Avatar Review

Nearly twelve years ago at the 70th annual Academy Awards Ceremony the great James Cameron proclaimed himself as King of the World at the Oscar pulpit (accepting his Oscar for best achievement in directing.) "Avatar" may not be his run for second term (but then again, you don't vote for kings do you?) but it’s still visually stunning and must see for movie geeks and general audiences alike.

Taking place in the year 2154 Avatar follows the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine who's brother was recently murdered. However, just before he was murdered he was apparently working on a project that involved creating alien bodies for humans to inhabit via machine. However, there is a problem, for each alien body, or avatar, there can be only one person (or genetic match) to inhabit it. Sully's brother being dead and all the closest genetic match for his brother's avatar is, well, Sully.

The original goal of the project was to create ambassadors to negotiate the alien people of Pandora, more commonly known as the Knahvi, into moving from their home, a giant tree, to another area. The reason for this is because there is a precious, and very profitable, resource cache that is, you guessed it, under their giant tree.

Once Sully is upon Pandora the film is quick to establish each characters role. Sigourney weaver plays the hard bitten, cynical scientist who is dubious of Sully's capability to be anything but trouble (after all, he can't even speak the Knahvi's language.) She inevitably favors her nerdy understudy who can speak the language near perfectly and possess a PhD, however both seem to lack some characteristic the Knahvi treasure, therefore they could never be anything but outsiders. But fear not, Sully is bound to possess it (after all his character would be truly useless without it.) There is a clichéd minor character that is not worth description and two antagonists. The first antagonist is a professional corporate big shot, played by Giovanni Ribisi, who seems to lack any sort of humanity that goes beyond the dollar. Stephen Lang sports a professional military pain-in-the-asshole who seems to be completely unconvinced of the scientists’ ability to negotiate with the Knahvi, it other words he thinks the best ambassador is well aimed bullet. Both characters seemed to be bent of robbing the planet of everything beautiful, almost too bent. While watching the two my mind couldn’t help but think about the corporations in the short-lived “Captain Planet” series that seemed to produce nothing but toxic waste. Granted the characters weren’t that arbitrary, but they were damn near it.

Everything the film lacks because of its unoriginal storyline and characters it makes up in storytelling and visual effects. Let me rephrase that, the visuals in this film are something to behold. There were moments where I could just let go of the movie geek inside of me and just enjoy the breathtaking vistas and kick-ass action. While walking out of the theater I noticed my father was missing, walking back into the auditorium to get him I noticed him scanning the credits. “What are you doing?” I asked him “Looking for where it was filmed” he replied. “It wasn’t filmed anywhere really, its all computer generated” I explained “Really!” his eyes lit up in surprise. Racking my mind I still cannot find a better way to describe the visuals other than “Really!”

When it comes down to it, Avatar isn’t anything too special but is still a good film. Hardened movie goers will be able to spot plot devices and story turns from a mile away. It pushes no envelopes beyond the visual effects spectrum and only reaffirms the obvious, that James Cameron is more of a storyteller than storywriter.