Point: Avatar Sucked
First of all, let me explain that I believe that James Cameron has created a technological milestone. “Avatar” will set the standard for many movies from now on (or at least until better technology becomes available). The filming is innovative and realistic, and the planet Pandora really does look like a different planet, a feat few other films have accomplished.
That being said, “Avatar” is not a good movie. It did not deserve the Golden Globe for Best Picture, it’s way too long, and, aside from big 3-D explosions, it doesn’t have much to offer.
James Cameron took ten years to make this movie, and it is most clearly visible in the contrived, plagiarized plot, which is somewhere between “Pocahontas” and “Fern Gully.” These films both feature an ignorant white man, placing him in a foreign environment where he is a pawn in a larger enterprise intent on destroying the land and taking its natural riches. Eventually, he encounters the natives of this foreign land (or planet), who are wiser than he, and believe in some kind of earth spirit (whether it is a talking tree or Eywa). They teach him their ways. Then disaster ensues, and only the love between the man and a beautiful native girl prevents bloodshed (to some extent). Entertaining, maybe, but audiences have seen it all before. It is entirely too predictable, and viewers deserve better.
This is all without mentioning the dialogue. The script is manufactured and often laughable. After she is shot in the epic battle that takes up half the movie, researcher Dr. Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) comments: “This is gonna ruin my whole day.” She could have been talking about a broken lab microscope. The Navi greeting, “I see you,” makes the blue people sound like a cult. There are so many movies in theaters now with brilliant plot lines (“The Hurt Locker,” “Crazy Heart”), entertaining dialogue (“Inglorious Basterds”), and beautiful acting (“Precious”). The fact that “Avatar” beat all of these other movies for the Golden Globe is an insult. A movie cannot stand on technological prowess alone. Academy Awards, watch out.
Counterpoint: Avatar was Awesome
When cinema was first introduced, it was not necessarily conceived as a means through which to tell stories. Instead, early films were pure spectacle meant to dazzle their audiences by showing them something they had never experienced before: moving pictures. In the 1950’s, as theater attendance slumped, some filmmakers tried to lure audiences back to the theater by reviving the idea of cinema as spectacle, this time implementing new technologies such as Cinerama, widescreen film, and 3-D effects. I would like to propose that in many ways “Avatar” harkens back to the notion of movie-going as an experience, meant to introduce audiences to a new way to watch films.
“Avatar” truly does immerse audiences in the world of Pandora, a world very unlike ours. James Cameron devoted an incredible amount of time, energy, and funds to ensuring that every detail of the Pandoran landscape is fully imagined, using technology specifically invented for this film. When Cameron’s fanciful CGI animation is paired with incredibly realistic 3-D effects, the result is breathtaking. I couldn’t help but feel that I had followed Jake Sully to the forests and mountains of Pandora and was now receiving a privileged glimpse at the beautiful landscapes of another planet.
Most criticism of the movie has concentrated on the admittedly clichéd and banal plot, but I think that the plot of a film like “Avatar” is beside the point. Yes, the story of an outcast who integrates himself into a seemingly savage culture and adopts it as his own after falling in love with a girl has been seen many times before, especially in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, but never like this. The draw factor of the film is without question the visuals, the spectacle.
“Avatar” transforms 3-D technology, formerly relegated to cheesy horror flicks or catastarophes like 2007’s “Beowulf,” into an integral part of the movie-going experience. I believe the future of blockbuster filmmaking lies with this movie. Cameron has shown us that 3-D is not about projecting a movie into the viewer’s space, but instead drawing the viewer into the world of the movie. “Avatar” is more than just the story of an alien planet. It forces the viewer to break the traditional boundaries of cinema as a 2-D art form, forever impacting the way we think about the limitations of film.Unless, of course, you saw the 2-D version.
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