I don’t care what anyone says: James Cameron has never made a bad film. Aliens, True Lies, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day remain some of the greatest pure action movies ever. Titanic could’ve replaced Celine Dion’s sappy tracks with a farting orang-utan and it still would’ve made billions. And it takes a very special kind of director to create what remains, after nearly 30 years, the finest flying piranha movie ever made (Piranha II: The Spawning, although Alexandre Aja is waiting in the wings with the release of Piranha 3D later this year. No, I’m not kidding).
So, naturally, when JC says he’s outdone himself by combining cutting-edge special effects with a script he’s been working on for the past decade and a half (all in glorious 3D), I joined many others in losing my shit.Set well into the 22nd century Avatar takes place on Pandora, a moon where Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) leads a massive mining expedition to retrieve a precious mineral from its vast and ridiculously over-digitised ecosystem. Pandora is inhabited by a race known as the Na’vi (just picture Smurfette having babies with Bolaji Badejo), who’ve resisted all human attempts to widen the expedition. Until now Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) has been communicating with the Na’vi through the Avatar Program, which allows humans to take their form and walk freely throughout Pandora.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic former marine whose twin brother helped create the Avatar Program before his sudden death. Sully’s genetics make him the only other candidate able to operate his brother’s avatar, and after an unexpected turn of events he finds himself within a Na’vi tribe. Its princess, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña) reluctantly agrees to teach Sully their ways, but it’s soon used against them as the humans – led by Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) – launch an all-out war to take control of Pandora.
Subversive political messages aside, you’ve got Dances With Wolves meets Fern Gully with flashes of Apocalypto. Sure, they’re all great films and so is Avatar, but the hype has fallen short of the mark. The performances (with the exception of a steely-eyed Stephen Lang) turn out to be very low-key and, as expected, it doesn’t take long for the visual effects to start running circles around the plot.
Although the story moves at a very brisk pace, at nearly three hours in length it definitely could’ve used a few more snips. Some sequences are nothing more than a digital showcase, but the care James Cameron has taken with them oozes from the screen. What you’ve heard about Avatar is true; visually, it’s a stunning tour de force, especially in the last hour. But a word of warning: the 3D experience doesn’t make it better. In fact, it’s a distraction. It cheapens the live-action sequences (making it look like something you’d see at a Gold Coast theme park), the epic battle scenes become blurry and obstructed, and other parts look like vignettes from a videogame.
But despite it all Cameron has added another solid title to an already impressive body of work. And with two sequels reportedly in the works, here’s hoping he can outdo himself again.
I give it 3 flying piranhas out of 5.