Great spectacle, mindlessly predictable plot

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2009)

Like Peter Jackson and George Lucas, James Cameron raises the level of technical achievement in film making in every movie he makes, and Avatar is no exception. We have set before us a digital masterpiece of beauty and spectacle, where the technology has once again surprised us, but the beauty and imagination of the artists behind it inspires us even more. Now, as before, much of the movie was green screened, but unlike before, it doesn't matter. When live actors are on the screen, they actually look less real than their surroundings. The idealized Na'vi are sacred, vivid, and real. Live actors are dimly lit, phony profanities in James Cameron's digital reality.
The central problem with the story is its appalling lack of originality. The plot, and moment after moment in this film, is ripped from previous movies with reckless abandon. No person who has seen such movies as Dances with Wolves, the Last Samurai, Pocahontas (Dis.) or any number of other movies should be surprised at any part of the story here. The plot is simply an excuse to string together a beautiful canvas of rich, detailed digital fantasy art. Soldiers are portrayed here either as self-hating pansies or narrow-minded bad asses. The Na'vi are portrayed as a race in perfect balance with the world around them, rather than as products of natural selection with their own defects. Count me as someone who wanted to see a story which had real characters with real people in them, or a twist in the story I didn't see coming. I have a few moral qualms with the story as well, which plays out not as a message about tolerance of differences or peaceful coexistence, but as a racist ballad where the sacred Na'vi have been perverted by contact with the infernal humans and it is the humans that need to be eradicated or exiled.
This is a movie you will want to see if eye-popping visuals and vivid detail at all appeal to you. But if you're looking for a compelling story that you haven't seen before, look elsewhere. As sci-fi, District 9 is a much better movie, and I would say even Star Trek has the edge on a compelling story line.