The 3D visuals and cinematic quality alone are not enough to justify the hefty price of admission expected by cinemas these days

Rating: 5/10 (16 December 2009)

In the future, a wheelchair bound marine named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) reveals how his brother, who was a scientist, was killed. It is because of this death and the fact that they share the same DNA that Jake is asked by his military employers to operate his brother's avatar, a virtual body that is controlled by a person's mind. Jake is sent by a group of scientists, including the reluctant Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), to investigate the island of Pandora, which holds valuable minerals that need to be researched. Yet in regaining the use of his legs through the alien-like body of the avatar, Jake is careless and becomes separated from the rest of the science team. Stranded, he is rescued from wild monsters by a native girl, Neytiri (voiced by Zoe Saldana), who resembles the same avatar employed by Jake and the scientists. Hesitantly, she introduces Jake's avatar to the rest of her tribe. They are initially hostile to Jake's avatar but he convinces them not to kill him, and he comes to understand their customs more thoroughly.
Director James Cameron has always been a filmmaker interested in spectacle. His most famous feature film Titanic, was made over a decade ago and was praised more for its technical accomplishments, rather than its scripting accomplishments. Avatar, which has accumulated significant levels of hype over its lengthy production, because of its apparent specialisation in 3D technology, is likely to follow suit. As with Titanic, this is a visually magnificent production, with a budget soaring into hundreds of millions. The 3D visuals as a whole are outstanding. The rich variety of locations, from cliff faces to thick green forests, mountain ranges and military bases, are lavishly beautiful and command to be seen on the silver screen. The lighting, in particular a forest lit with neon lights, is simply beautiful, as too is the smooth animation of the avatars themselves. Cameron's strength as a director has always lain with visuals effects and the technology. It is a quality he demonstrates most thoroughly with this film. However, despite the spectacle, some might be disappointed with the 3D technology itself. Unlike other pictures such as A Christmas Carol, Avatar opts for more subtle refinements to the visuals, like occasional glimpses of added depth to the picture, rather than launching objects and gesture towards the audience. Avatar is slightly more immediate and sharper than a standard 2D picture, but its 3D technology might not be quite as obvious and satisfying as some might have been expecting.
For all of its aesthetic qualities, Avatar is highly marred by a script that is highly formulaic, recycled and severely lacking in intellect or depth. This is yet another big budget action film with a narrative devoid of interesting or sympathetic characters. Sam Worthington has a fairly unremarkable and unchallenging role as Jake, who simply doesn't have enough to do in the film. He is completely outdone by the avatar that he voices, who features in all the action scenes. Michelle Rodriguez has again found herself cast as the typical hardened girl, while Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang both have painfully obvious roles as the films typical baddies. At least Zoe Saldana has some emotion in voicing Neytiri but these are not so much fully fleshed out characters as caricatures and archetypes that only develop in the most formulaic way. The film's dialogue, written by Cameron, ranges from merely serviceable to outright poor and no matter how much the sweeping music score would like to arouse emotion in the audience, it is difficult to care about these characters. More frustrating is how rapidly the film becomes predictable because of the number of elements recycled from other films. Once Jake is taken in by the natives it is highly obvious as to what will happen and who he will rally against. Slow motion jumps for cover, exploding spaceships, last second death requests and a forbidden romance, are just some of the clichés that are used throughout a very insubstantial script. Any ethics or moral ambiguities that could have been derived from the obvious allusions to Native Americans and Colonialism are diminished because of the cartoon division between purely good and simply evil. Given that it has been over a decade since Cameron's last big budget feature film, a lot more was expected from the narrative and the array of talent here deserved far better.
In spite of its failings, Avatar will attract and impress computer game enthusiasts who will see the film purely for its outstanding visuals and the action which unravels on the grandest scale. For those that are expecting something far more intelligent and substantial, this will seem like a formulaic and predictable action movie, given the various problems with the script, the over length and the largely wasted cast. The 3D visuals and cinematic quality alone are not enough to justify the hefty price of admission expected by cinemas these days.