Review: Avatar (3/5)

Avatar
(James Cameron):
Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, (Voice: Zoe Saldana). Running time: 162 minutes (12A) HHH

We were told about banks, during this Great Recession, that were “too big to fail”. Well, here’s a film that is “too big to fail” too – James Cameron’s long-anticipated sci-fi action-fantasy Avatar. It is a film, he has said in a moment of hubristic critic-baiting, that will change movies forever. And at a cost of $500m, its distributor 20th Century Fox will make sure the world will buy into it.
It’s certainly a film that will take your breath away, though not for the right reasons: this is a victory of ceaseless spectacle over innovative storytelling, a white-man-goes-native plot that is yawningly conventional and dumbed down to hell. After 162 minutes, I couldn’t shake the feeling I had just watched a very posh-looking, not to mention instantly forgettable, Michael Bay film.
The very dull Sam Worthington stars as Jake, a ‘Jarhead’ marine with a spinal injury. He travels to the distant planet of Pandora where an aggressive corporate enterprise wants the planet’s resources. They have to relocate a native, humanoid race called the Na’vi – intelligent indians who look like giant Amazonian Smurfs – away from their homeland. As part of the battle to win “hearts and minds”, Jake climbs into a pod and assumes his Avatar – a Na’vi body which he controls with his mind – and goes to live with the locals where they accept him as one of their own. There are sprinkled references to Iraq and Bush’s tenure, but the story takes a turn into twee environmental fable when Jake falls in love and turns against the villainous imperialists, preferring the intuitive, primitive life over shallow technology.
I’m with Jake on this one. While Cameron really wows you with gee-whiz technology, you’re almost blinded from noticing how the film’s emotional engagement is flatlining. Live action and animation are merged into a seamless fit. Pandora’s jungle and its exotic creatures are a lush spectrogram of colour. And while the 3D is a classy affair, I didn’t emerge from it feeling I had just experienced a revolution. Contrary to the plot, technology wins and heart and soul loses. The emperor James Cameron is not naked on his horse, but he is wearing little else but fancy underpants.