A "Simple" Plot?

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2010)

Anyone who comments, publicly and with scorn, that Avatar's plot line is "simple" or "hackneyed" does so at his or her peril.
There are several constructs in virtually ANY form of artistic expression that almost always work: the "Fish Out of Water" the "Faust Story" and, of course, the "Reluctant Conquering Hero" being three of them that spring to mind. How many times you have seen these "overused" story and plot lines in evidence matters not. It's human nature to cotton to them (and we're talking human nature from the birth or recorded history, now) and it's the way they are carried out that determines the success of a given project. Did you like the "Matrix" films? The "Star Wars" films? What about Frodo and his friends overcoming insurmountable odds and defeating the evil Sauron? There's your "Reluctant Conquering Hero" in spades. How about "Dances With Wolves" or the "Back to the Future" movies? "Fish Out of Water". And how's about any movie where the character gets more than what he or she bargained for? Your "Faust" story. Yes, the simple fact is "Avatar" displays, and rather well I believe, all three of these themes. After his identical twin brother is killed, Corporal Jake Sully, a Marine who's been wounded and has lost the use of his legs, is sent to the lush moon, Pandora, and recruited into a mission meant to ease a group of indigenous creatures, The Na'Vi, out of an area that greedy human corporatists covet for its considerable mineral wealth. He's seduced into taking up the challenge by a blood-thirsty military commander, Colonel Miles Quaritch, who promises, in Faustian fashion, that he'll arrange for a surgical procedure necessary for Sully to regain the use of his legs IF he reports back on the Na'Vi's vulnerabilities. Sully agrees and becomes part of a program, which installs his human consciousness into a Na'Vi body, making it possible for his "Avatar" to move about freely (without the use of a portable breathing apparatus) on the planet's oxygen-poor surface. During an initial expedition, Sully becomes separated from his group and is left behind. During the night, he meets a NA'Vi princess, Neytiri, who saves him from a pack of wild dog-like creatures. She scolds him for his oafishness and takes him to her people who, because she has seen "a sign" sent from the NA'Vi's sacred "Tree of Souls", allow him to live amongst them and learn their ways. With each ensuing trip, Sully's "Fish Out of Water" becomes better acquainted with the way of the NA'Vi and, finally, he takes their side in the growing conflict. This, of course, infuriates the Colonel, ignites the ire of the mining company, and all bets are off.
What happens next, yes, is somewhat predictable. You know the NA'Vi, under Sully's formerly reluctant "conquering hero" will be triumphant. You know the bad guy will be vanquished and the mining company sent packing. But, I argue, these are things we WANT to see as human beings and why these devices and themes are used over and over (and over) again. They WORK. So, it's "all been done before". So what? Clichés betray honest and universal truths. This is why they are used so often and why they exist, sublimely, as clichés.
This film, for all its time-tested, ironclad plot devices, is absolutely astonishing in its newness. We've never seen anything like this planet or its inhabitants, humanoid or otherwise. The visuals are magnificent as one might expect, but it's the interaction between the NA'Vi and Sully and his resulting transformation that are at the core of the film's success. I was amazed by how moved I was by this "simple" story, by the kindness and nobility of the NA'Vi and their connection with their land. James Cameron has borrowed some not-so- simple, current real-life human themes and placed them in what is a very timely story, much in the same tradition as great TV science fiction, such as Star Trek TOS and its offspring.
That $300 to $500 million was spent to bring this film to life means little as the film will more than make back its money and every single cent is up there on the screen.
I just wish would-be movie snobs would shut the hell up about their having "seen this all before".
The simple fact is, they haven't.