Cherry Vs Avatar

'When his brother is killed in battle, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora'


(Nearly) every movie James Cameron (Pirahna 2: The Spawning) brings us is one that is important and groundbreaking (T1 & T2 and Titanic) in the cinematic world. Movies that you wished you could have gone to watch at the cinema is your were old enough at the time. Or if you had even been born. Avatar is one of those movies. Age isn't an issue here with the 12a rating. If you've already been born, go and see it and the cinema. In 3D. At an Imax.

South Park was quick off the mark with their excellent episode 'Dances With Smurfs'. Although the episode isn't solely about mocking Avatar it is quick to point out that James Cameron's latest mega blockbuster is just Dances With Wolves (1990) but with 'blue people' aka Smurfs aka the Navi. And then I heard a friend refer to Avatar as 'Fern Gully 3D'.

Now these two comparisons couldn't be anymore right: The hero, Sully, realises he's on the wrong side and leaves his 'own kind' and joins the 'savages'. The 'villians' only want the precious materials hidden beneath the surface of the planet and so move it with gigantic JCB's to destroy all of the trees/life that stand in their way.

And its not just the unoriginal plot that hampers Avatar but it suffers from cliches so bad it hurts. For example, the actor Wes Studi plays/voices the leader of the Navi. Anyone familiar with the actor will realise that he too was a 'savage' in Dances With Wolves and played a similar, almost identical role in Last of the Mohicans. Yes, he has that 'native american' look and sound to his voice and so the casting department assumed that he is great at playing a 'native' and would be perfect for the native leader of some far away distant planet. To see him completely typecast here is embarrassing.

Stephen Lang, on the human side of things, plays the stereotypical colonel who assists the corporate bullies with his warfare expertise and hard-nut marines, wants to skip negotiations with the Navi and get straight into blowing them to the next world. And he takes it especially personal when Sully turns against him to join the natives and makes it his personal mission to seek vengence. Of course, the colonel, who wouldn't be out of place in any typical Vietnam movie, is 'hardcore' and bad-to-the-bone, full of war scars, has no-nonsense attitude and speaks with a southern twang. Apocalypse Now/Kilgore springs to mind.

I think Cameron has a 'thing' for macho women. In Aliens with have the female, hardcore marine Vasquez, in T2 we have a muscular/military Sarah Connor and anyone familiar with the films of Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days) will now that she is now an ex-Mrs Cameron. The macho lady returns in Avatar, Michelle Rodriguez, playing a tough, straight-talking pilot who joins our heroes in their mission but unfortunately falls from the tree-of-cliche and hits every branch on the way down. Her character is only here to help the story along and offers nothing else. With Stephen Lang, her character shares first place for the worst lines in the movie. Dialogue so bad and cliche and cringe-worthy that it was becoming dated even in the 90's: 'I got a gun also, bitch!' Lang soon follows with with his lines spoken at the final showdown 'Come to daddy!' (or it could have been 'pappa!') He says this to a female... of course. In 2nd place for worst lines is that hard-nut marine who cries out 'come get some' everytime he fires his very large gun. The film is set in 215-something. Do people still speak like that?

Then there is Giovanni Risbi's corporate scum... just think of Burke from Aliens. Oh, and 'Wind in his Hair' from Dances with Wolves is also here and in full-blue. And then there is the romance between... well, think Romeo and Juliet.

I won't go on any longer about cliches, etc as I'm sure most people will be aware that originality isn't Avatar's strong point. Is it ever with Cameron? It was quite painful for me (as a movie buff) to watch the film with these cliches running so thick. I was easily becoming bored and agitated. And because of this I didn't feel much emotion or empathy for the characters. I had seen them all before and knew where they were all going. Also, the referecnes to 9/11 and the Iraqi war were so obvious the script could have been written in Crayola.

But, I felt all of this paid-off with the final act of the film. The battle sequences are truly amazing. Spectacular. Flawless. They have certainly set a new standard. Yes, its all so predictable (as if that was going to change at this point in the film) but all so engrossing! I'm not a fan of epic battles al la Lord of the Rings but Cameron is a true master of directing action (Aliens, T2, True Lies) and here he once again surpasses himself. He may not have much originality with story but where action is concerned nobody does it better. It is these final parts of the movie that make the film for me. I would have gladly paid for the cinema ticket (plus extra £2 for 3d glasses) for the final 30mins of the film alone. It gave me goosebumps it was so engrossing and great! It was here that I began to care for the Navi and their fight for survival and find myself on the edge of my seat.

Of course, the big selling point of Avatar is the visuals and its technical excellence. And a big part of the final acts success for me was scope and the visuals; truly epic in every sense of the word. Avatar is a visual masterpiece from beginning to end. The planet of Pandora is a visual feast with the most vivid, gorgeous colours and like the Navi themselves it all has the greatest of details so perfectly executed that it is almost 'real'. It is as though this planet and race really does exist and Cameron has simply visited there with his camera. In the past with all these SFX bonanzas (Independence Day, Matrix sequels, Lord of the Rings, 2012, etc) there were always scenes where the SFX looked 'dodgy'. Where the technical team couldn't quite achieve the visions of the director/script and make it look realistic. With Avatar there isn't a single scene or moment where a technical limitation shows it's ugly head. It is visually flawless. And it blows you away with this awesomeness.

There's the old saying about style over substance and SFX over story. Wasn't The Phantom Menace supposed be some technical benchmark? And like Star Wars I think Avatar may lack some soul. For me, Avatar was all about the third act. My cinema-buddy, less of a critic than myself, loved the film and more so its visuals. But then again she is an art student! Cameron is a master there is no doubting that and I really want Avatar to be the success it needs to be. Maybe purely for my admiration of his past films and the sake of his future ones as I'm sure he will go on to make film of the same high standard. If I was asked whether or not I would recommend this movie to people then I would give is 2 thumbs up... only for the third act. So yes, I was won over by the epic action and visual brilliance and NOT the characters or the story. Shame on me. But I'm sure everyone will take away something different from this movie. Original or not.

Acting-wise, there wasn't anything too terrible but then there wasn't anything too great. I'm not convinced yet if Sam Worthington, like Gerard Butler, is leading man material. He plays Sully the hero but play its by-numbers. As an actor he seems to lack a certain charm and charisma. But time shall tell. Zoe Saldana as the daughter of the Navi leader (and of course Sully's love interest) played it rather well and very firey/primal and cat-like. Sigourney Weaver I felt was just going through the motions. Stephen Lang is a good actor but wasn't really given much to play with or expand upon with his character. Giovanni Risbi, again a good actor, but not given anything to push his talents. And then there is Michelle Rodriguez whose past films I am not too familiar with but I doubt she has ever played a damsel in distress of some cute little rich girl. Her character is just there to help the story move along and assist the main characters when they are in impossible situations so it was all rather pedestrian.

I admire Avatar because it reminded of the amazing yet rare feeling and experience you get from a film and the power of cinema that you cannot get watching it at home.

Go watch it. In 3D. At an Imax.