Potential gem, but incompletely realized save extraordinary art direction.

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2010)

Avatar - possible spoilers - apologies if this is O/T
by Nuclearchic 4 hours ago (Mon Jan 18 2010 09:56:05)
UPDATED Mon Jan 18 2010 09:57:19 I've just returned from Avatar this evening. I saw it in 3D with a very good friend of mine. There were enough people in the 3D theater that we didn't find two reasonable seats next to each other, such seems to be the interest in our town. I was curious to see a 3D film, I don't know when last I have. I found it cool and I recommend it if you have the option. My friend experienced some mild vertigo after-wards, and a headache.
I will say right off that I found it to be a very innovative and interesting film, much more so than I ever expected to. It indeed rivals the "groundbreaking" movies of Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings for it's ability to connect and bring people in; the novelty and sheer spectacle. The visual design and production is bar none extraordinary, and unlike anything you'll have ever seen before. The gorgeous night scenes are frankly breathtaking, as are the trees and "natural" landscapes of "Pandora". It's a testament to the quality of the film-making that we really can connect to this world, and there're essentially cgi characters. The indigenous "Pandorans," the "Navi," could have tended to become cartoon-like and fail as characters and that isn't wholly the case to my mind.
The characters which become caught in the middle of the conflict are interesting, and add dimension and depth of the story. I even found the relationships of the central characters as they encounter each other and very different worlds to be effectively developed and compelling. As the romantic I must be to say this , I liked the love story between these two creatures from very opposite worlds, and their gradual opening up to each other. There's plenty which is formulaic but there's also a odd core of truth in that relationship which was unexpected for me. I enjoyed the gradual development of the central characters, and this is commendable given the challenge the intense cgi and novelty of the story and images themselves provide to balance those other aspects. I won't say much about acting as this is less an actors' film than a producers', but there are rewarding moments and scenes.
One of the surprising points of the film is that it presents a conflict of an indigenous people with rapacious political/economic forces, and from their perspective. At times it over simplified the motives and evil of the "occupying forces," here humans escaping an Earth in environmental crisis. Although it sets a stage of conflict of mining interests against what emerges as a wondrous new natural world of the Navi, the dynamic of the conflict tends to become simplified and iconic. The picture of evil presented remains somewhat distant instead of becoming more nuanced and human. There could have been more subtlety in the presentation of what happened on Earth and the nature of the moral realities of the central characters in this new world. Make no mistake, it's a fairly Hollywood take on reality, and I retain some diffidence about that. There's also plenty to reward if you look just a little beyond that.
This is one of the first major films I've seen which creatively presents the horror of environmental destruction driven by human ignorance (yes, even blindness) to the natural world, and the effects on indigenous peoples and for more materially developed society. What it faintly touches on, and which reaches me fairly deeply, is the notion of the characters as part of an intricate organic whole in which they are all entwined in this "foreign" ecological world, and how fragile it really is. It almost suggests a psychological picture of ourselves as a society moving toward greater ecological awareness, and coming to terms with the fragility of our own planetary home. I give credit for exploring this aspect of our current global reality.
There are clear moments where the film takes this direction in a beautiful and surprisingly effective way. The first encounter of "Jake" with the Navi, for example. These questions have very human implications to me, which is why I find some worthwhile ideas and material at the core of the story. Of course, this being movie-land, this aspect isn't as powerfully or intricately communicated as it might be. It looses some opportunities to develop this idea, and becomes somewhat focused on the sheer tactical action and conflict in the second half. Again, the conflict and the antagonistic characters are less developed to me, and the quality of the film and storytelling suffers for this.
Avatar is visually amazing in 3D. It's an enjoyable, epic film which contains much movie land fun, and imparts a surprising dose of heart. It seems like a creative direction in storytelling, one which will hopefully evolve in nuance as we continue to face difficult questions as a global culture. I retain a little diffidence about some aspects of the film overall as I've explained. 6 from me. No, It wouldn't be my Oscar best picture nomination per se, but perhaps a smaller category like art direction or special effects.