Neither a natural disaster nor a real force of nature

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2017)

"Avatar" is an American movie from 2009 and still the most recent blockbuster movie by writer and director James Cameron. He dominated the awards season over a decade earlier with "Titanic" already and things looked similar back in 2010 when only "The Hurt Locker" managed to keep "Avatar" from winning all the very big prizes. Ironically enough, the former was made by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow which made for some interesting references (and bad jokes) at the Oscars back then. But still "Avatar" won three trophies at the Oscars alone and many many more during other big awards ceremonies. There are several versions out there of this film when it comes to the runtime and the longest is probably the director's cut that comes incredibly close to the massive 3-hour mark. Your choice if you want to go for this one or the original theatrical release for example. You can decide it perhaps if you plan on rewatching this extremely long and extremely blue movie before the sequels come out as it seems Cameron still wants to follow through with his plan of releasing no less than four sequels to "Avatar" until 2025 that he has worked on in the last decade.
The cast includes Sam Worthington who is the lead actor here and it is definitely the by far biggest work of his career. Add to that Cameron's longtime collaborator Sigourney Weaver and relatively young actors like Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez or Zoe Saldana. The main antagonist is played by Stephen Lang who, as usual, elevates the material. Oh yeah, CCH Pounder is on board too and deserves the mention for sure. Basically, there are two kinds of people when it comes to "Avatar", those who really absolutely love the movie and think it is a revelation and then those who think it is all pretense and nothing special at all. So it sure is a clash of extremes and I personally would say they are both in the wrong. The right approach is somewhere in-between. "Avatar" is a movie that is breathtakingly beautiful on many occasions and that offers a solid story that is nothing too great though. But it also offers basically fight and war sequences for 45 minutes or so, basically the entire last third of the movie. And this is where the film somehow lost me to be honest. It is just too long for basically nothing but action scenes, even if lots of important stuff (deaths mostly) happens during that time.
As for the film's frequently discussed environmental message, I am a bit undecided. I think the general concept of showing how humans (or Na'vi) should live in peace with nature and all its creatures, plants and animals, is a honorable one, but it is also pretty simple because you could wonder the extent to which the taming, i.e. the violent submission, works against this principle for example. But you could write pages on this subject to be honest, alone about this movie, and at times I must say I think it takes itself more seriously than it should given the substance it has and messages it is sending. I read frequently that people compare this film to "Pocahontas", but it's been so long that I have seen the latter (Have I at all?), so I cannot really elaborate on the subject. I think "Avatar" offers enough to enjoy the movie as its own creative achievement and even if it has sequences during which it drags a bit, it is still very much worth watching, preferably on the big screen. If you have a chance to do so (again), then don't miss out. To everybody who hasn't seen "Avatar" yet (if there are actually people out there that fit this description), maybe wait until the new films come out and then I am sure many cinemas will show this original film before and you can watch it there and then decide if you are interested in more. This is (as almost always with Cameron) by no means an actors' movie, even if some have baity material. It is really all about the messages and the world and the environment in this movie. All about the visual side basically. A whole new world. Maybe not a whole new movie as there are considerable weaknesses in here without a doubt. One of the better, but not very best films of 2009 I would say, one that deserves neither all the hate nor all the praise it's been getting. And for closure, let me say that the song during the closing credits is also pretty amazing to listen to.