awesome |ˈɔsəm| adj. extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear
Well, except for the fear part that most overused of adjectives is an apt description of Avatar 3D. The virtual world that director and writer James Cameron has created is at once stunningly realistic and also astonishingly unreal. This is a razors’ edge that he navigates without fault through-out the far too-short seeming two and a half hours of movie.
I could go on about the visual effects for pages, but lt me just say that this movie is a game-changer. Much like Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Empire Strikes Back, 2001, Jason and the Argonauts, Mighty Joe Young, and King Kong before it, all future movies will be measured against this film for their special effects. Yes, the effects are that good. The Computer graphics are that advanced, the characterization of the Avatar is that perfect.
As for the plot, you’ve seen this movie before. Many times, in many slightly different ways. Sure, there are parallels to Dances with Wolves, and to countless other westerns, but that’s just the beginning. This movie draws on dozens before it. In fact, it might be said that each person is going to see a slightly different film depending on what films they’ve seen before.
The politics are simplistic and on a certain level the movie relies far too much on a quasi-religious spirituality that comes across as some sort of apology for the European’s history with the indigenous people of the Americas. There is a touch, but just a touch, of pseuo-scientific explanation for this spiritual connection that the plant and animal life on the entire planet shares, but really, it’s just a sort of ‘Indian’ religion dressed up for a movie.
But that hardly matters. The movie is a wonder to watch, and there are portions where you are left in slack-jawed amazement of what you’re seeing. there are other times when you are pulled into the film and you forget it’s even 3D, it’s just real and surrounds you.
There are no shocking twists, the ending is telegraphed an hour out–if not more, and the whole story is a tapestry of other stories; but in a good way. The movie draws on its source material for familiarity, to draw the audience into the story and to make it seem comfortable and familiar. This is good, since the landscape is anything but.
A lot of thought went into the movie, from the elongation of most of the creatures due to the slightly lower gravity to the use of the old joke-term ‘unobtainium’ for the precious resource the planet has that humanity needs.
Zoë Saldan (Star Trek) and Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation) have great chemistry on screen and their growing relationship is the fulcrum for the whole film. If it didn’t work and wasn’t believable the whole edifice of the movie would crumble into absurdity. But it does work, and so the movie works. Michelle Rodriguez (“Lost”) puts in a good performance as well
Rumors are this is the most expensive movie ever made, with reports of $230-250 megabucks, and some estimates pushing half a gigabuck. Even so, it’s not going to have any trouble making its money back and turning a healthy profit. This is a must-see movie, and it’s a movie that will draw repeat viewers. Will it break Titanic’s record? Almost certainly. Will it break Gone with the Wind’s ticket sales? Well, no, that would be a stretch.
The only real question is will theater commitments for their Digital 3D and IMAX screens prevent Avatar for staying on the largest screens as long as it should? It’s possible that contractual commitments to other films will curtail its box-office take, especially since this movie really needs the best possible screen and 3D to get the full effect of what Cameron has achieved.