Avatar Review

“A movie too big not to review”

I used to try and figure out what movies would gross a ton of money and which ones wouldn’t.  I would narrate to myself the specific qualities of these films that COULD make them the next big thing.  I deduced these few:

-A really good story or a mediocre story with a great payoff (i.e. A “didn’t see it coming” twist).

-Great preformances by noticeable actors.

-Great effects.

-Marketing.

In most ways these 4 categories are rudimentary and I’m sure I’m missing a lot, but let’s take The Dark Knight, for example. Good story? Check. Great performances? At least one, check. Great effects? Holy Checkmark Batman. And Marketing is a big fat checkola (pun intended).  So what am I getting at here? What I’m saying is that once in a blue moon, a movie comes along that may only have 2 of those check marks, but they are so definitively huge, that as long as the other two check marks hold water, you have a hit.  Ladies and gentleman, I present you Avatar.

James Cameron is into making big movies with new things that push cinema.  He also may be shorting some of that enthusiasm and skill in the areas that make films artistic.  Avatar has a used plot.  It’s nothing new.  The script is somewhat wooden, though certainly not as much as most people would make you think.  It’s the IT movie of now and has become the movie that your either cool to trash on or just apart of the masses who enjoy it.  There’s a lot to say against this movie in the areas of script and maybe acting.  But I bought the whole stinking lot of it.

Call me childish or blithe, but I enjoyed the experience of Avatar.  Having gone into this movie with shockingly little to no expectation, I found myself thoroughly enjoying trodden ground executed with just enough panache to match the spectacular effects.  Cameron has found a way to synthesize many different themes into his own to make a compelling sci-fi epic that holds water and delights your eyeballs.  Many people harp on the lack of originality in the movie with it’s story.  To that I say, look at some of our greater directors and tell me that they haven’t done the same thing.  One of them even won an Oscar for making a remake.

Sam Worthington here is fine as the hero.  Zoe Saldana is fine as the heroine. The supporting characters are fine.  I don’t see many problems with any of the acting here as they hold water.  The script certainly has it clunkers for scenes and may have been able to be trimmed.  It maintains a certain George Lucas, wooden doll acting approach at times.  But none of this ever for very long or frequently.  Not enough to bring you out of it.

I won’t deny that it’s kind of clunky and overly sentimental.  The bad guys wear black, the good guys white (metaphorically speaking) and we’re told who to root for.  But sometimes thats not all that bad, especially when you BUY into what you’re seeing.  Don’t go see this movie if you have a preconceived notion of whether or not you’ll like, which I’m guessing at this point would be really tough. If it’s possible, however, go and sit and just BUY into what you see.  Not lemming like, because the film doesn’t push back.  But enjoy it for what it is.  Because for all the criticism I hear about this movie and for all those same points I may slightly agree with, I bought the movie and enjoyed it.  Avatar gets a solid 7+ out of 10 Bones for being a fun, enjoyable film that had it’s clunky parts.

RATING:  PLUS!