A typical Burroughs adventure would go something like this: protagonist finds himself embroiled in two warring cultures, typically they are a lost culture somehow, either living at the earth’s core, some lost civilization in Africa, or two warring races on Mars. Our hero eventually chooses a side in the middle of the conflict and using his superior intellect/muscles he helps the good side over come the other. There’s also a romance thrown in there for good measure. I’m over simplifying it to the extreme, but that’s the basic plot of every single Tarzan, or John Carter of Mars book.
Enter James Cameron, filmmaker. Oh sure, you may know him as the guy who wrote and directed the single most profitable movie ever made. But before that he was the guy who shaped science fiction cinema. I’d argue that Cameron, Ridley Scott, and George Lucas are the three filmmakers who came up with our modern vocabulary of science fiction cinema. Whether it’s the Vietnam inspired Aliens, or the gritty noir cityscape of Blade Runner, or the soaring, swashbuckling fantasy of Star Wars, you’re not going to find three guys who created the cinematic myths we’ve come to hold so dear.
After the massive success that was Titanic, Mr. Cameron waited for technology to catch up with his science fiction epic. Making a few underwater documentaries, and a Television show along the way. But when he felt that motion capture technology had caught up to the story in his head, he still wasn’t there, and never being a guy to just settle, he developed the technology for him to do it.
Enter Avatar.
I think I finally understand how people felt on May, 25th 1977 as that enormous starship sailed over an audiences head in Star Wars. I think I understand what audiences must have felt staggering out of theaters in 1933 after seeing King Kong. Hell, I haven’t felt this sense of sheer awe, and HOLY CRAPness, since I stumbled out of the theater seeing Jurassic Park. In the simplest terms I felt like a kid again. Believe the hype kids, this movie is the real deal.
Jake Sully is a crippled marine, a wayward and lost soul, trying to find his place in the world, or rather, universe. Sully is drafted to the planet Pandora a lush, forest moon, with an extremely complex eco-system, six legged things that can kill you, flying things that can also kill you, and a race off 12 foot tall blue cat-like people called the Na’vi who live on the largest supply of a precious mineral “Unobtanium” (yes it’s called that, and it’s actually a real engineering term). The Na’vi are not exactly happy about the humans being on Pandora in the first place. In order to learn about/get the Na’vi off the mineral deposit the humans have developed a program called the Avatar program where humans are plugged in(so to speak) to a genetically modified Na’vi.
Jake has been selected to take part in the Avatar program, because the hawkish colonel, Col. Quarich wants to keep an eye on the Na’vi and he’d rather not have the Na’vi standing at all. One gets the impression he’d rather just smell the napalm in the morning. Complicating Jake’s spying duties he falls in love with Neitri a warrior princess of the Na’vi, tribe.
You can see where things go from here.
Cameron has created a pulp adventure movie. Writ large across the cinema screen. He’s taken those simplistic tales of Burroughs at put them on screen. When I say that, don’t misunderstand, Avatar has an extremely simple story. But it is a story executed with wit, empathy and heart, it is a classic story in the Joseph Campbell mode. And when you’re reinventing the wheel visually it’s probably best not to do so naratively, our brains can only take so much.
I’m not going to do what other critics have done and gush about Pandora and the wonders found there. All I will say on the matter is this: Avatar MUST be seen on the biggest screen possible, and, if you can, in 3D. Simply put it is a visual feast for the eyes.
The actors are across the board fantastic, yes the script doesn’t give them a lot to work with, but the actors bring their A game to this. Stephen Lang as Col. Quarich was an amazingly evil badass. Sam Worthington is great as basically the audiences Avatar. But the real standout, is Zoe Saldana, who gives a tender, nuanced performance as Neitri the headstrong Na’vi princess.
I really didn’t expect to like this movie. Every single trailer, interview, and article about it left me cold. In particular the amount the film cost to make was very, very, disconcerting. In the end, while I don’t think a movie should cost the GNP of a third world country, all that money is up on the screen. Cameron has created a cinematic work of art, that from here on in will be studied, and take on a life of its own in much the same way Lucas’ Star Wars cycle has.
Avatar is pure genre cinema at its finest. I can’t recommend it enough.
