Throughout the history of moviemaking and as is the case in most other industries, enhancements are always being made both to help those behind the camera as well as provide a better and more realistic product for the consumer. Save for some "making of" bonus features on home video, most viewers never see the mechanical and/or technological improvements that are put into practice, but they certainly see advancements in the viewing (and sometimes listening) experience.
First, of course, was the addition of sound, followed by color and then various incarnations of 3D imagery. What really upped the game, though, have been computer effects that just keep getting better and better, creating more realistic visual trickery, worlds and even completely fabricated characters.
Yet, no about of computer horsepower can outmatch the first and most important element of moviemaking -- the script. Simply put, if the tale isn't original (or at least a new and interesting slant on previous material), the characters aren't engaging and/or you don't feel much or sometimes even any emotional engagement, all you're left with is empty spectacle.
And that's exactly what bedevils "Avatar," writer/director James Cameron's much anticipated, mega-hyped and long-awaited follow-up to "Titanic" that sailed around the seas racking up billions of dollars and boatloads of awards back in 1997. Since then, the filmmaker -- who before that turned out other seminal action and special effects extravaganzas such as the two "Terminator" films, "Aliens," "The Abyss" and "True Lies") -- has been busy making underwater documentaries about the famously sunken ship that made him "king of the world."
He's also been inventing new technology (better and smaller 3D cameras, improved motion capture filmmaking, and the still hard to believe process of being able to see and "direct" virtual characters in the viewfinder while filming live action scenes, etc.) that he's stated has finally allowed him to make the picture he's been longing to do for decades.
It's clearly something to behold on the big screen (although, to be accurate, the effects are far more vibrant and sharp on the bits I've seen on my HDTV at home than in the theater where the 3D glasses muddy the picture and drop the luminance significantly), but one ends up wishing he spent a fraction of all that development time, energy and money in crafting a better story.
In short, it's a combination of the Pocahontas/John Smith story (told in "The New World" and other incarnations), "Dances with Wolves," "The Matrix," and, perhaps most surprising of all, "FernGully...The Last Forest." The latter, for those not familiar with the 1992 animated film, was about humans invading and attempting to destroy the pristine titular region and one of their own unintentionally ending up siding with the nature-connected locals to defend their spiritual home.
Here, we're in the future (year 2154) where humankind has pretty much destroyed Earth's resources and thus is trying to mine a valuable mineral from the planet Pandora. The only problem is the local "natives" (blue-skinned, slender Amazonian types with tails and ponytails that magically interconnect with plant and animal life) aren't happy about the intrusion of the "sky people" and aren't cooperating. Considering the reportedly dire situations back home, not to mention the high-tech firepower vs. the bow & arrow weaponry of the Na'vi, you start wondering why the militaristic invaders haven't already attacked and gotten what they wanted, but then we wouldn't have our movie, now would we?
Accordingly, the evil corporation (personified only by Giovanni Ribisi although other bodies are always around) is taking a two-pronged approach. While the gruff military leader (Stephen Lang in full stereotype mode, including barking out lines such as "You are not in Kansas anymore") waits in the wings, the diplomatic approach is being taken by a small team (lead by Cameron vet Sigourney Weaver) that's created the titular beings comprised of both Na'vi and human DNA and that are to be remotely controlled by operators back at HQ.
Our hero, John Smith, uh, Jake Sully, a paraplegic vet who's taking his recently murdered brother's place in the program, gets into his horizontal pod and, lo and behold, becomes one of the Na'vi to infiltrate and then convince them to move on. He ends up encountering a fierce warrior, Pocahontas, I mean Neytiri (a good Zoe Saldana, or at least what's been created out of her motion capture performance), who's ordered by her chief father (Wes Studi) to teach the newcomer their ways so that they can better understand him.
Of course, he doesn't let on about his mission or that the colonel, chomping at the bit to kick some alien butt, has promised to fix his legs if he provides useful, military intel for the pending attack should diplomacy fail. What follows is, well, no surprise to anyone who's seen any of the previously mentioned references flicks.
While it's interesting to see Cameron do a one-eighty on the Marines (good guys in "Aliens," the bad ones here) and tout spirituality over technology in a film that's been obviously created in full force with the latter, there's little if anything that emotionally connects. That's not to say that the film is void of engaging moments, but most are of the action variety (especially the last and quite long battle sequence that admittedly is something to behold).
There's no denying the filmmaker knows how to conceive and execute exciting scenes, but that's all the pic feels like -- a series of them enveloped in an all-too familiar story (with even the first few notes of the score sounding awfully familiar to that from "Titanic").
It certainly doesn't help that the various messages and themes he wishes to impart -- be they the metaphors for the past displacement of Native Americans; the Vietnam War; ruthless corporations; military types hired as gun-slinging and gung-ho "security" personnel (Blackwater, anyone); America invading other countries for valuable resources (including, I'm not kidding you, the threatened and then enacted use of "shock and awe" and using terror to fight terror), etc. -- are about as heavy-handed as they come.
After all that, the question that remains is whether it's worth seeing, especially on the big screen. Overall, I'd say yes, if only for the artificial (and 3D in most venues) world Cameron has created as well as those last forty minutes or so. While the effects are quite good, they're not groundbreaking as was the case with "The Abyss" and then "T2," and only raise the overall bar a notch at most.
But the biggest disappointment is that the story, beyond being tired and derivative of so many predecessors, doesn't completely draw you in and make you care about the characters as deeply as you should and want to. Whenever I would be pulled into the spectacle, I would just as quickly fall or be pushed out of it, looking at the pretty pictures but wishing for more. In the end, "Avatar" looks like the real deal, but it's just as emotionally devoid as the titular vessel creations in it when their remote operators are away. It rates as a 5 out of 10.
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