An Outstanding Genre Film

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2009)

Avatar is clearly the movie of this year, featuring visuals so vibrant that they are beautiful enough to make you weep. Combine that with a motion capture technology that actually works and you have something special. If you want a comparison go view Robert Zemeckis' "A Christmas Carol" done for Disney. That film featured CGI figures that were not emotive and eerily conjured visions of soul-dead zombies. In contrast, Cameron provides characters that seem to be living breathing individuals.
Since there is nothing to criticize in the visual area, people have concentrated on the story telling of this feature. They seem to forget that this is a genre piece that pretty much closely adheres to the conventions of heroic fantasy. These include: (1) An outsider or low-born individual who will rise to the top. (2)He will eventually wed the unobtainable beautiful queen or princess in contradiction of cultural norms and expectations. (3)He (it is almost always a he) will justify his rise in prominence by fulfilling a prophecy or legend that results in the salvation of either his people or his newly adopted people. Is this an original tale? No. Go to any book store and in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy aisle you can find tons of slight variations of this tale. These tales would include the Lord of the Rings, The Sword of Truth, The Wheel of Time, and The Song of Fire and Ice among their many volumes. While there are dozens of dozens of similar tales, these are the well-done titles of exemplars. This is what Avatar is--a genre film that has been realized to the nth degree. If you are looking for more creativity, you'll have to await the sequels.
Accept this film for what it is and you'll not be disappointed in any way. James Cameron did not attempt a genre busting film, he fully embraced the genre and then knocked it out of the park.