78) Avatar

Avatar (2009)

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, CCH Pounder


Tonight Turramurra Uniting Church held its second Reel Dialogue for the year. This time the film was James Cameron's super-epic Avatar.

In 2154, a mining corporation sets up on the far off moon of Pandora, a rich source of the very expensive mineral, unobtainium. Pandora is inhabited by and indigenous race called the Na'vi, so as well as the miners, a research team is present to learn about the Na'vi. Paraplegic ex-marine Jake Sully (Worthington) is brought to Pandora to join Dr. Grace Augustine's (Weaver) research team as a replacement for his murdered identical twin brother. Because he is genetically identical to his brother he is able to control his avatar, an organically grown Na'vi lookalike which can be controlled by their human drivers from the main base. While in his avatar, Jake meets Neytiri (Saldana), the princess of the Na'vis, who after a sign from their god Eywa is ordered to teach Jake about their way of life. The mining corporation has hired mercenaries, under the command of Col. Quaritch (Lang), to clear out the Na'vi people if the research team cannot encourage them to relocate peacefully. The more Jake learns about the Na'vi, the closer he becomes to Neytiri, and the nearer the mining corporations deadline draws, the more conflicted he becomes about just whose side he is on.

There is nothing original about the story that Cameron is telling. Avatar is Pocahontas (Exhibit A) is Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest is Dances with Wolves is The Last Samurai with a just a pinch of Return of the Jedi for taste. But despite its familiarity it is still a good story, and a story which enables Cameron to explore some interesting areas. For a film which, with all its bells and whistles and massive budget, looks on the surface like everything we think Hollywood is, it contains a very 'un-American' message. The film not only has a very strong environmental message but also a very strong cultural imperialism message, with Pandora's Na'vi seeming to represent every Indigenous people group ever to have been trampled by a Western power. While there is nothing subtle about the way in which Cameron gets his point across, the film has been criticised for being overly preachy, Avatar none the less leaves you with a lot to think about.

In a film which is full of less than brilliant performances, highlighted by Joel Moore's rubbishy character who seems to have no purpose other than exposition - 'Yes! We're going to the Floating Mountains! What's that you say? You've never heard of the Floating Mountains? Well let me explain...' (slightly paraphrased) - credit has to go to Zoe Saldana, who is brilliant as Neytiri. She puts in an amazingly powerful performance which really enables you to connect emotionally with a computer generated character.

Avatar has gone absolutely gangbusters at the box-office and now sits at the top of the pile as the highest grossing film of all time (although if you want to be a stickler you can cry foul about the influence of inflation on those lists. It is no coincidence that there are only three films in the top twenty that are pre-2000), but it really hasn't been a the pop culture phenomenon that you'd expect. The whole Avatar thing has given me an even greater appreciation for just how huge Star Wars was in 1977. There are obvious similarities between Avatar and Star Wars in terms of what they offered. Both were special effects driven, science fiction extravaganzas which offered cinema-goers something they'd never seen before. Both dealt with spiritual themes. Both were kind of lacking in terms of dialogue and performance. Yet Star Wars was an absolute pop culture phenomenon in a way that Avatar hasn't been. Avatar hasn't invaded the lexicon the way Star Wars did, you don't hear people talking about 'Eywa' the way they talk about 'the Force', and it's images don't seem to be quite as iconic. What is Avatar's light saber or Death Star or Millennium Falcon or Darth Vader? I just don't get the impression that Avatar is going to be a film that defines a generation like Star Wars was.

What I'd like to know is how did Sam Worthington suddenly become the must have man for action franchises? He's been around for a while and had carved himself out a decent niche in the Australian film industry, and then all of a sudden he manages to land not one, but three big time blockbusters in the space of two years. Terminator Salvation, Avatar and then Clash of the Titans. Now two of those movies may have sucked, but that doesn't alter the fact that they were three legitimate, big-big budget blockbusters. Whoever Sam Worthington's agent is, they are earning their money.

One last thought, James Cameron spent 15 years working on bringing Avatar to the screen and spent almost US$300 million. You'd think he could have devoted perhaps two minutes to thinking up a better name than 'unobtainium'. I mean, honestly, why not just call it 'hardtofindium'.

Avatar is not as good second time around, or maybe it is just not as good without the 3D, huge screen and digital surround sound of the cinema (Avatar is the one of only two films I've seen, the other being Coraline, which I think have benefited from being in 3D). That is not to say that it is not a good film, just that while the visuals are still impressive you don't get lost in them like you did at the cinema, and as a result some of the other areas where the film is obviously lacking - primarily in the dialogue and acting - come to the fore a bit more. It is still an amazing achievement and a great film, but will never be included in the canon of cinematic masterpieces, and a few months after the event I'm glad it didn't win the Best Picture Oscar because I don't think it deserved it.