Avatar, by all normal estimations, is a film that couldn’t have been made. When James Cameron wrote the screenplay over a decade ago, the technology did not exist to realize his vision. And so, over the last fifteen years, Cameron has been using all his influence to herd the entire film industry and its support structures towards the creation of this film. The camera system used in the film is named after him. He got big Hollywood names to use 3D and performance capture to create proof-of-concept films to make the studios see the potential. He made pleas directly to cinema owners to promote the digital and 3D cinemas. Cameron rejiggered the entire infrastructure of Hollywood to create Avatar, and now, it’s finally here.

Was it worth it? Yes and no. All the years of work and advancing technologies provides Avatar with game-changing visuals, raising the bar to ridiculously great heights for big-budget blockbusters. Based on that criterion alone, this film is a tremendous achievement. On the other hand, the decade or so of work apparently didn’t include working on the script, which is serviceable, but on the whole unable to match the scale of the technical achievement. The result is still breathtaking, and something that’s easy to recommend simply for the experience. But it isn’t the masterpiece you might have been hoping for.

Avatar takes place in the year 2154. A corporation has landed on a planet called Pandora, hoping to mine a valuable mineral from the planet surface. They run into resistance from the indigenous population, the Na’Vi, ten foot tall blue skinned warriors who live in harmony with nature. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is an ex-marine paralyzed from the waist down who gets recruited for a special mission: to take control of an Avatar, a human-Na’Vi hybrid body that can be piloted in a dream state. His corporate masters see him as a way of gathering intel for an inevitable assault, but as Jake gets more involved in the life of the Na’Vi, he comes to realize that he may be working for the wrong side.

The story is rich in detail, with an entire world on display, complete with its own flora and fauna and alien traditions, and some interesting faux-science backing it all up. It’s in the bigger picture that this movie suffers. Thematically, the movie’s about as rich as the 1994 animated film FernGully, taking pretty much the same story beats and eco-centric message and adding violence on top of it. The premise provides a couple of interesting philosophical hooks, one of them even mentioned offhand in one scene, but none of it gets any real attention as the movie focuses on a black-and-white struggle between war-hungry, tree-hating corporate imperialist invaders and a virtuous indigenous people who are at one with nature. It’s not a terrible thing to be simple, but with the movie running 162 minutes, the lack of complexity is a little difficult to justify.

Still, it’s easy to ignore the FernGully-ness of the plot when the movie dives into its reason for being. The film is simply breathtaking, every second of it offering some kind of visual or aural treat for its audience. The world Cameron has created is obviously a product of devotion; the time spent designing every physical detail of the planet apparent on screen. Pandora is a world of bioluminescent life, seemingly inspired by the director’s forays into underwater filmmaking. Moss on tree branches glow as the characters step on them, the world just coming alive in every frame. And Cameron’s use of 3D is completely immersive, bringing people into his world gently, easing them into this altered reality. The action sequences are stunning, as would be expected from the director of Aliens and Terminator 2.

The technology just works for Cameron. Even the performance capture, which historically has been pretty unimpressive. But Cameron makes it work, the Na’Vi in all their blue-skinned alien glory benefitting from the actors behind their faces. Sam Worthington plays the same gruff soldier-type that he seems to always play, but it works well enough here. The film’s dialogue isn’t prime stuff for any actor, but Worthington manages to get through it without looking too ridiculous. Better is Sigourney Weaver, whose unimpeachable strength of character remains visible within her avatar.

For Avatar to have lived up to its hype, it needed to be the greatest film ever made. Well it’s not quite that, its script sometimes devolving into a painful mess of obvious sentiment and awkward exposition. But in almost every other aspect, this film is worth seeing. It’s still difficult to tell if this is where filmmaking ought to be going, but for now, it’s enough to say that what Cameron has created is gorgeous, sometimes thrilling, and often breathtaking. It is more than we often ask for from our blockbusters, and in this way, Cameron has changed the game.

My Rating: