James Cameron's Avatar reviewed

While anyone who knows me knows that I’m not shy about offering my opinion concerning, well, anything. But rarely am I motivated enough to actually write a review of most things. Two exceptions, particularly on this blog were the last Guns N’ Roses album (simply because that band was so great a part of my generation’s pop culture) and the animated film Nocturna.

I’ve always felt that reviewing or critiquing something falls in one of 3 categories; a) groveling proselytizing, where you unabashedly ooze over something that someone does, b) shameless tomato throwing, where one feels they are raising the warning fire and that all the villagers need to get the hell out of town or c) (closely related to b) the self indulgent opportunity to try to make your opinion more important than what it is. Usually those reviews fall into the pace of trying to existentially disassemble (more like dismember) someone’s work in the most patronizing way possible.

There’s a reason we all hate critics. And by the same note this reveals that there’s no reason creators should fear them. They are either sycophants or jealous. That’s not to say that one shouldn't pooh-pooh something when it actually does stink (the first Twilight movie), but good or not, the reality is the creators actually did something. Which is more than most critics ever do. And while I will revile in the most colorful, insightful way that I can when I dislike it, the reality is, if I could do it I should do it and let some other overly bitter sonuvabitch write about what I’ve done.

So it is in that spirit that I approach my review of AVATAR. There are a few reasons I chose to actually voice an opinion on this beyond the exchange that took place on the car ride home from the theater. Primarily this is (like the Guns N Roses album) the first offering from one of my favorite creators in a LOOOOOONG time. 12 years since his last feature film (Titanic) if you don’t consider his pseudo-documentaries Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep. James Cameron is one of my favorite filmmakers because he came into the game later in his life than most, and he’s abrasively focused on making something good. (I won’t go into all the horror stories that people tell about working with that damn Jim Cameron, but feast your eyes on the screen at AVATAR then tell them to stop belly aching.) Another reason I chose to pipe in on this movie was because it has succeeded where so many other similarly themed films have failed.

Be warned now, there are spoilers here. If you don’t want to know them then stop reading now. If you go on, then you own your own ruin.

The basic story/premise of AVATAR is nothing new or original, and in fact it’s actually a very simple one. How many times have we heard the story of industrialized militant capitalists encroaching on a virgin land, only to face the aboriginal noble savage and violate their sacred lands? Sound familiar? What about a story of how important it is to save the environment because it’s precious and entwined with all living things? Nope, not so original. And my favorite “White Guys are Cool”, in which some cocky rogue white dude rolls in to a completely foreign element to become the best of that element possible (i.e. Karate Kid, The Last Samurai, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and so on). Our hero, through the means of a test tube grown surrogate infiltrates and becomes the best Giant Blue Kitty ever! In spite of the fact that he has 5 fingers instead of 4. At any rate, this is also cliché. So if this story and premise really isn’t all that original then why is this movie good? For the answer to that question I have to hearken back to the sage words of one of my mentors; Karl Gnass.

“It’s not the story you tell, but how you tell it.”

You may have the most original, mind blowing over analyzed, in depth story ever, but if you can’t tell it then it’s worthless. And as Joseph Campbell would tell you, if you tell the same story that’s been told since time began, but tell it in a new original and unique way, it will resonate with its audience. This is the case with AVATAR. It’s not the story being told, but the telling which makes this so good.

Let me get a few things out of the way. I hate self loathing capitalists or industrialists. I hate self loathing anything, but this is a dangerous thing in today’s political landscape to say. The idea that we should hate ourselves because of our military strength, or technological advancement or our industrialization is just stupid and offensive. I will never walk out of a theater where a film is telling me to save the planet, embrace my animal friends and bury my guns without then going to my gas guzzling car, turning up my rock and roll and forgetting that you preached to me. And if I’m lucky, I’ll avoid a drive-by shooting or, heaven forbid, run over a cat on the way home. Now that that’s off my chest, let’s talk about a good movie.

I said that the strength of this movie hangs on the way it’s told, not what is told, and that’s how I can swallow that entire self loathing hippy mandate. So what makes this film well told? Primarily Mr. Cameron and the studio are banking on the technology, clearly. This movie cost a fortune to make. I’ve heard somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million. And that technology is on display in two primary ways. At center stage is the way one SHOULD view this film. And that’s in digital projected 3D. This is the first major live action (that’s a loose statement) movie that’s been filmed to be projected in 3d. Before Avatar movies were filmed digitally and translated to 3d for viewing it’s not the same. They did this by filming a movie (like The Dark Knight) and then extract elements from the image and essentially ‘paste’ them onto cards in a 3D space. Then they would re-render the film offsetting the plates to be viewed in 3D. The effect worked nicely, but sometimes you could tell the elements were flat. This film however was filmed with two lenses (mimicking the binocular vision of the human eye) and you not only see the planer parallax but you actually see the bend and contour of objects. The first shot you see in Avatar is of Sam Worthington opening his eye in extreme close up, where you only see the bridge of his nose, a bit of his brow and his eye furthest from the camera. But you see extreme depth of field and the landscape of his facial features rolling back away from the camera. The next shot is one of a long corridor in the interior of a spacecraft lined with cryogenic chambers with people floating in zero gravity, all a treat to your depth sensory. And from that moment on you are treated to extremely rich Z-depth experiences for nearly 3 hours. You’ve done it Mr. Cameron it is incredible. And at this point I loath the idea of watching it in 2D, and know that when I purchase your super duper Blu-ray that that’s exactly how I’ll have to watch it.

The next aspect of technology is primarily credited to the actual animation and effects of the film. Not since the Two Towers have we seen such well developed character animation. These characters never once felt like Jar Jar Binks to me. The characters never felt like cartoons to me. They felt real, breathing and fleshy. As an experienced animator I found myself in moments thinking “wow, how did they do that?” (especially pulling off that kiss) or “wow they actually took time to do that!” And Zoe Saldana’s performance was perfectly portrayed in Neytiri. This is just as much credit to her animators and TD’s as it was to the direction and performance of the actor. I want that statement to be clear because Andy Serkis got so much credit for Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, when some of my friends worked damn hard to make sure that character was what he was. ILM and Weta Digital really hit a home run and raised the bar on this one.

As far as the actual look and feel of the world, it’s nothing extremely new. Floating landmasses, reptilian spinoff fauna, etc. That’s all been done in fantasy books/paintings, Video Games and yes, even Star Wars. But while the concepts aren’t truly original, it’s not what you’re telling but how you tell it. In this case the actual makeup of Pandora isn’t original, but Cameron uses the camera and the cinematography to take advantage of the 3D technology and infuse you into that world instead of just looking at it as if it’s a gallery piece. And this brings me to why this unoriginal story works, where other similar attempts at this subject matter have failed before. The whole backbone of the story rests on the idea that this characters wants to become part of this world. Wants to live IN this world. As the audience we experience what it means to be IN this world. In the begining the Colonel is spouting how dangerous and scary what lies beyond the fence is. But through the eyes of Jake we see what it means to be a part of that scary, dangerous world instead of a victim of it.

So many attempts to tackle the issue of preserving the environment or forgoing our capitalist ventures in favor of a nobler understanding have fallen flat simply because they never actually sell you on the idea that it’s something worth saving. The grossest example I can give was Disney’s ATLANTIS. If you watch it after you watch AVATAR you’ll see many identical themes including White Guys are Cool (awriiiiight!). But Atlantis never made case successfully that neither Atlantis nor its inhabitants were worth more than the power that the military wanted to take from it. In fact the people of Atlantis were so degenerated that they couldn’t even remember their own written language! One could reason that the power they had would be dangerous is their hands!

This is my biggest concern about these types of movies, you have to sell me on it. I have to believe that this world is so valuable, that the main character would WANT to be a part of that world more than a part of what he’s always known. In one particular scene the lead tells his CO and the Executive type that the people would be worth more as allies than exterminated. We never see why or he never made the case beyond that statement to the rest of the cast. Showing me some pretty birds or some glowing mushrooms isn’t going to do it. It has to be something deeper than visual fanfare that make you ooooh and aah. I have to, as an audience member, want the native world more than the interloping human’s world. Especially since these interlopers look so similar to the ones I was cheering for in ALIENS. You’re now asking me to turn against the same rifle jockies, with their hardware and attitudes, that I was cheering for in that film. Give me a good damn reason.

Apparently for our hero a hot blue kitten is reason enough, and to be honest for me it would be too. This is illustrated in a scene after Jake and Neytiri have a falling out. She finds out that his original mission was infiltration to the end that he would uproot her and her world. She is understandably upset by this and he pleads to her saying that that was BEFORE he came to love the world, her people, her. The main character is OUR Avatar. He is our representative into this story and experience. We have to identify with him and believe in him and his motives. And on this point I think the movie sort of came short. The choice that Jake finally makes doesn’t seem to be hard for him. We don’t see him struggle over whether or not he should choose a blue girlfriend over walking again and having a normal human life. To me that’s very important. It’s very human to be torn between what we knew, and what’s ahead of us. Something that shows we’re willing or we think we’re willing to take that leap of faith. In this case off a floating mountain, on the back of a flying lizard or into the trampoline of foliage that is Pandora. I fell in Love with Neytiri. I love her. She was so real to me as a viewer. And in the name of that love, she needs to be saved. Her family needs to be saved, her home needs to be saved. So I think that Cameron really sold me on this world being saved. He did a good job of showing us that everything is connected, and in some ways species of Pandora mutually benefitted from a literal connection via frilly phalanges like appendages. The human scientists are connected to their Avatars. The N’avi are connected to their horses and their birds. They are connected to their ancestor trees. They are connected to each other. Cameron missed the chance to show this with the pseudo-sex scene between our two leads. He should have shown their Braid-things intertwining to show that bond. So close mate. Another scene where that would have been a useful vehicle would be when he finally shoots that game animal with his bow. He recited some rote prayer to the animal thanking him for his life blah blah blah. Which she immediately follows with something to the tune of “you know how to pray to our animals you’re ready to be one of us”. What could have been more effective is if they approached the dying animal saying his rote prayer and sounding like it’s a flatly rehearsed saying with no weight and before he can thrust in the final merciful blow, she stays his hand and says something like “you don’t really mean it because you don’t understand him white guy!” then she grabs his braid and connects it to the dying animal and he ‘feels’ the animal and relates to him and then says the prayer and means it. That’s probably the only two things I’d really change in the movie if I could.

So what’s at stake here? Well we know and love Pandora now, so that’s at stake for our heroes. But what about our villains? In this, Cameron creates my new favorite MacGuffin: the Satirical UNOBTAINIUM. It’s apparently some kind of mineral that we have no idea what it’s for. Is it fuel? Is it a precious metal for vanity? We don’t know and frankly we don’t care. In this modern world we understand that we have no problem going to war for resources. So there’s the conflict. And it works and it’s believable. And you do NOT want the humans to obtain UNOBTAINIUM. There are many more facets that could be added to sell this, but it’s not necessary.

My only other semi-intelligent insight to this movie would be concerning the relationship of Neytiri and her outsider white guy. After her home is destroyed she is pissed and dumps him. I’m using over simplistic language because what I’m about to present is only in the subtext and needs to be brought to the light bluntly and to the chagrin of nerds everywhere. At this point in the story she’s written him off as a jerk that has no place in her anymore. That is, until he rides back to town on the biggest bird in town. When he arrives there’s a shot where she looks at him on the big red bird and her eyes dilate like he’s the hottest thing in the world. Thus once again fortifying the idea that as long as you’re the owner of the biggest cock the girl is eternally forgiving of how much damage you bring to her life, family and home. I know this sounds a bit flippant and humorous but it’s a true statement. (White Guys are COOL, especially when they are well endowed).

That aside, the story was predictable and cliché, but so well told that you can’t help but love it, especially in 3D. Cameron is a master of his craft, he’s a master of his language and he’s a master of talking to his audience. Thank you James for making this film, I’ll gladly give you my money for a chance to ride your big red bird again.