James Cameron, the man responsible for the award-winning "no-one-on-Earth-hasn't-seen-it" Titanic (and True Lies and Aliens to be fair), has returned from a long hiatus after his hugely successful 1997 film with a new idea and a greater innovation that blows George Lucas out of the water. Avatar has been in Cameron's head for years, but up until recently the technology hasn't been up to par with his vision. He specially designed cameras primarily for 3D visuals and crafted something stunning and much hyped. The big question is: does Avatar live up to the hype and is it worth the expensive price to see it on the big screen?

Jake Sully is a paraplegic marine who has to take over for his deceased scientist brother on the Pandora--a well forested planet with full of Na'vi, a blue-skinned race who lives off the land with spiritual guidance from the trees. Sully was chosen because an Avatar (a hollow Na'vi body) was created for his brother and only he can psychically connect into it. With the help of his scientist leader, Grace Augustine, they must find a way into a tribe so that the greedy corporation they work for can come in and deplete the lands of an expensive material they need. However, Sully likes being inside the Avatar too much. He has his legs back, he's powerful, and he's fallen in love with the tribe chief's daughter. When the corporation's motives come crashing down around him, he must decide if he wants to become a Na'vi and betray his race propelling a sh*t storm all around him or continue with the mission.

Avatar singlehandedly takes Pocahontas and Fern Gully--two animated films I grew up on dealing with nature and ideals--and synthesizes them both into something adults can really dig. Cameron certainly doesn't get marks for originality as the theme has been done before. The story is largely predictable, but I don't think it matters given the amount of eye candy onscreen. Granted, that sounds pretty bad ("ooh bright colors!"), but the story is what it is and I didn't really have a problem with it.  The glue binding the theme to the story is actually pretty well done and you actually care about the characters. Did I mention how cool it is to have a disabled veteran hero?

I'm not a huge fan of 3D movies. I was hoping they were a phase, but given the success of this film and others from last year I don't think they'll be going away any time soon. I think one of the problems with it is that the ticket prices are already so bloated that to add another surcharge is simply too much for peoples' budgets (me included). The theatre we went to was $13.75 per ticket (matinee price). We originally were going to see this in IMAX, but the tickets were all sold out, which has been a mainstay from what I hear, so I would encourage you to buy your IMAX tickets from Fandango. Another reason why I'm not a huge fan of 3D movies is that my eyes get disoriented because I can't focus on anything. Granted, I have bad eyesight, but sometimes these kinds of movies make me dizzy and distracted by things popping out.

Avatar is a horse of a different color, though. Because it was specially designed for 3D and wasn't tacked on, the whole movie handles it in a way that's truly innovative and not in your face a whole lot. I would call it subtle 3D because it's very manageable yet slick and entertaining. Instead of things popping out and cheap tricks, the movie uses the effects with a dignified grace I've never seen before. The screen appears larger and the images overflow off of it to make you feel like you're much closer to the action. That said, there is a ton of cool 3D effects that make your eyes fill with wonder at the sheer depth of the visuals and the jaw-dropping animation. There are actual actors in the movie, but all of the Na'vi parts are greatly CGI-animated with lifelike designs that I've never seen so well done. This is definitely the farthest CGI has gotten and the technology is definitely bright. I think that if you are going to see Avatar you might as well shell out the money for 3D because it was designed specifically for this, for one, and for two: the experience is brilliant and gratifying. 

Call me "lame and geeky", but I was most intrigued because of Sigourney Weaver's involvement with the project. It not only reunites Ripley (Aliens, anyone?) with Cameron, but she's definitely one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood. Weaver gives an intelligent performance as Dr. Augustine, the idealist "hippy" who's all about the Na'vi. She not only has some of the best lines, but she truly shines onscreen. Jake Sully is played by Sam Worthington, who you might remember from Terminator: Salvation. Let's just say he brought his robotic acting into Avatar (not in a good way). His lines are hollow (granted, it's probably due to the script), but he's not really an actor that has the confidence to really pull off a character like Sully.

Michelle Rodriguez also has a small role in this movie as a (shocker) strong Hispanic military helicopter pilot. Will she ever beat the typecast? The two golden boys of the movie are Giovanni Ribisi (I love this guy) as the head of the assignment trying to get to the material and Joel David Moore as one of the lab technicians. First of all, Ribisi plays the smart-mouthed and cocky "bad guy" of sorts who's mighty selfish, but he's really just a puppet for Stephen Lang's GI JOE character, Colonel Quaritch to lead. Moore is a guy I've been following (not literally) for a few years after his awesome Hatchet horror movie. He's some nerdy comic relief, but he's underutilized in the film. Hopefully he gets recognition for this to make way for some bigger roles.

I only have a few negative squawks about the movie. One is the script, which is quite good, but doesn't have the type of groundbreaking steam to go with the visuals. I guess I was expecting a completely original story because of the sheer amount of time this project has been working through the cogs, but I was a little let down by the finished project and how it parallels those aforementioned animated films of my youth. Another thing that was a bit of a drag was the dialogue. While Cameron had some help making a new dialect for the Na'vi, the human dialogue is hard to stomach at times with gratuitous swearing that's awkward and completely unneeded.

Something that has been discussed at length is...how long Avatar is. At about two-hours and forty minutes, this is another long movie by Cameron and most people I've talked to felt like it was too much. What's surprising, however, is that the movie doesn't seem that long. It builds up the conflict as well as Sully's character with his interactions with the Na'vi and living amongst them. There are many great action sequences as well that throw you into the movie and a huge alternate world to explore with your eyes as you're watching. Despite the story not being the central part to the film as the visual effects, it's not bad by any means and the pacing is quite good to make the film not appear as long. 

Over the weekend it was announced that Avatar has broken the billion dollar barrier worldwide surpassing last year's hit The Dark Knight and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King continuing to break box office records along the way. What's this mean? James Cameron is the only director in the history of cinema to have made two billion dollar earning films let alone back to back. Say what you will about the film industry and how much this number was amped because of the 3D and IMAX costs, but this is a sobering statistic with Avatar still going strong.

I wouldn't call Avatar one of the best movies of all time, but it's deeply entertaining and a worthy addition to 2009's late lineup. It's less of a sci-fi movie per se than an animated hybrid action movie with the fixins'. There's enough story to propel the film and enough eye candy to go into a diabetic coma so it's without a doubt that I easily recommend Avatar, but will it be as spectacular on Blu-ray and DVD? The truth is in the pudding: go to your local cinema and charge the 3D to your credit card because this can't be missed.

© Jason Haskins, 2010

Recommended: Yes