Impossible to absolutely love it, impossible to hate it

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2009)

"I can't believe it's only been three months. I don't even remember my previous life." A quote that could have easily come from a "World of Warcraft" addict is uttered by main character in "Avatar" after a session in an alien body he's been tasked to control. This is precisely the level of immersion the audience was expected to get onto watching the latest Cameron's attempt at grandeur.
Just like "Titanic" ten years ago, "Avatar" is so massive an effort in film-making that it's inevitable to find in it things to love, things to hate and a lot in between. It's also inevitable in this age of heavy marketing to adjust expectations according to hype and evaluate film based on how close it met them.
Marketed as nothing less than ground breaking film revolution, "Avatar" most certainly isn't. A lot of movies, most notably "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", "Polar Express" and "Lord of the Rings" series, have pioneered and polished ALL the technologies utilized in this feat. And don't even mention the "3D" projection; if you're even slightly prone to migraines it's advisable to attend plain old 2D screening. What "Avatar" is, is for the time being the technological apex of what can be achieved in film-making. There is hardly a flaw in beautifully created alien world of Pandora and its inhabitants. Stereoscopic projection may have even contributed to the awe inspiring vistas of vast spaces that are all CGI.
Also marketed as a unique, life changing story, "Avatar" doesn't even come close. In a nutshell, it's a tale of a handicapped army veteran getting involved in military supported exploration of alien world of an Earthlike moon of Pandora. Pandora has all kinds of wildlife and topping the hierarchy are tribes of humanoids. The vet assumes the identity of an artificially created humanoid, controlling it remotely (hence the "avatar"), infiltrates a tribe, falls in love with the place and is soon forced to pick a side in an upcoming conflict between his own kind and "humanoids".
The predictability abounds as the story borrows heavily from many sources, such as "Dances With Wolves", "Pocahontas", "Matrix", "Romeo and Juliette" etc. It also borrows from contemporary controversy of USA foreign policies and environmentalist issues, painting it strongly left/liberal.
This, however is not the story's problem. In context of Hollywood constantly trying to perfect the formula it peddles ever since the producers took over the industry, one could say "Avatar" is an apex in exploiting the same old routine of Good vs. Evil, Industry vs. Nature, Love vs. Betrayal, Music on Queue and Happy Ending. It does move at times but for all the wrong reasons and only thanks to experienced but uninspired direction of Cameron.
The problem with the story is the ambition to deliver a deeply convincing and poignant tale of man's place in nature and a reflection on the ways of western culture. There is enough symbolism and parallelism around to account for that. Themes range from phenomenology to modern politics. However, the ambition very quickly falls back on tried and tested clichés audience is believed to like so much; biasing characters towards pure good or pure evil, vain meanderings about "spirituality" that really only go around in circles, conveniently and predictably closing all opened questions towards the ending not leaving anything to ponder about after leaving the theater. One has to wonder about the major opportunity missed only because the characters and their motivations were overly simplified.
I recall that small part of the audience gave into applause after the credits rolled. They either applauded the technological marvel of "Avatar" or because the good guys won in the end... or, as I suspected, they felt obliged to recognize the ambition and seriousness that was supposed to grace what is already rather hastily called "the greatest movie of the decade". It must be the latter because the applause was rather short and feeble.