James Cameron’s Avatar – Going Native on Pandora

James Cameron’s Avatar was originally released in theaters on December 18th 2009. Since its release Avatar would go on to become the most profitable movie in box office history to date raking in an insane total of $2.7 billion worldwide. DVD and Blu-ray sales totaled another $350 million dollars worldwide. The movie itself cost an estimated $460 million to produce and market, but the investment paid off handsomely for 20th Century Fox. James Cameron effectively sunk the previous worldwide sales record held by another one of his films, Titanic. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to declare that when it comes to record smashing sales James Cameron is competing against James Cameron. Much of Avatar’s success stems from its use of gorgeous CGI visuals along with its effective use of 3D film technology. If it hadn’t of been for the 3D technology Avatar might not have performed so amazingly in the box office. Even so, with $350 million in DVD and Blu-ray revenue alone the movie is still highly appealing without the 3D technology. 3D technology and amazing CGI may have propelled Avatar to record breaking status in the box office but the film’s story is less impressive. The overall story can be best described as unoriginal and predictable. Fortunately the action, visuals, and overall sense of adventure more than make up for the unoriginality.

By the year 2154 the Earth has become a very dreary place to live. The planet has become overdeveloped and economical troubles are persistent. Fossil fuel is just about gone and the human race has turned its hopes on Unobtanium from the lush moon world of Pandora as a fuel source. Because Unobtanium is located on a moon inhabited by the Na’vi, a sentient race of blue nine-foot tall cat people, taking the natural resources has proven to be quite difficult. Diplomatic relationships have failed and the human invaders and the native Na’vi are on the brink of war. Paraplegic and former marine Jake Sully is fairly unconcerned as he prepares to partake in the Avatar Program on Pandora.

The Avatar program is a biological program that combines the DNA of humans and the Na’vi in order to create a hybrid being that can work freely on the punishing Pandoran surface. The avatars were originally created to mine for Unobtainum but they now serve as environmental researchers and diplomats. The avatars are remotely controlled by human drivers via a mental link from a special link unit. While the human sleeps he or she can control the custom Na’vi avatar. Sully’s twin brother, Tom was originally supposed to take part in the Avatar Program but died on Earth. Since each Na’vi avatar contains the unique DNA of the human driver (and each avatar is extremely expensive to manufacture), Jake is approached because his DNA is a perfect match to his brother’s.

Despite his utter lack of knowledge about Pandora and the Na’vi Jake is assigned to the Avatar Program as a bodyguard for the scientists. He works directly under Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the Avatar Program. Despite her distrust of Jake as a military man she allows him to become an Avatar driver. On the military side of Pandoran operations Colonel Miles Quaritch takes Jake under his wing.

On Jake’s first outing outside of the military base he and the group of scientists are attacked by the Pandoran wildlife and he is separated from everyone else. As the former marine struggles to find his way back to the base, a Na’vi warrior by the name of Neytiri prepares to ambush him from above. As she readies a poisonous arrow a seed from the sacred tree of Eywa (the planet’s deity) lands on Jake. Taking it as a holy sign the female warrior reluctantly takes Jake back to her tribe, the Omaticaya. The Omaticaya tribe is located in a gigantic tree known as Hometree, which unfortunately sits on the largest deposit of Unobtainum on Pandora. The Na’vi are familiar with the avatars and know full well the human/Na’vi hybrids are remotely controlled. Intrigued by the fact that Jake was chosen by Eywa and that he is a warrior the Na’vi decide to teach him their ways.

When Jake awakens from his sleep and exits the mental link unit, Dr. Augustine is stunned to learn the Na’vi have allowed him into the Omaticaya tribe. Upon learning that Jake has become close to the Na’vi, Colonel Quaritch makes him a deal.  For any information on how the Na’vi people operate and their weaknesses he’ll arrange for medical treatment on Earth to restore Jake’s spinal cord. Additionally Jake is given the task of convincing the Na’vi to leave Hometree so the mining operations on Pandora can proceed. As Jake learns about the Na’vi he soon finds himself torn between the love of their culture (and Neytiri) and his duty to the mission.

In terms of the characters and their actors I found the much of the cast’s performances to be satisfying yet forgettable. Honestly, the only two characters who even felt remotely dynamic were Dr. Grace Augustine and Colonel Miles Quaritch, respectively played by Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. Given the tension between the scientists and the military Augustine and Quaritch were perfect opposites. Their roles more or less personify the understanding scientists versus the evil corporate military. As for Jake’s character (played by Sam Worthington), I found him to be fairly bland. For much of the movie Jake is a neutral protagonist until his character becomes more decisive in the final half of the movie–only after several characters are killed because of his indecisiveness. Neytiri (voiced by Zoe Saldana) comes off as a run-of-the-mill female warrior. For much of the movie she mostly serves as Jake’s capable Na’vi mentor and later love interest. Given that there is a planned sequel to Avatar I can only hope her character will be further fleshed out.

I largely found Avatar’s plot to be unoriginal. Yet, the lack of originality certainly wasn’t to the movie’s detriment (or revenue). Cameron managed to combine the overall story with a sense of occasional grandeur and interesting visuals. At worst Avatar felt like a rehash of various movie types were the male lead falls in love with the female lead during a conflict and he more or less ends up “going native.” In other areas the movie beats you over the head with a technology is bad and nature is good message. Although technology is partially the villain in this movie science (and by extension the scientists), are generally good. And if that weren’t enough many elements of the movie also have a post-9/11 feel to them with an obvious anti-war on terrorism spin. In short, there are very few plot twis
ts in this movie. If the outcome seems predictable it probably is. Despite the feeling of been there, saw that, the movie as a whole is still greater than the sum of its individual parts.

The special effects are where Avatar really shines. While watching the movie I was able to forget that everything I saw was computer-generated. The world of Pandora and its lush bioluminescent jungles and the Na’vi were fairly believable. With the use of incredible technology Cameron managed to weave together a world that was both beautiful and immersive. The real draw of the film comes from it being built from the ground up with 3D technology in mind, as both fans and detractors agree on the effectiveness of the special effects. Even in 2D the special effects hold up quite well. Coupled with the sense of adventure that comes from viewing the amazing world of Pandora and the well-paced action scenes the plot’s shortcomings can be overlooked most of the time.

I also found the amount of thought and depth Cameron put into Pandora to be very impressive. He even went as far as to hire a language specialist to create the Na’vi language. Almost no detail was spared in crafting Pandora, even down to the physical makeup of the inhabitants of the planet. On the human side of the cast Cameron did a fairly nice job of crafting a bleak 22nd Century Earth where the planet is in ruins thanks to environmental destruction. The state of Earth really helps drive home the environmental message. Unfortunately, much of Avatar’s back story and fine details outside of Pandora are only mentioned in the movie. Detailed information on the world Cameron has crafted is largely available though his online encyclopedia, Pandorapedia. Amazingly, you’d think such a huge resource would also be available on DVD but alas, the current edition only contains the movie. Things could change and some form of Pandorapedia could be included in an upcoming re-release. Still, the fact that much of Avatar’s rich back story is essentially contained in a online database is somewhat annoying.

Through and through Avatar is an enjoyable movie with fantastic special effects. However I’d be hard pressed to call it one of the best films of all time due to its lack of originality and predictable plot. Because I didn’t see it in 3D, I can’t really attest to that aspect of the film. Yet the popularity of the film (over two billion in box office sales!) and its role in a 3D resurgence can’t be ignored. Because of that aspect Avatar is a polarizing movie. Many diehard fans will claim it is the best movie of all time. While others will judge it as unwatchable based only on its popularity. If you keep an open mind and ignore the hype and the hate Avatar is an entertaining movie worth watching at least once.

Additional movie information via: Business Insider, The Numbers, Pandorapedia, and Boston.com.