A Hollow, Entirely Predictable, Cliché-Riddled Gimmick

Rating: 3/10 (10 July 2016)

This really could have been something special. Influential director James Cameron's first film since the mega-hit 'Titanic'. 12 years of waiting, in part so that the technology was advanced enough for the film to be made. The man who gave us Sci-Fi classics like 'The Terminator', 'T2: Judgement Day' and 'Aliens' giving us his most ambitious piece yet. But for all its visual grandeur, its technical marvel, its fine detail, Avatar ends up being a disheartening failure. Why? Because it makes the fatal mistake of completely ignoring the two things that are crucial in any film, story and character.
The film follows paraplegic marine Jake Sully as he takes the place of his deceased brother on the avatar project. Based on the distant planet Pandora, the project involves controlling a body of the natives (known as the Na'vi) in order to gather information about them. Well so far so good, there's at least some creativity. All that disappears quickly. We learn that the military and business tycoons are there to take a valuable material called Unobtainium (oh how do they come up with this stuff). I'm so sick of these lazy plots that have suits taking what isn't there's. We get the message they're hammering us with, leave the indigenous people and their land alone. Of course Jake is persuaded by Colonel Quaritch to deliver information and secrets about the Na'vi directly to him so he can figure out their weakness in exchange for the spinal surgery Jake needs.
But wait a second, something incredible happens. The more time Jake absorbs the Na'vi's culture, the more he grows to love its people and begins to doubt whether or not he can turn on them. Well I've never seen that before. Oh wait, I have in 'Dances with Wolves', 'Pocahontas' and 'The Last Samurai' to name but a few. It is exactly the same story as all of these. It has the same set-up, it follows the same beats, it has the same character motivations, and it even has the same preachy moral lesson. The white man comes to conquer, but the main character can't fight against the culture he initially dislikes but grows to care for. There is not a single moment in the film where I didn't know what was going to happen next. For all the money spent why couldn't they write a better story?
Throughout all this Jake develops a relationship with a Na'vi called Neytiri and it is literally there just to serve the plot. These two share absolutely no chemistry. There isn't even a reason for them to like each other. The only reason Neytiri changes her mind is because some kind of sprite lands on him and that's a sign that he has a good heart. Sadly the film is littered with convenient and mystical hogwash like that which is never looked at in any detail. It's fair enough that the film has its own mythology, but at least try to give some meaning. The film suffers badly from lack of explanation. Like why are the military so fixed on destroying the planet to gain the material when it's clear that the Na'vi can be befriended with relative ease? It is basically because we need some villains and those mean humans will do just fine.
The only thing as one-note as the story are the characters. Sam Worthington's agent deserves a medal for getting one of the blandest, most expressionless, cardboard cut-out actors ever to grace the screen to helm a film of this magnitude. It boggles my mind as to how insipid an actor he is. Jake as a character isn't very interesting but there are countless actors who could of at least brought something to the role. Zoe Saldana suffers too, but that's mainly because Neytiri is a totally unlikeable and irritating character. You even have good actors like Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang wasted in clichéd roles as the plucky scientist and the colonel blinded by stupidity. In a film like this we need characters that are either relatable or interesting in order to keep them from being swamped. You'd think Cameron of all people would know this.
What I can't discount is just how visually stunning the film is. The world created is something we've seen before, but the detail and vibrancy really is something to behold. This film is gorgeous. The textures, the colour scheme, the shades of light, the environment of Pandora, it all looks pretty incredible and I can see why it took so long to craft. The CGI both stands out on its own and blends with the live-action seamlessly. The Na'vi's design is a bit conventional, but again the detail gone into creating them is there for all to see. The visuals truly are the films only outstanding feature. The same can't be said of the action sequences even though they're are decently staged and can get suitably intense, they're nowhere near as imaginative or gripping as they could have been. That's partly because you don't care who lives or dies.
James Cameron did something here that I struggle to understand. He made a film with such creative potential and possibilities safe. Something that is a boring and hollow experience. Something that is so reliant on its visual brilliance that without it there is nothing to offer. How could someone as talented as Cameron create a story that is so cliché riddled and unengaging? In many ways the film's success is disappointing. It's telling filmmakers that we want more films where the stories and characters can be as basic as possible as long as we get some impressive visuals, where we value style over substance. I want style, but I also want a film that I can be invested in and where I care about what happens. Avatar failed to provide this on any level.