If I Wanted A Sermon, I'd Go To Church...

Rating: 2/10 (11 March 2017)

When "Avatar" first hit the theaters back in early December of 2009, I really didn't have an overwhelming urge to see it, as I'm usually very skeptical of films that base their hype on CGI- based graphics (as they usually overshadow such important elements as plot and character development). However, with the film surpassing Titanic as #1 all-time in box office revenues, I figured I would give it a shot, thinking maybe I really was missing out on something special. Unfortunately, the film did much, much worse, as I left the theater wondering how such a shallow movie could now be on top of the heap.
The number one flaw in the film is one that it truly cannot recover from in any other aspect: a terribly shallow plot. If you have seen Pocahontas (white man must learn the ways of the natives) or Dances With Wolves (disgruntled military officer sympathizes with former enemy), you have seen Avatar. There really is nothing else.
Adding to that fatal flaw is the high-handed directing of James Cameron. While some great directors (Clint Eastwood immediately comes to mind here) will present an interesting palette of characters and let the viewers decide what they may about them, Cameron instead chooses to be rigid in his character definition. For example, the military is evil, scientists are greedy, and all natives are perfect in their commune with nature. If you have your head in the clouds, then perhaps those kinds of moralist viewpoints will appeal to you. For the rest of us, it is quite sickening. Basically, it turns into 162 minutes of Cameron slapping you across the face with his environmental/naturalist themes.
Thus, as far as character development is concerned, it practically does not exist. Besides the utterly predictable transformation of the "one good white man" and his assimilation into the native culture, no other background is explored on any character. I am fully confident that any decent writer could sit down and, within a day, put together a much more interesting backstory on certain aspects of the film (military, scientists, etc.) that would actually make the conflicts of the film compelling, other than the bleeding-heart sap it turned out to be.
Plus, and this is truly the coupe-de-grace of failure, the CGI produces some great images, but unless you are a complete tech-head, it isn't really anything to fawn over. For example, the sinking of the Titanic in Cameron's other big film was just as eye-popping as anything that Avatar put up on the screen.
To be honest, it really makes me shake my head that a movie like this can not only succeed in this country, but do so in record capacity. Have we really become so thoughtless and simple to reduce humanity to such black-and-white constructs? I'm sure that the Academy Award voters will have a field day with such themes and turn the ceremony into Cameron's own private ego- massaging, but I for one do not see it that way. If you are looking for a great director who will really make you think about humanity, try the later films of Clint Eastwood.