Cameron's Visual Dazzle Saves Familiar Story

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2010)

At this point, the smothering hype machine has told you all you really need to know about "Avatar," James Cameron's much-anticipated return to the cinematic fray. Insofar as visual impact is concerned, this could very well be the crowning achievement of 2009 (and certainly an apt way to end the first decade of the new millennium), with a literal world of intricate detail on display, populated by characters and creatures that run the gamut from beautiful anthropomorphs to grotesque hybrids of prehistoric creatures. When viewed in 3D, "Avatar" is nothing short of breathtaking, and forgives much of the film's storytelling shortcomings: the bottom line is, this is a simple plot (the military-industrial complex wants some precious/valuable resource from an indigenous population; said population is not going to give it up without a fight) that is not new, and often monotonously stretched through a series of anticlimaxes until it settles on a proper ending. While there is a stinging indictment of human greed and military intervention on display, it's nothing we haven't seen before in the post-9/11 cinematic climate (and granted, Cameron--who also wrote the script--has always worked better with conceptual ideas than narrative intricacies). Yet "Avatar," while heavy-handed in its telling, is less about a message and more about the experience overall; I was frequently taken aback and awed by the imagery on display, and in a medium that (at its best) demands we be shown, and not told, what's going on, "Avatar" is about as good as it gets.
7.5 out of 10