Well Crafted, Thought Provoking Story Telling

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2009)

After finishing the movie, I was tempted to perceive the movie in two separate ways. First, I was going to give the movie an A for special effects. The use of 3D is never a gimmick, integrates well with the story, and truly creates an immersive experience. From a story perspective, I was going to give it a B+, holding it in about as high esteem as the recent Star Trek movie. The story is part Dancing With Wolves, part Pocahontas, part Matrix. And as the name would suggest, it's part an Indian Avatar story, with a man from the sky taking possession of a body and redeeming a people.
Thinking about it a little deeper, I realize you cannot and should not separate the 3D effects from the story of Avatar. Cameron's story is a story about the power of perspective. At what point does the immersive experience of the story of another culture so move us that we will be able to see beyond our own perspective? The 3D cinema experience is a powerful one, and does bring one that much closer to empathy with the characters. The audience, with its 3D goggles is also a kind of avatar. Is there an inflection point when our own hearts and minds may be so powerfully changed by a story that we will attempt to challenge the existing authority? Will technology amplify the effect of story to make these inflection points happen more quickly? Once we have this technology, will it affect us for good or evil? Cameron's story is one of hope, and the technology in this case moves the soul of an initially amoral marine to compassion for an indigenous people. This is a powerful lesson. No less powerful, would be a story following the indoctrination of a terrorist cell in the future, enabled by the adoption of new story empathy enhancing technologies, which aid and abet the indoctrination process and make it that much more convincing. At the same time, Cameron's story is not technological determinism. The technology strips away the hard layers of the marine, but it can do so because the marine has morality to be uncovered.
Cameron's use of 3D technology is not groundbreaking because he used 3D. It's groundbreaking because his story reminds us of the power of stories to sway hearts and minds, and it gives us a glimpse of what future story telling tools may hold in store for us.
My final grade for this movie is an A. I can't say it's beaten the Wrath of Khan, or the Empire Strikes Back, but it's up there with 28 Days Later.