I was at a party at James Cameron’s house a few weeks before the first Avatar came out (humble brag). When the people there were talking about the movie, I thought it sounded ridiculous. Blue aliens? Whatever. Then I saw it, and was blown away by the visuals. Even if the story was a little Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, and Yes album covers, it blew me away.
It seems odd to me that it’s been so long after the original (13 years).
This story has Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now married to Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and living with the Na’vi. They have three kids, and there’s a human child (Jake Champion) that is like a son to them.
Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who was such an awesome, evil presence in the first film, is regenerated into a Na’vi avatar (remember, he was killed previously). That reminded me of a scene in Soapdish in which the soap opera wanted to bring back a favorite character (played by Kevin Kline), even though he had been decapitated. But I digress.
Quatrich has a bunch of mercenaries who are going to kill Jake. I suppose for the same reason they went to kill Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now!
The production values are amazing, and everything looks beautiful. The problem is, once the Na’vi, who are “forest people” go to hide out and live with the water Na’vi – Cameron spends too much time showing us all the beautiful and interesting creatures in the water. A little of that goes a long way. And what little we get in plot devices, are the same types of things he’s done (and so many other filmmakers), previously. We really needed more richly developed characters instead of just scenery.
When the couple bickers about the safety of the kids, it’s mildly interesting. When the new Na’vi kids bully the blue ones – it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. I was also turned off by a scene that’s a pet peeve of mine in period pieces. It’s when a character says something that’s used now, but wouldn’t in the time period. For example, in The Shawshank Redemption, there’s a phrase a guard says like, “Same sh**, different day.” Here, Jake’s son punches a bully and says something along the lines of “How’d ya like that, b**ch!?”
Of course, after the fight Jake, who is angry with his son for getting into the scuffle, has that cliche line of, “How bad did the other kid look? Good.”
The film was overproduced, and so long, I grew a bit bored. I was reading the recent Variety magazine, and critic Owen Gleiberman summed up my views with one line: “The only part of me that was moved was my eyeballs.”
It still gets 2 ½ stars out of 5 for stunning visuals.