Movie Review: Avatar

Avatar is destined to become the gold standard by which all science fiction/fantasy movies are measured. Like Cameron’s The Abyss, The Terminator and Aliens, we are witness to images never seen before and trust me, you will be amazed. Although the story is not as compelling as the stories in those movies, the images and the landscapes make up for it (something I never thought possible). The gorgeous and talented Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, an ex-Marine who has lost the use of his legs in battle. The year is 2154 and all of the Earths natural resources have been depleted. The solution; a substance called “unobtainium” (I’m not sure how anyone said that without laughing). The problem; the only place it can be found is on the distant Pandora, the moon of the planet Polyphemus, 3.4 light-years away. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a very beautiful, very tall and very blue humanoid yet cat-like race who are beyond nature-loving. They are intricately connected to nature through their anatomy. It is just this type of storytelling James Cameron can pull off that makes him a genius and the self-proclaimed, “king of the world”. Remember, he is not just the director; he is the writer. The storyline is classic. The Na’vi have what our planet needs and we have come, with all our military might, to take it. The plan is to attempt a diplomatic solution first by infiltrating Pandora with Avatars; scientific creations masterminded by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). They are made from combining human DNA with the DNA of the Na’vi. The Avatar is synced to the human who’s DNA was used to create it allowing a type of telepathic control. A few carefully chosen humans have been selected. Jake is not one of them but a twist of fate creates an opening for him and with the promise of "getting his legs back", he jumps at the opportunity. The Avatars' job is to get to know these relatively peace-loving creatures and convince them to move. Needless to say, diplomacy fails and our big military guns - led by Col. Miles Quaritch (a very buff Stephen Lang) and Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), the brains and money monger of the operation - plow in and try to take what they want. The "understory" and compelling force in the movie is the romance that develops between Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saltana – Star Trek), the beautiful native who saves his life and ultimately trains him to be one of the Na'vi.
Motion Capture Technology is used to create the inhabitants of Pandora. My usual complaint with MCT is that it generates emotionless characters which is not the case here. On the contrary, the Na’vi as well as all the creatures of Pandora are full of expression and emotion. As a matter of fact, they show more emotion then the real life actors (with the exception of Worthington). This is a tremendous advancement in the technology (check out HBO on cable to see how this movie was made - amazing). And if you don’t think it can be sexy to watch two, blue, computer generated images with tails make love, think again.

I have heard endless comparisons of this movie to Dances With Wolves. For me, the movie that came to mind was The Last of the Mohicans. In fact, there is a scene stolen from it. But Cameron gets away with plenty in this movie because it is a visual masterpiece. Clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes the movie is too long but no one seems to mind. I did not see one person get up. Even more impressive, not one cell phone light went on; incredible considering the mean age in the theater. There is plenty of unnecessary voice-over but I'm gonna let it slide. Don’t miss it. See it in 3D in an IMAX theater.