grace transfers herself, Jake, and Norm to an outpost. Jake and Neytiri fall in love as Jake is initiated into the tribe. He and Neytiri choose each other as mates. When Jake attempts to disable a bulldozer threatening a sacred Na'vi site, Administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribsi, of all guys) orders Hometree destroyed. Despite Grace's argument that destroying Hometree could damage Pandora's biological neural network, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one hour to convince the Na'vi to evacuate before they do. Now we're dabbling in Ferngully too. Where's TIM CURRY when you need him? Oh wait... he was the bad guy. I guess that means we're relying on Christian Slater, friends.

"Neytiri, what were your dreams as a little girl?"
"To live in a world that could double for a kick-
ass Windows desktop background!"
"Wow. Mission accomplished, I'd say!"

Jake returns to the tribe and confesses that he was a spy. Obviously not liking that news, the Na'vi take him and Grace captive. Quaritch's soldiers destroy Hometree, killing many, including Neytiri's father, the clan chief (Our "Powhattan" of the--ok I get it, I get it). Mo'at frees Jake and Grace, but they are detached from their avatars and imprisoned by Quaritch's forces. Pilot Trudy Chacón (Michelle Rodriguez... fresh from her love affair with Dom Toretto), betrays Quaritch and airlifts Jake, Grace, and Norm to Grace's outpost. Grace is shot during the escape. Jake regains the Na'vi's trust by connecting his mind to that of Toruk, a dragon-like creature feared and revered by the Na'vi. Ah, conquering the unconquerable! A great way to convince people you're absolutely insane, much less an apology for lying to the girl you slept with and her entire family. At the sacred Tree of Souls, Jake pleads with Mo'at to heal Grace. The clan attempts to transfer Grace into her avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls, but she dies. Supported by new chief Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso)... our Kocoum of the--DAMMIT. Jake unites the clan, telling them to gather all the clans to battle the RDA. Quaritch organizes a strike against the Tree of Souls to demoralize the Na'vi. Jake prays to the Na'vi deity Eywa via a neural connection with the Tree of Souls. Tsu'tey and Trudy are among the battle's heavy casualties as the RDA lays waste to the entire region.

"Careful, Sigourney! Don't wig out on us!"
"No more puns, Corporal. This is my natural 'do!"
"Like it was in Galaxy Quest?!"

The Na'vi are rescued when Pandoran wildlife unexpectedly join the attack and overwhelm the humans, which Neytiri interprets as Eywa answering Jake's prayer. Quaritch, wearing an AMP suit, escapes his crashed aircraft and breaks open the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. As Jake's inner... uh... Jake, I guess... suffocates and as Quaritch prepares to slit Jake's avatar's throat, he is killed by Neytiri, who saves Jake from suffocation, seeing his human form for the first time. With the exceptions of Jake, Norm, and a select few others, all humans are expelled from Pandora. Jake is permanently transferred into his avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls... to begin his life anew with the tribe he now calls home.

So what did we learn from Avatar today? Well... first off, let's talk about what we've been talking about this entire time. The characters. They seem... stock, but fresh at the same time. I don't know how James Cameron does it, but like Jake Sully is your "Dances with Wolves" guy and while he doesn't just sing and dance like Kevin Costner, he does feel fresh in the sense that he's a handicapped Marine who's looking to prove himself over his deceased twin brother. Quaritch, the Governor Ratcliffe, is the one seeking to gain the natives' trust for ulterior motives. Like I was joking about this whole review, this movie is very Pocahontas, with elements of Dances with Wolves mixed in. It isn't apparent, it's abundantly apparent, especially in the story.

♫Some folks were born! MAAAADE to wave the flag!
OH, that Red, white, and blue!... and when the band played
HAAIL to the Chief...Ooh, they point the cannon at you!♫

Where Avatar shines is it's lore, setting, and worldbuilding. The idea of using what amount to video game skins to communicate and do business with creatures who look just like them, to me, is a very novel and creative concept. Like any good story with great world-building features, it sucks you right into the landscape and leaves you awe-inspired. I remember as December 2009 when the movie was released bled into Jan/Feb 2010, people were like "Yeah we've seen it two or three times already but if you haven't seen it in 3D or in IMAX, you haven't experienced it yet." I think during the whole "3D" phase from the late 2000s-early 2010s, this is one of the few movies that made great use of it. It's a gorgeous piece of visual cinematography, even if ninety-five percent of it was rendered in a computer. It looks magnificent, and it begs for a 4K release. Sidebar: I am noticing how James Cameron doesn't really release a lot of his movies in 4K. I think Terminator 2 is the only one so far, even Titanic hasn't gotten a 4K release yet.

In conclusion, Avatar is a film to be experienced. Visually? It's groundbreaking, it's awesome. The action is just what you'd expect and yet it's still a joy to sit through, in my opinion anyway. Story and characters, wise? It's pretty cliché, hum-drum, repeated, and recycled. Still, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but real cinephiles may not be as engaged as common moviegoers. Ones that can see storytelling trends a mile away because they've seen them countless other places... again, see above. I don't personally consider it one of James Cameron's best works, but I do enjoy watching it every now and again. Maybe just not as often as his other works we've already covered. I'd say give it a watch if you haven't, keep your expectations for a story that feels mired, but prepare to be visually dazzled!

Stay tuned, only one more post in James Camer-thon to go before we move on!