James Cameron's biggest fans left extremely let down...

Rating: 1/10 (3 February 2010)

Understand before you start reading my review that I'm not some burnt out bitter old son of a _ who complains about big budget blockbusters and Hollywood because that's the only people who could not like this movie. I'm the opposite, I love Hollywood and big budget blockbusters, and most of all I've been Jim Cameron's biggest fan for a long time. I don't care what anybody says, Titanic is one of the greatest movies of all time, and I've often said it's possibly the best directed movie of all time. Cameron has an incredible ability to direct and create absolute spectacle, the best way I've heard to describe him is a modern day Sensation Smith of Drury Lane - the master of spectacle. Terminator 2: Judgement Day undoubtedly one of the greatest action movies of all time, however like all geniuses he has had his inevitable less than masterpieces, he's forgiven for TheAbyss and TrueLies. The reason I say all this, I've heard how he takes criticism and he would think what I'm about to say is just jealousy and bitterness, when the opposite is true I hold the master and his work in such high regard he's very much an inspiration and an aspiration in my own work.
So when I first discovered all those years ago back in 2006 that Avatar was finally in the works I was delighted that Iron Jim would ride again, and in 2006 seeing a release date for 2009 I thought, "Well, doesn't look like I'm going to get any sleep for 3 years until I see this". I'd been following Avatar for so long I had the black copy of the scriptment that Jim and his team did everything in their power to stop people seeing and prevent circulating online. I was up with every rumour, possible leaked image or trailer and the mystery surrounding when it was known as "Project 880". Is this sounding familiar to any of you? My expectations went up and down as more information surfaced, after seeing the 18minute preview at LeicesterSquare, August2009 I had a clearer idea of what it was, and was right with what my understanding of it originally was but hoped they would have straightened out by release. The excitement levels dropped which I then thought was a good thing to counter any previously preconceived ideas about it, now I could go and see it in December with a completely open mind. As it drew closer I thought "This is JC. Ten years in the making, he's not going to let me down, whatever I thought before I'm completely openminded I trust that he is going to blow me away again." The day before it was to be released worldwide, it was first showing that night at the Imax so I couldn't sit still and went straight out and bought that ticket. The Imax was already half full at a quarter to midnight, and as I was handed those 3D glasses a real feeling came over me "This is it." No I wasn't talking about the Michael Jackson movie!
The 20th Century Fox studio pre-movie opening credit jumped straight out the screen in 3D, and from the back of the cinema those searchlights on the podium in Hollywood looked 20 feet high right in front of me. Sorry to say this was the most exciting part of the next 2 and 3/4 hours. People's opinions have been pretty definitive that it looked great, and the colours, special effects and 3D. But when the lights came up and I was left with a numb brain and back side, reeling from what I had just endured, I think it can be summed up by the comments of someone I passed on the way out asked what he thought. He replied "Oh, I thought it was excellent...but the story was crap." If we have to talk about the visuals of it, which seems to be all anybody cares about, it's nothing we haven't already seen in a 5-year-old's Saturday-morning cartoon intercut with typical sci-fi. Perhaps seeing the grenades almost fly into your face, and the floating whatever before your eyes, were something worth mentioning, but that doesn't make up for 160minutes of nothing-else. Reportedly the most expensive movie to date, for reasons not apparent on screen. It not only lacks the spectacle and wonder of Titanic and movies like this but the action and substance Cameron's so good at serving up. The storyline was so trite and cliché and the characters, dialogue and plot points were so recycled, there was nothing we hadn't seen before 1000s of times. Even the action sequences were mundane. Really, how are we supposed to care about 9ft blue-aliens with no character that don't look real, and some colourful plants and wildlife thrown in for 3D and kids. Hoped it might be a little interesting when we first see Pandora but it was just poorly put-together nonsense. The animals were like Pokemon and the whole tree of life part was taken right out of several of my childhood cartoons. A trashy mix of sci-fi and Japanese kids cartoons oldest collection of clichés, with the too-familiar nature allegory thrown-in to imitate art. The effects do little to help this monument to what anybody will buy into.
Seems my childhood dreammaker James Cameron is drowning in budgets so huge, and nobody to question him that magic is just completely gone, and given the unfortunate profits of this we'll probably be stuck with many more second-rate action movies in 3D aspiring to be art. Maybe this is just another of Jim's low-points and he'll turn it around next time, but the support for this movie makes me wonder do people have the minds of under 10s or have I completely lost it? Watch the movie "Idiocracy" and you'll know how I feel.