James Cameron's Mockery of WALT Disney Movies !

Rating: 3/10 (29 December 2009)

First of all I am a great fan of James Cameron, and I went to see this movie with great expectation. But very sorry to say that, what I got was a total pathetic version of mediocre VFX-LOVE-DRAMA-STRUGGLE movie.
When I am writing this comment, all those great memories coming into my mind, that first Script Treatment for Avatar I read from the Internet years ago. All those images and there happenings in the script envisioned, went totally upside down when it was finally filmed.
Set in the future 2154 the story starts with a man named Jake Sully a paraplegic former marine, who lost his twin brother and arrives on planet/moon Pandora to replace his brother's assignment in the Avatar program. What is an Avatar? Basically the term taken from Hindu Religion which means incarnation of one of the Hindu Gods taking a flesh form. But in the movie it stands for injecting a human's intelligence into another remotely located biological body.
IE, On Pandora the superior life forms (much like humans) are called Na'vis very tall, lean, blue skinned, big eyed creatures with tails. Since humans cannot breathe Pandora's atmosphere, scientists have created human-na'vi hybrid bodies called Avatars. So they may easily interact with the na'vi and na'vi address them as Dream-walkers.Things went wrong when Jake took his Avatar form in a much more emotional level.
As a VFX student/artist myself, yes Cameron done a great work. It's the first time the Notorious "Uncanny Valley" effect (A viewer intelligence to find unrealistic human characteristics in a CGI Object)failed in the big Screen. The VFX characters never looked so realistic or more precisely looked "PEOPLE in BLUE RUBBER MASK". Total achievement in Visual Effects standard point, the Sound editing, Animation, perfect in all sense. Even tough, personally I think the main character design of Na'vi's looked pathetic, especially that blue color, but hey it's Cameron's favorite color tone.
But the problem in the Avatar is the whole story, JC worked so much in this project for years, but he lost in polishing it, mainly because he concentrated his energy on the VFX side and it can be seen in the whole picture. The major movements in the movie made me Deja Vu, especially that romantic pairs Forest scenes directly taken from Major Walt Disney Animated movies like TARZAN, SPIRIT STALLION OF THE CIMARRON and exactly from FERNGULLY THE LAST RAINFOREST.
And let face it, Cameron is not good at Sissy girly melodrama stuffs so we find mediocre weak dialog, awkward love scenes through out the movie, and I can understand that he's a SCIFI LEGEND not a Woody Allen! ( In Terminator he got help from his uncredited co-writer William Wisher for Sarah Conner's dialog.) If he had left off the romantic angle the movie could have been much better, or may be he just added to make it more DRAMATIC. But the whole story suffered a "WALT Disney Taste" because of that.
Also the music by James Horner was annoying especially in the humor scenes, it sounded stupid and lame. Cameron should choose some one with more integrity and soul like Hans Zimmmer or James Howard Newton. The war cue and the main theme is so forgettable, he should have given his dream project to his usual collaborator Brad Fiedel.
And the cast assembled for this movie was so bad especially the main lead actor Sam Worthington with his dumb voice accent and screen presence I wish to crush my 3D glass. Cameron should give chances to black actors. Anything came good was from Giovanni Ribisi as the aggressive corporate administrator with less screen time. And also Zoe Saldana was interesting with the "ACTOR DRIVEN PERFORMANCE", also must give credits to the animators and VFX crew.
But the most threatening shot I found in this VFX Glowed movie was Sam Worthington realistic poliomyelitis legs done in CGI/Prosthetic practical FX. The Less FX is Much enough, Cameron should know that Rule and should never go to the roots of George Lucas. And I must say the whole Three D experience was not good as I expected, I should have went for the normal theater, this one hurt my eyes and enjoyment.
All in all this is not the Avatar I anticipated, I imagined a far more a intriguing vision from the Terminator Director. What I got was a James Cameron's Mockery of Walt Disney movies. You will enjoy it if you are new to Hollywood Epics, but as an experienced movie watcher I give this movie 3 out of 10.
Only because 1) James Cameron directed THE ABYSS! 2) James Cameron directed TERMINATOR!! 3) James Cameron directed TITANIC!!!
Avatar = Walt Disney Movies on Steroids.