Like most of the civilized world, I saw Avatar over the Christmas holiday. Unlike most of the civilized world, I was pretty disappointed with the whole experience.
Let me just get my biases out of the way: I'm not a huge James Cameron fan. I think he's a largely overrated, under talented filmmaker. The Terminator films (by which I mean, and mean only, the first and second ones) are solid. Aliens is very good. And I'm eagerly awaiting a Pirahna 2 special edition 4 disc DVD box set. But I have no patience for True Lies, The Abyss or Titanic. I didn't even want to see Titanic. Someone made me. His films look good, but his stories are contrived, bland and predictable.
Avatar is no expection. Visually, this film is stunning. The alien world Cameron (and, I guess, a bunch of pasty skinned nerds at computers) creates looks amazing. And if you're going to see this, you should see it in 3D to get the full effect. But the story is so paint-by-numbers that even the kids in the audience could tell you what's going to happen.
Cameron has stated that he's spent nine years developing the technology to make this project work. You'd think in those nine years, he'd have worked on the plot and character development a little bit.
3 comments:
An ultra-safe storyline is probably the smartest fit for a project that intends to spend half a billion on an effects gimmick, don't you think?
Not to say that makes it good. Just smart. I'm not a part of the specified civilization. :)
Absolutely, the story could have been safe, but there could have been more unique features to flesh out the bland plot. The military and the industrialist, for examples, didn't need to be so cartoony or one-note. The natives could have been less noble-savage. There didn't need to be the cliched final show between the so-committed-to-his-cause-he's-almost-invincible Col and the super-native avatar.
One interesting aspect - and perhaps evidence of our changing opinions- is the stark, 180 degree turn in how Cameron represents the military here and how he depicts them in Aliens.
In terms of sci-fi allegories that worked, District 9 retold the story of apartheid brilliantly. That was a pretty straight forward fish-out-of-water tale made interesting by smart twists and good characters.
That might be the most hyphens ever used in in a blog post.
YES! I remain the only person in the world, apparently, who has managed to evade the all-encompassing Titanic, which means as well one less time having had to listen to Celine Dion sing. Ha! I win!
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