Film Review by Emma Champion: Avatar (2009) – starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana

James Cameron is a rather strange anomaly in the world of film.  He goes all-out to bring original, ground-breaking movies to his audiences – some of which have become the most iconic films of all-time – such as Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), True Lies (1994) and, of course, the record-breaking, Oscar-winning tour-de-force that was Titanic (1997).  However, here’s where the weirdness enters into it: despite all these phenomenal successes on his illustrious CV, there were still people who dared to doubt his ability to deliver the most important project of his career, and, perhaps, of all-time.  Attention haters: you might want to eat your hats with a side-salad and a glass of water.

Avatar (2009) is Cameron’s latest attempt to make new headway in the movie biz, adopting newly-developed camera technology to create something truly unique.  It tells the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine who is sent to the planet of Pandora in place of his late twin brother.  Jake is placed on The Avatar Program, which involves humans growing genetic avatar bodies for humans to download their consciousnesses into in order to better mingle with the indigenous population – an alien race known as the Na’vi.  Working with the science team led by Doctor Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), Jake also moonlights as a spy for the corporate team led by money-hungry Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and crazed Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).  Whilst Augustine is only interested in the wellbeing of the race and in understanding the Na’vi, Selfridge and the Colonel are only interested in one thing: a rare mineral, aptly-named Unobtainium – an abundance of which sits directly below the village of one particular tribe of natives.  Jake is sent into the field in his able-bodied avatar to get close to the Na’vi in order to establish a way to reach the Unobtainium.  What he doesn’t bank on is the extent to which he will fall in love with their culture and their world, as well as one particularly pretty female hunter by the name of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).  When the time comes for Selfridge and the Colonel to strike, Jake must decide where his loyalties lie…

Detail like this has never before been rendered in CGI.  James Cameron has been waiting since he wrote the first draft of the script back in 1995 for technology to catch up to his vivid, and seemingly, limitless imagination.  With the help of Abyss camera whiz Vincent Pace, inventor of the camera technology which made Cameron’s numerous deep-sea expeditions filmable, a new camera system – the Cameron/Pace Fusion 3D Camera System to be precise – enabled Cameron to both up-the-ante in terms of motion capture and make it possible for the actors to see what Pandora would look like around them, as well as their blue-skinned alter-egos, on camera whilst still on set, in real time.  The result is literally breathtaking – you will gasp a-plenty at the sight of every whimsical creature; of every unfamiliar plant; of every new-fangled military machine; and of every picturesque landscape.  An especially favourable nod must be tilted to the character of Neytiri; she may just be the most beautiful creature ever beheld on celluloid; and yet another empowered female string to add to the bold bow that is Cameron’s back catalogue – she’s right up there with Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor in terms of arse-kickery.

Like most masterpieces, Avatar begs, borrows and steals from films that have come before it, with notable references to films such as The Matrix: Revolutions (2003) (the heavy-duty body army of the soldiers) and, arguably, Pocahontas (1995) (Man taught to understand and respect a strange new land from the perspective of the natives).  The most obvious comparison to be made is that of Avatar to online gaming sensation, World of Warcraft (configure a being of a fantasy race to look like yourself and run around a fictional world, trying your best to survive and progress).  Since Avatar is said to have grossed over £230,000,000 at the box office during its opening weekend alone, it would be almost negligible of Lightstorm’s merchandising department to overlook or fail to consider the prospect of a Pandora-based game which follows Warcraft’s successful formula.  You heard it predicted here first: watch this space.

There is something here for both the Terminator geeks and the Titanic fanatics.  Does this live up to all the hype, I hear you cry?  From a technical perspective, it certainly does, and then some.  Visually, you cannot fault this film.  There has been nothing like it before, and filmmakers everywhere are now doing their utmost to emulate its optical prowess.  Fans of Cameron’s previous sci-fi efforts are more than catered for with a plethora of hard-core machinery and action sequences.  However, these are the fans who might find themselves a little restless during the spiritual, touchy-feely segments of the story.  It is the devotees to Cameron’s nautical epic that will lap these sequences up, feeling their hearts swell when Jake learns to fly a “Banshee” or when he “chooses his woman.”  Regardless of which you are, you will find yourselves clutching the arms of your chair with knuckles white as snow during the final reel, which features a heart-stopping stand-off between the Na’vi and the humans – a phenomenal filmic achievement in itself.  That said, Avatar fails to elevate its audience to the kinds of emotional heights that Titanic achieved.  A disappointingly tidy ending leaves you wanting for something – making you feel like an ungrateful child at Christmas time, sat in a pile of presents, and still yearning for the one thing you didn’t get.

There are also a few beats within Avatar’s narrative relevant to the heartbeat of Earth, present day; look out for the scenes which see the brutal destruction of Home Tree – the fall of the Omatacaya tribe’s village at the hands of the humans.  There are definite parallels between this event and those which transpired in New York on September 11^th 2001 – the falling of a large structure amidst fire and smoke; a devastated population; victims trudging through the ash; leaves gently flittering to the ground in the aftermath – reminiscent of the little bits of paper and ash which rained down from the Twin Towers on 9/11.  These postmodern references, coupled with a clear environmental message pertinent to current climate change movement, make Avatar a movie with a message; it preaches that man became their own worst enemy and destroyed their world.  Jake speaks to Na’vi deity Eywa, saying “…the world we come from – there is no green there…”  Jake and the Na’vi stand up and fight for the “green” land of Pandora, and I am sure this is meant to inspire us to fight for the same cause here on 21^st century Earth.

But don’t be fooled into thinking this might not be worthy of your time.  One can’t help but admire Avatar for its boldness and its beauty.  Pandora is a place you simply don’t want to leave once you’ve spent time there.  You will already be planning your return journey before the credits have finished rolling.

This is history in the making, and you’d be crazy to miss it.  Avatar is staggeringly stunning in IMAX format, a wonder to behold in Real D, and even promises to hold up in old-school, 2D.  It remains to be seen how the DVD release will be handled – the 3D certainly transforms this from viewing pleasure to physical experience, and will be hard to replicate in your average living room.  In light of all this, it is pretty hard to deny that this film has certainly set a new standard, and Cameron’s contemporaries will have a hard time matching this effort.  This is a great achievement in filmmaking.

Highly recommended – and then some.

Emma Champion

Image sourced at:

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