Avatar

From the opening minutes of Avatar, it's imminently clear that we are not in Kansas anymore.

Director/wrtier/producer James Cameron's love letter to his sci-fi roots and reportedly the first film needing to make $1 billion to break even with all the technology and marketing at play, the time-worn "mercenary-turns-native" trope familiar to filmgoers from Dances With Wolves through to The Last Samurai is evident. For the next three hours, it’s obvious where we’re headed, most especially since the script gives no room for genuine surprises, nor for shades of grey in its unashamedly simplistic moral landscape. The fact that we get to the destination in reasonable fettle, therefore, is testament to the unparalleled scale of the spectacle, and the breathless pace with which, for the most part, it unfolds.

Cameron’s first film for a decade carries the coda of many of his previous works, including his trademark fast-cut camerawork. But it’s with his 1986 movie Aliens that filmgoers will find the strongest echoes, from its strong design elements down to story-featured technological details, and the presence of Sigourney Weaver (albeit in a markedly different role). Indeed, it could well be seen as a companion piece; set in an identical future where corporation-led humanity is mining planets far from Earth. But whereas the marines in that film are heroes, here they are the aggressors.

This time our sympathies lie with the Na’vi whose peace-loving nature is at one with the forest planet of Pandora which they are being forced to defend. Yet for all the quasi-mystical eco-babble with which their dialogue is peppered, they are rendered with sufficient verve and imagination to command our loyalties. It’s true to say that Cameron isn’t just performing this exercise in role-reversal merely for the sake of it, but is revisiting some powerful ghosts of the western conscience, with imagery deliberately reminiscent of the colonial conquests of the Americas, and 20th century military misadventures - Vietnam in particular.

Sam Worthington, as Jake Sully, is very watchable in the lead, proving that all he needs is a good director to channel his performance. The supporting cast hold up well too, however highest plaudits go to Star Trek's Zoe Saldana as Neytiri. Though we never see her outside of her digital skin, she manages to bring a much-needed intensity and depth to her role. The film is overlong, certainly, and the denouement feels like it has been slowed down to the pace of a final level baddie match-up in a not very demanding video game. Putting all else aside, however, it’s as an unmatched visual extravaganza that Avatar rightly makes its bid for a place in cinema history, with its literally stunning realisation of the world of Pandora and its flora and fauna. Much press has been made of its ‘game-changing’ SFX, but on this level at least the film lives up to, and exceeds, the hype. The pixel perfect 3D, alongside the depth and texture of the setting, produces immersion that is unsurpassed and conjures a vision of haunting beauty which lingers long after the credits roll.



Released in cinemas on 17th December 2009 by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation & Dune Entertainment.

Written by Simon Cole.