Dances with Wolves meets Princess Mononoke in James Cameron’s Avatar. Ten years in the making, it’s a gripping, boundary-pushing eco-fable. It’s also a sure-fire blockbuster. But is it anything more?
Jarhead marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, Terminator Salvation) is hired by a mining corporation to aid its rape of the moon Pandora. Populated by the Na’vi, Pandora is a living organism – with all its flora and fauna interconnected. The Avatar programme projects human consciousness into the bodies of the Na’vi to gain their trust. Jake, a paraplegic, finds a new lease of life as a Na’vi. Love, loyalty and respect for life will follow. But betrayal and a battle are looming.
James Cameron (Titanic, The Terminator) loves technology. In Terminator 2 he created the liquid CGI which revolutionized screen effects. In Avatar, he’s sought to create the most believable digital, 3D world ever filmed. And it’s a stunning achievement, fully deserving a big-screen view. Pandora’s myriad creatures and country are ravishing. The Na’vi – blue, lizard-like creatures – are expressive and convincing.
But Avatar comes after Lord of the Rings; and 3D computerised movies are now commonplace. So Cameron’s wow factor is restricted to his scope and detail. Avatar is not so much a turning point but simply the one to beat. Cameron hoped to create a new wave. Ironically, the effect is to remind you of other films.
Plotwise, it’s Dances with Wolves, a soldier outposted to a different race and culture, lured in by their hearts and minds and turning against his own. Thematically, it’s Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, an eco-tale in which an outsider learns to protect a living world from rapacious mining. But it lacks the depth of either.
Snippets also remind you of other movies, even Cameron’s own. Aliens’ robo-showdown is rebooted for an exciting if overdone scene. Even the uploading of Jake’s mind into the Na’vi is reminiscent of the plug-in device from the The Matrix.
Still, Avatar is exciting, thrilling stuff and hardly fluffs a beat. Cleverly upending expectations, Pandora comes alive – sinister creatures reappearing in a different guise later. Action man Cameron also delivers. From jungle chases to aerial sky-dives on the backs of birds, it’s edge-of-seat entertainment. Helicopter gunships take on birds-and-arrows in a bravura battle.
Nearly three hours long, you wouldn’t think so. All credit to the cast (including an excellent Sigourney Weaver who looks cute as a lizard, and to Zoe Saldana from Star Trek as a Na’vi princess). And to Cameron for a well-balanced film that packs a punch.
Though it’s not deep, its message to Americans that they’re ruining the planet will reach more people than any classroom documentary. No kid will easily forget the stand-out surely-not moment when the Na’vi’s world meets the missiles from hell.
The verdict? Better than Titanic. Less gung-ho than Aliens, more human than Terminator, less stodgy than Lord of the Rings. In short, hugely entertaining. Princess Mononoke for the multiplex generation.
