Avatar (2009)

Let me preface this with the fact that I did not see this in 3-D, because I'm not a huge fan of the gimmick and I wasn't looking forward to wearing two pairs of glasses uncomfortably on my face for 3 hours. If I get a chance to see it again (preferably in imax), I'll try the 3-D thing, but please don't go on about how great 3-D is and how you can't believe I saw it the regular way. Because honestly, I don't especially care.

The lengthy and much-hyped Avatar tells of a future earth's need for a valuable substance called unobtanium (haha, get it?!) found on the beautiful moon of Pandora. Its inhabitants, the Na'vi, are large, cat-like humanoids with a tribal culture and little reliance on technology. Humans have set up bases here to study the people and determine a way to extract the unobtanium from the planet's crust. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic Marine, is taken there to continue his dead twin brother's work with avatars- Na'vi bodies created in labs that hook up to human minds. He meets Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a tenacious member of the Omaticaya clan, and though she recognizes him as a human in a fake body, she takes him to her chief/father with the belief that he's been chosen by their god to join the group.

For three months she teaches him Na'vi ways- how to fight, hunt, ride, and connect with the environment. The Avatar program leader Dr Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) is jealous that a non-scientist is privy to the secrets of the culture, but takes advantage of the opportunity to study the Na'vi more intently. Colonel Quatritch (Stephen Lang), the base's military leader, expects Jake to be his secret informant, offering knowledge of the unobtanium's location within the clan's village. But, as Jake becomes more connected to the Na'vi and especially Neytiri, he endeavors to stop Quatritch's destructive tendencies.

I liked Avatar, but I'm not sure what's it's doing on so many best-of-2009 lists. It's pretty predictable and every character is a stereotype with little development or depth (except Jake, but his character transformation went along an expected path). Plus it's not enough of an epic to warrant such a long running time. Several scenes were taken right out of Fern Gully (as were several characters), and while I assume it wasn't intentional, I couldn't help but make the comparison.

The visuals are, as expected, gorgeous. The lush and inviting world of Pandora is remarkably detailed and imaginative, with varied glowing plants and fanciful creatures. Cameron really captures the grandeur of everything, with huge trees and vast landscapes and soaring shots of the Na'vi's movements. The Na'vi themselves look a little silly but generally I was ok with their design (except for how impossibly skinny they are), even if I spent a good portion of the film wondering if Neytiri would have a nip-slip, and if indeed she even had nipples, which of course led to thoughts of how Na'vi had sex; all of which was a bit distracting. I was impressed with how the avatars somehow looked like their human counterparts, while still having blue cat faces.

While the overarching story is, as I said, pretty safe and predictable, I did enjoy the little embellishments added to expand upon the Na'vi culture. The way they could do that brain hook-up thing to other creatures and magic trees was pretty cool, and I liked the sound of the language (even though I can't imagine who thought Papyrus subtitles would be a good idea). The fluidity of their movements, their colorful clothing, and badass hunting and fighting techniques made them an interesting group, though laced with aspects of racial stereotyping of Native Americans. For the real-life portions, I was less engaged because insight into the secondary characters was not really given. I was happy anytime Sigourney Weaver was onscreen of course, though it wasn't enough.

All in all I'd say Avatar is a visual treat with an unsurprising plot and stereotypical characters, but worth seeing for its technical achievements and some cool battle scenes. It has a good environmental and anti-colonial message, but isn't deserving of such heapings of praise as it's been receiving.

3.5/5