Avatar Fever

James Cameron is an easy target. Why? He makes himself an easy target. He delivers Oscar speeches like this. He apparently inflicts a sort of borderline torture on his actors (at least according to Kate Winslet, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Ed Harris, Sigourney Weaver and…well, I guess anyone that’s made a movie with him). He makes unashamedly populist films like Titanic and True Lies, with cardboard heroes and villains that deliver Snidely Whiplash-like dialog. Oh, and he also makes movies like Avatar.

It’s easy enough to take shots at Avatar’s storyline. It’s a very, very simplistic one. ‘Nature good! Earth good! Military bad! Scientists smart! Don’t kill indigenous peoples!’. Honestly, that about sums it up. So it’s not terribly difficult to see how some might take exception, especially after being told this was ‘a game-changer’. The movie has an awful lot of flaws for all to see. Like when Edward from Twilight stands in the sun.

The characters, for one. You could typically rely on early Cameron films to have a certain devotion to character moments. Aliens, The Abyss and both Terminators are full of them. In fact, those films’ premises would swiftly fall to pieces were it not for strong characters you could identify with/care about. I sort of cared about Jake Sully because his brother died (not a spoiler really, you find that out about 5 minutes in) and he suffered a debilitating accident that left him a paraplegic, but never found much of a personality to identify with. He was a bit blank. Same goes for the normally outstanding Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi playing some kind of corporate stooge (I half expected a scene where he shouts ‘Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell!’ into the 2154 equivalent of a telelphone). I won’t even go there with Stephen Lang’s Colonel Quaritch. He was basically playing Rod Steiger’s character from Mars Attacks, but straight. You’re left unsure what anyone’s motivations are.

The dialog is not strong. Terms like ‘Jarhead’ get used too many times per sentence (‘I don’t need some dopey Jarhead Jearheading things up with his Jarheadism!’). Slang terms for the native Na’Vi – like ‘blue monkeys’ – seem forced and too deliberately placed to evoke genuine disgust. Everyone speaks like a caricature. No single character ends up a winner in the dialog department.

Then there’s the really big bone – this movie is racist! Well, I’m not totally convinced it’s racist. Simplistic, somewhat misguided, certainly. I don’t really enjoy ‘message’ movies on the whole, because a movie is not the ideal format for message delivery, IMO. Messages are totally subjective based on the viewer, even in movies that hit you over the head with it as hard as Avatar. For instance, while most reviews have discussed the obvious ‘noble savage’ implications and the displacement of an indigenous population, or even James Cameron’s possible presentism, I’ve seen no reviews that tackle what I perceived as a rather obvious point of view expressed in the film – primitivism. Or at the very least, a slightly neo-luddist viewpoint, e.g., the good guys are living in harmony with nature with very little technology, the bad guys are at the height of their civilization’s technical achievement, yet their mighty war machines are defeated in battle by natives with bows & arrows because of their harmony with Mother Earth. Though Sully’s transformation into his Avatar could be seen as an endorsement of transhumanism, which wouldn’t sit very comfortably next to primitivism.

And again, that’s my point. How much of this was intentional? How much of it wasn’t? How much of my interpretation of the film is taking place in Master Yoda’s tree? I’m not sure any of us should be spending this much time poring over a 3D blockbuster. I’m not advising everyone to shut off their critical thinking, but yes, I do think there are times when a cigar is just a cigar.

Putting all that aside, it’s also an entirely enjoyable movie. I liked it but didn’t love it, which seems to have vanished as an option in our popular culture. You either worship at the altar or spew bile in every direction. I’m neither, so where does that leave me? Nowhere, apparently. I’m Mr Lukewarm. Though I don’t see how anyone can deny how amazing the 3D is.

And honestly, I think the world needs James Cameron, if for no other reason than we need a mass market filmmaker with the same resources & reach as Michael Bay that doesn’t fellate the military with every frame. James Cameron is essentially the anti-war Michael Bay, isn’t he? Though I don’t believe he’s ever made anything quite as stupid as Transformers 2. I’m not sure anyone has, actually. The Fallen wasn’t scary at all, and Shia LeBeouf’s parents were cartoon characters. Oh, but that’s a rant for another day. At least Avatar didn’t have a Jar-Jar. Or a Shia.

Tags: avatar, james cameron, michael bay, Movies & TV, nerd related