A spectacular visual achievement, held back by hackneyed storytelling

Rating: 5/10 (16 January 2010)

Well, this movie looks astounding. There's no getting around that. Avatar is a technical marvel, a movie aglow in bright, vibrant colors and gorgeous special effects that create one of the more memorable fictional settings in some time: the planet of Pandora.
There, however, lies the film's first stumble. When sci-fi classics like Star Wars and Blade Runner take the time to draw the audience into the world, Avatar gives us a perfunctory introduction, before launching into a clichéd "training montage". There's no nuance to the film's depiction of the planet, or the Na'vi people. I realized with disappointment that the film was treating Pandora as little more than a giant zoo, full of amazing sights that it wouldn't analyze at more than an arm's length. Likewise, the Na'vi people are explored at such little depth that anyone who has seen any movie of this type (The Last Samurai, Dances With Wolves) i.e., "Simple, wise people versus destructive, mindless power" can figure out their lifestyle, motives, and the plot of the film.
And that is where I began to realize that I'd get nothing more from this film than some great eye candy. There isn't a single memorable character in the film. Every single one is a cookie-cutter cliché, and the actors make no attempt to create any kind of individual persona. You have your conflicted hero, your wise scientist, your female interest who will see through the prejudices her family hold against the hero, an evil military man, and a single-minded corporate bigwig. These archetypes can work, but only when given motives beyond the requirements of their cliché.
And so, the result is a movie that is predictable from the first frame, and that features remarkable visuals that could have been so much more. Watching it, I couldn't help but think of Hayao Miyazaki's brilliant Princess Mononoke, which handled similar subject matter with infinitely more nuance and grace. In Miyazaki's film, characters who could be reduced to stereotypes are given complex motives. The battle between good and evil is tempered by multiple shades of grey. And, most of all, Miyazaki takes the time to truly absorb us in the world of his creation, rather than pulling us by the arm to take us to the next plot point.
Despite my many issues with Avatar, I think it's worth seeing for its visuals alone. It really is a great technological achievement. I just wish I had seen in it the great film that so many else have.