Lost in a Land of Blue People: Avatar, what the hell?

I did it!  I finally saw Avatar.

I've heard a wide range of opinions on this movie; from it sucked - to - I wish I could afford to have surgery so I could look like cat people.  After hearing so much about it I had a pretty good idea of what to expect:  Incredible special effects with a relatively generic but entertaining story.  

I was mostly right.

Let me just say first that I can completely see how this movie would have been amazing to see in IMAX 3D.  It had lush visual effects, fantastic sound production (the unsung effect), and James Cameron clearly knew what he was doing when he made sure nearly every action sequence involved a significant amount of flying or falling.

Yeah, this does look good. $12 good though? Eh.

BUT!

When people told me the movie's plot was cliche, wow, they weren't kidding.  Outside of the visual presentation I don't think there was a single original thing in this movie.  I've heard a lot of comparisons to Dances with Wolves but, to be honest, that's more than this movie deserves.

Everything involving story in this film is familiar and for a movie that pushes 3 hours (and feels longer) there isn't a whole lot of character growth.  "Oh, what?  But the Jake learns to love the Na'vi and goes from a cold hearted marine to one of them!  How is that not growth!?"

Easy there, dorks.  Sure, Jake does eventually (officially) join the side of the Na'vi, but he's never really ever against them.  Right from the get go, he is a blank slate waiting for something to give his life direction.  So joining this new and exciting world of the cat people makes complete sense for him.  It would have been different (and far more interesting) if he actually had something invested in kicking the Na'vi out and helping the company or the Colonel, but he's pretty much on the side of the Na'vi from the second he meets them.  Boring.

In fact, that's pretty much the deal with every character in this movie.  You can tell every character's arc almost as soon as they are established.  There are no twists, no surprises, nothing original.  It is so bad that you could spend 10 minutes in the bathroom, come back, ask someone what happened, and all they'd have to do is tell you where the scene took place and what characters were there.  Without even beginning to talk about the actual content you would know what happened.

Whose fault is this?  Well, Sam Worthington is about as charismatic as a brown rock, so there is that obstacle.  But even talented actors like Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi (Pretty much, playing a carbon copy of Burke from Aliens... only less weasely.  Once again, boring) don't get much to do.  

The real problem is the way the movie was made.  I suspect Cameron and the entire production team spent so much time everything looked so good they never really focused on the story and the actors are so busy running around and jumping off things they never get a chance to do any acting.  Putting effects first isn't an uncommon choice in action movies, but it really doesn't work when all you have to go on are a bunch of flat one-liners.

A good contrast here, actually, is Cameron's Aliens.  

Game over, James.

Aliens is widely considered one of the greatest sci-fi action films ever yet you are over an hour into the movie before a single gun is fired or you see any aliens.  This first hour is spent with the characters interacting with one another.  Building dynamics and establishing relationships.  By the time they start getting attacked you really care about them because of that first hour.  Even more generic characters like Hudson (Bill Paxton) are fun because he is well written and Paxton actually gets a chance to make the character his own.  It would have been nice if this same approach had been used in Avatar, but Cameron and everyone else was simply too excited to put the 3D glasses on.

It might be a little unfair of me to compare it so closely with Aliens.  For one thing, Aliens had the major advantage of being a sequel, so right off the audience knows what Ripley's deal is and her entire character's conflict can hit the ground running with virtually no exposition.

And in all frankness, action movies just aren't made the way Aliens was.  Good luck to you if you think you could get a major movie studio to produce an action movie that doesn't have any action in it for the first hour and has long stretches in its second act where characters sit around talking and doing things that don't involve shouting "Go, go, go!".

In case you were unaware, it is basically a law of screenwriting that action movies must have an action sequence every 15 pages (approx. every 15 minutes).  Avatar is pretty faithful to this model, which is alright, but it also is just one more thing about it that is by the book.

I guess that's what I didn't really like about this movie, the plot only serves to decorate the incredible effects, when it should be the other way around.  You can watch the trailer and know not only everything that happens in the movie but also what every character's motivation is going to be and what they're going to do to try and get it.

It is interesting to see what a huge phenomenon this movie became.  Red Letter Media broke down the commercial genius of it all.  But now that it's off the big screen, I don't know if these tricks are going to hold up.

I've heard some people try to defend Avatar by saying people like me expect too much of it.  Sorry, but I think a movie that made a zillion dollars should be better than "okay."

Avatar in the living room just comes off as a pretty nice looking, cliche'd, generic, overlong (a common failing of many of Cameron's movies) action movie.

Yup, Avatar, a little late on the wagon, but you're overrated.

Comments

[Africanlegend]

I think it is a VERY ordinary movie. I don't believe in movie being held in the highest of estime simply due to its special effects. The Matrix revolutionized special effects the time it came out but its plot was far from trite and mediocre. I mean I am not a 2 year old bright flashing lights, shiny things and 3D aren't enough. 5 hours into it I was very bored and feeling lit genius because the outcome was so transparent the whole way. To put it lightly it was like watching a cartoon with a very formulaic feel to it.

B- movie at best...

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