Avatar

Sometimes if a film excels so exceptionally in one specific field of filmmaking (be it screenwriting, cinematography, directing, acting, etc.), all of its other flaws in the other departments of the filmmaking process can be easily condoned. Avatar epitomizes this notion. Weak screenplay and cheesy dialogue aside, this is a film that holds true to its austere ambitions and surpasses its own self-coveted hype. Exclamations such as “film event of the decade” and “the most revolutionary film of a generation” have stuck to the project like flies on a swatter, and the justice within those statements can only be beheld once one experiences the film for what it is: a supreme technical marvel and a spectacle of pure imagination.

Story and character-wise, it’s as bare bones as you can get. Yet in this case, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as writer/director James Cameron gives us a tired storyline and livens it up with his own vibrant mythology. While I often find it to be unfair to judge a film by comparing it to others, consider Avatar to be a futuristic rendition of Dances With Wolves with an ensemble of marines and giant blue aliens. But Cameron injects the fable with his own adrenaline-induced mythology to truly set his own precedent on a “been there, done that” idea and to give something visually incomparable to anything we’ve seen. The planet of Pandora is suffused with lush creativity on Cameron’s part, as well as the aliens known as the Na’vi and their corresponding connection with their environment, be it culturally or spiritually. Cameron is no stranger to knowing how to engage his audience with compelling sci-fi, and in that respect, he firmly succeeds in igniting our attention from frame-one.

But there’s no doubt that the true, ever-vital epicenter of Avatar’s awe and wonder comes from its utilization of the latest technological advancements in filmmaking. The way in which Cameron’s vision is brought to the screen is truly remarkable and is just an incredible artistic feat on the technical end of the spectrum. Not only is the world of Pandora brought to life to mind-boggling proportions (several aspects of the computer-generated planet seem as real and as palpable as anything else) but also the creation of the Na’vi is incredibly surreal and well rounded, not to mention a breakthrough in the same league as the creation of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. The way in which practically zero percent of the Na’vi are animated, but rather the actors themselves wearing “computerized makeup” only adds to the glaringly realistic, textural look of the computer generated visuals. And while the aspect of 3D has become a bit of a gimmicky fad in the film industry, this cannot by any means be said about Avatar. Running parallel with its technological breakthroughs is the film’s brave and merely unprecedented use of 3D photography – an asset that only makes the viewing experience ever more immersive.

Though its technical feats should and have been met with completely justified praise, one can easily find that there is not too much to praise over on the more substance-fueled end of the spectrum (i.e; the screenplay). Be it formulaic characters and plot turns or cheesy dialogue, I can admit right now that none of Avatar’s flaws in writing impacted my experience one bit. On the contrary, this only added to the generic space opera-style, old-fashioned storytelling approach that was also intended for franchises such as Star Wars or the Saturday morning serial influence of Indiana Jones. The acting can be just as generic, the villains being complete caricatures, but Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana make admirably convincing turns as the two leads of the film that fully succeed in carrying the weight of the project. Especially impressive is Worthington who, with practically no films under his belt except for the dud that was Terminator Salvation, manages to pull off the role as the protagonist with seeming ease and utmost confidence – a confidence that truly shows and proves his worth as a potential action film star.

It can often be easy to be carried away within the massive hype surrounding an event film, and it’s quite a rare occasion for that hype to be completely justified. If it had the same screenplay and had been any other run-of-the-mill summer blockbuster under an amateur director’s hands, there may have been reasonable doubt that Avatar would have met expectations and been a complete dud. But thanks to Cameron’s sure creative hand and his utmost confidence and ambition, the film manages to completely get away with all of its rule-breaking by presenting us with something unlike we’ve ever seen before – a movie-viewing experience in its own right. Even in the few weeks following its release, it is already starting to prove to be an influential corner stone for its kind of filmmaking, and for that, the film and Cameron himself deserve utmost regards.