Movie Review: Avatar

I at first was afraid to go and see James Cameron’s latest, Avatar. Sometimes a movie with a lot of hype can be destroyed under it’s own marketing fury. No amount of shouting from the rooftops did Snakes On A Plane any good. I expected feeling that same disappointed feeling as I wandered into the theater to with my 3D glasses (There is a standard edition being screened, as well as a 3D edition).

Aside from the Star Trek film that came out earlier this year, no other film captured my attention enough to really make me go to the theater and not come out embarrassed. Avatar, which clocks in at two hours and forty minutes (almost three hours), not only made me feel good about spending the money I busted my butt for, but made me believe that creativity in Hollywood wasn’t completely dead. Granted, this is coming from a director who since Titanic technically didn’t have to make another film.

I believe that the 1997 film’s success scared him a bit. It had to. Even before it was released, some critics were ready to lambast it as one of the worst movies ever and one of the most expensive movies to ever flop at the box office. Luckily thanks to the young girls of America and the power of Celine Dion’s throat, Cameron proved the critics wrong.

I didn’t care all that much for Titanic myself. Watching it however, it is clear that Cameron clearly had a vision of what he wanted, even if some of his clunky attempts at romance derailed the awesomeness of his setting. Avatar showcases a more confident and bolder James Cameron, especially when it comes to the amount of computer technology that was pumped into this film. The plot is largely told in some part as a documentary from the perspective of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paralyzed U.S. Marine who is selected into a project known as Avatar due to the fact his brother (who looks similar to him and had a hand in the project) was killed.

The project is a means to be able to understand and examine the Na’vi, the native race that dominates the planet of Pandora, which the humans from Earth want to explore to take materials for to fix up the earth. In order for this project to work, Avatars, which are essentially human-Na’vi hybrids have been created in order for a select few to go in and integrate themselves into the culture in order to gain more access to the materials of the planet.

The essentials of how an Avatar works are easy to understand. A human essentially links to the Avatar and is put inside the body of the Avatar until the link is broken. When that happens, the Avatar will shut down and the human will return to his own body.

Sully, being more of a solider than a scientist and because his Avatar is similar in apperance to his brother (and Jake himself), is more handy to Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), head of the SecFor company (which is paying for the project) for the purpose of finding the materials. Because he has never had any experience with the planet, or it’s people, he works alongside Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), a tough botanist who is suspicious of the inclusion of Sully and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) who is something of the Nav’vi nerd of the whole operation.

Each time he returns back from his visits with the Na’vi, he records a video blog detailing his experiences and of his own changing feelings about the people. He also, behind Grace and Norm’s back, reports to Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) a colonel who works for SecFor with the expressed interest of containing the planet, for the sake of SecFor, and ravaging it’s materials.

In his adventures as a Na’vi, Jake begins to fall in love with Neytiri (Zoe Salanda) who is a fierce, but feminine warrior and a princess of a Na’vi tribe. After being separated from Grace and Norm (who also become Avatars for the project), a large part of Jake’s education comes from his encounters with Neytiri. Eventually she introduces Jake to the rest of the tribe she comes from, which is headed by Eytucan (Wes Studi) and Mo’at (C.C.H Pounder) who are also father and mother to Neytiri and her brother Tsu’Tey, (Laz Alonso) who isn’t too fond of Jake’s presence, or his affections for his sister.

Eventually it becomes clear to Jake that he is more of a Na’vi and less of the human he’s been for most of his life. His secret obligation however to Colonel Quaritch, in exchange for the ability to walk again, threatens to destroy the very planet, and the people, that he has become connected too. You can pretty much predict which side he goes for and how it will end, but the journey is more important than the destination in Avatar’s case.

Do you remember the last time you came out of a movie not only blown away by what was happening on the screen, but emotionally touched as well? I can’t really say. As much as I liked the last Star Trek film, my reaction to that was can't even compare to the one I had for Avatar (even thou the former was a very good film). Avatar, even thou it’s a CGI story, held a spiritual connection with me. I would even say that this is like going to church or listening to a powerful opera.

People like Michael Bay love technology, but seemingly hate to tell a good story. His Transformers in the first two films, which was also heavy on the CGI, didn’t connect with me. For a seemingly legendary cartoon (and toy line) of the 1980’s, he stuck on stupid by forcing audiences to follow the drab likes of Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox, rather than the awesome Autobots. That seemed to continue with the sequel and will probably continue with every other film he remakes.

As of right now, the numbers are climbing. Word of mouth, however old school it may be, still works when it comes to selling a film (or a tv show). It will take a while for the film's sizeable budget to be paid back. Rest assured, I believe it will make that and more. Will it do Titanic numbers? Time will tell.

Initially when the film came out in midnight screenings, studio executives were looking for Avatar to gain Twilight/Dark Knight kind of numbers. The film only managed to get $3.5 million in that regard. It’s a shame too, but not totally unexpected. This is not connected to a comic book character, or a television series, or a bestselling book. This is, wait for it, an original idea.

Naysayers are going to tell me it’s not.

Well, okay, it does borrow from some of Cameron’s previous work and perhaps is influenced by Star Wars. Still, Avatar’s inspirations don’t feel like complete tag ons. Every filmmaker, every writer, anyone creative almost always looks for some inspiration somewhere. It is said that Billy Wilder took a small little scene from Brief Encounter and made his own film from it, The Apartment. Instead of trying to recreate the inspiration into a mere clone of itself, you make a completely different picture.

All of the actors, especially Zoe Salanda, shine in this picture. I don’t know if she does any sort of combat training or not, but I was convinced that in a very dark alley against some thugs, she could seriously kick some ass. I’ve heard people complain that, like Thandie Newton, her figure is just too thin. Screw that. Salanda is fire, even covered in blue with computer animation.

Avatar’s musical score is also excellent. Here James Horner, who also scored Titanic, seemed to tone down the volume and give a musical sound that allows you to look with your eyes as well as your ears at the film. The former film, while also good in it’s own right, could have probably used the same style.

Mauro Fiore’s cinematography is the work of magic. Even in the scenes were the helicopters are merely surveying the Pandora landscape, Fiore makes sure that we get the full scope of lushness and orgasmic sights of the planet. Especially in 3D, it feels like you are on the actual planet. Check the scene, if you watch the 3D version, where you see all of the “Jellyfish” like creatures drop down from the sky and surround Jake in one of the earlier scenes in the film. It’s ecstasy.

The romance between Jake Sully and Neytiri in Avatar seems a lot less forced than that of the romance in Titanic. I believe that the nervousness that was there in Titanic’s script isn’t there at all in the script of Avatar. Therefore, the relationship feels more complete.

As a black man there are the usual claims from my side of the street that this film, however brilliant, is racist and portrays white people as the heroes of the ignorant and backwards black race (which the Na’vi are allegedly to represent). As much as the subject of color matters in America, especially these days with Barack Obama in office, it is impossible not to look at Hollywood films with a microscope and find things that put other cultures in a box. That being said I’d rather deal with the Afro-centric like world of Avatar where another culture is treated with character depth, than deal with the hammy and stereotypical offerings of Tyler Perry.

Does my excitement about this film as a black man mean that I am kissing up to white people because they are supposedly superior? Hell no. Good films are good films. Yes, there are times where black films get overlooked merely because of the fact black people are in it. On the other hand if what you make is good, everyone from all cultures will enjoy it. Finding out that Bob Newhart is a fan of Richard Pryor, even thou they were comedians with different styles, speaks to me of this possibility.

The insane push for nothing but sequels, adaptations and remakes has made it clear Hollywood is looking to avoid risks. This may have always been the case in the land of the beautiful people, but it’s clear even now as people drive furiously to the universe known as “reality” television. Avatar makes me proud to be a geek, proud to love film and proud to have a soul.

I seriously hope this film means that film directors, writers and anyone involved in making any kind of art can get back to the business of making art rather than a dollar. Take a risk. Don’t just take a risk in the form of being “dark” for the sake of “dark”. Make me want to see your film, not some dark corner of your mind in the place of the story. I’m not saying there is no place for a film where the ending is not as uplifting, but don’t make me wanna kill myself. I already have that feeling by looking around me and watching the headlines on the news (on the Internet, not TV).

I hope James Cameron does a sequel to Avatar. Apparently it is being planned. I’m sure that’s not the first thing on his mind. The first Terminator movie came out in 1984, the second came out in 1991. I’m pretty sure we’ll have to wait that long for the sequel, if there is one. On the other hand if the public never gets to see Pandora again, at least we of this lost generation can say that we saw an awesome piece of art.

You can’t get that kind of art, that kind of emotional pull, that kind of spiritual reawakening from the likes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, nor Jersey Shore. Let’s support real films and real television, big scale or small scale that dare to be original, screw the Twilight's, the Harry Potter's and all other franchises.

Avatar is king.