Avatar

The majority of the most vocal critics of James Cameron's new film Avatar are focusing not on the high octane action, or the groundbreaking 3D visuals, or the breathtaking fully realized world of Pandora, but on the derivative, cliched, familiar and predictable story and plot.

And they are right.

Avatar is indeed a brilliantly realized film. It is visually stunning. I'm not afraid to say breathtaking. Much like the colorful artistry of Gone With The Wind, the photo-realistic sharpness of Citizen Kane or the revolutionary effects of Star Wars, Avatar has redefined visual storytelling. Like George Lucas before him, James Cameron literally invented the technology he needed to accurately bring to life the vision in his mind. And what a success it is. Gone are the days of video game like CGI hampering the cinematic experience. Cameron has essentially ended the days of your buddy in the seat next to you nudging you to let you know every time he sees crappy CGI and saying "dude, look how fake that looks!". Bad CGI in mainstream movies is now unacceptable. Visually, Avatar is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece.

Cameron has historically been able to balance stunning visuals with interesting, unique, well told stories. Terminator, Terminator 2, True Lies and even Titanic told stories that were original and well done. Structurally, Avatar is well done. Yes it is long, but all of Cameron's movies are long. He needed and wanted time to introduce Pandora and the Na'vi. He lingers on little details of the world and its people so you get to know them. Things like Jake hitting the phosphorescent plants to see them light up allows us time to learn the planet with him and share in the awe and wonder. However the story here is derivative and predictable. {minor Spoilers Ahead} You kinda know right off the bat Colonel Quaritch, the tough as nails marine leader of the military efforts on Pandora played by Stephen Lang, and Jake played by Sam Worthington are going to come to blows. You know who is going to fall in love and you know who is probably going to die. Although I was surprised at some of those who died and some who lived, but I think Cameron intentionally did some of those to try and break away a bit from the otherwise predictable and familiar plot.

And what a familiar plot it is. Anyone who has seen Disney's 1995 film Pocahontas will instantly recognize the story. I think Cameron may have intentionally chosen a simple archetypal story to try and legitimize his movie has a potentially timeless feeling classic. He knew he was breaking ground visually, and perhaps the thought was by telling a simple, familiar story would lend a timeless feel to the film. And in some ways that can and does work here a bit. Archetypal stories are that way because of the very timeless nature of the story. Thats why certain stories persist, become a part of our engrained collective consciousness. And that's why storytellers continue to go back to them. Avatar's similarities with Pocahontas are many. From the obvious, Jake Sully being John Smith the adventurer come to a new world and finds more than he was looking for; to Neytiri being Pocahontas the curious and strong native girl whose faith in her spirituality help her find love and bridge the cavern between the two cultures. Selfridge played by Giovanni Ribisi is Governor Ratcliff, the leader come to the new world to obtain its precious metal no matter what. Both films have the powerful father figure as the tribe's leader, both have the betrothed male figure who conflicts with the newcominer in the male lead. Hell, they both even have talking, living trees at the center of the native culture's spirituality and village. Even the flow and the beats of each film are the same. The only real differences are Pocahontas is occasionally broken up with songs and humor where Avatar is occasionally broken up with fantastic battles.

The other aspects of the film are fine and serve Cameron's vision well. The acting is fine, the film is emotionally engaging when it needs to be. The hallmark centerpieces of a James Cameron film; strong female characters and compelling, interesting powerful technology are both present and accounted for. The music is surprisingly ineffective here, mostly pleasant and forgettable background music from composer James Horner a change from the usually powerful and prominent music in other Cameron films like Terminator or Titanic. From an overall filmmaking perspective it is a strong film exactly what you would expect from a master filmmaker. Cameron also displays his confidence as a filmaker and seemingly acknowledges other filmmakers styles and ideas. The similarity between the definition of the interconnected spirituality of Pandora and The Force and the military style zooms during the battles and the cryo-ship at the beginning come to mind as possible tips of the hat to Lucas, Spielberg and Kubrick respectively. I think Cameron even has a sense of self awareness throwing the audience a reference to his own Aliens with the design of some of the creatures and the large walking military vehicles.

Despite the shortcomings in the originality of the story and plot, it is a well told story and the pace and flow are right and overall it is a great ride. I really like Avatar and recommend you see it in the theatre. It is one of those films that demands to bee seen on the big screen. I am sure I will go see it again and honestly will likely never watch it at home. The experience, the largeness, the epic scope of the visual story is likely to be lost on even the largest and loudest home theatre.