Avatar: Movie Review

Director James Cameron made a huge gamble. He spent $500 million, more than any movie in history, in hopes of making the next great blockbuster and moving the art of moviemaking forward. The resulting film, Avatar, gives us plenty of reasons not to like it, but none of them matter. He succeeded in his quest and made a spectacular movie that is more than just a flick: It’s a destination.

In the future, Jake Sully, a former marine who is now confined to a wheelchair, travels to the planet of Pandora. The planet has massive stores of a valuable mineral, cleverly named unobtanium. The only thing standing between a militant band of earthlings and great wealth is a tribe of large, blue people, the Na’vi. Jake’s job is to pilot a biological copy of the natives, called an avatar, to gain their trust and ultimately con them out of their homes.

But of course, Jake gives new meaning to the term “going native,” and finds the stone age Na’vi to be everything the blustering, thieving earthlings are not. It is, of course, a retelling of the sad story of European Americans and Native Americans, except with none of the pesky nuance of real history.

The Na’vi are peace-loving, life-loving creatures of nature with no guile or cunning, and all good-looking in their blue-striped way. There doesn’t appear to ever have been a bad Na'vi. They certainly don’t fight among themselves, although many of them are noble warriors. One wonders who they fought.

They have ponytails that literally plug into other creatures, like flash drives, and allow them to link with the nervous systems of animals, the memories of trees, and the earth itself. The earth is a character in its own right, pulsating with knowledge, wisdom, and purpose. It’s the world Al Gore would have created, had he the power.  Add in a few snarky and unsubtle jabs at the Iraq war and some unnecessary swearing, and in any other movie, you’d have a dealbreaker.

But this is not any other movie.

James Cameron’s risk paid off. The world he created, despite its silly set up, is breathtakingly beautiful. As Jake walks through the jungle, flowers light up, creatures stir, and flying insects circle. The audience feels, more than in any other movie, that it is there in the jungle with Jake. When Jake walked through the aftermath of a fire, cinder and ash blowing in the wind, I instinctively reached out to brush ash off my lap. It is certainly worth seeing in the theater, and, moreover, in 3-D.

It’s not just the special effects that make it amazing. Cameron so fully embraced the Na’vi lifestyle that he makes the viewer wish to be a Na’vi. There is adventure on this world, ferocious beasts of land and air to evade or battle, fierce steeds to subdue. As the people soar on giant reptilian birds, shimmy up trees, or tiptoe through the luminescent forest, beauty after beauty unfolds. It’s a wonderland.

Many of the supporting characters are flat, such as the war-hungry general Quaritch (Stephen Lang), but the three main characters more than make up for it. Sam Worthington plays Jake as every inch a Marine, without nuance or even much thought, who slowly comes to respect and love the Na'vi. Zoe Saldana, as Neytiri, the warrior princess who saves Jake’s life, plays a brilliant blend of distain, grudging respect, and animal fierceness. And Sigourney Weaver returns to space as a scientist who pioneers the avatar program and who knows there’s more to this world than just trees.

That the lion’s share of this acting is done as giant, blue beings via CGI speaks both to the skill of the actors and the advancement of the technology. You forget that they’re computer programs. They look and move so realistically, and emotions come through readily. When the battles come, they are spectacular and explosive.

As with a good book or a sublime piece of music, I dreaded the film ending because I enjoyed it so much. Even at almost two and a half hours, I would have gladly sat through more. That is a rare feeling in this world and certainly worth the price of admission. Avatar is the very definition of blockbuster. In fact, it’s why we go to the movies.

by REBECCA CUSEY, who is a member of the Television Critics Association and does celebrity interviews, reviews, trend pieces, and event coverage. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Comcast.net, World Magazine, National Review Online, Relevant Magazine, Beliefnet.com, Crosswalk.com, and many other outlets.