I should prefix this by saying there are a few minor spoilers if you haven't seen the movie, but nothing that will completely come as a surprise or ruin a first viewing.
I held off seeing Avatar until almost a month after it's release for a few reasons. Main one was I've become much more hype averse over the past 5 years or so, seemingly my brain has caught up to the notion that it's usually in the media's interest to go on and on and on about something even (or sometimes especially) when it's below par. Secondly, after my original thoughts when the trailer came out I was waiting to see if it did actually fall on it's arse.
It didn't. Guess that told me, eh?
I'm very, very glad I saw it in IMax 3D. This is really the way the film is supposed to be seen, and I really cannot knock the design or execution of the effects at all. It is genuinely mind-blowing at times. I did have a problem with the 3D at the very start and in the initial sequences in the base, every object seemed to be demanding attention from my eyes and it was quite tricky to follow things at first. This did change a lot in the forest, and the effects really come to life (excuse the pun) there. The plant life is astonishing both in design and look, and the 3D really works perfectly. Best examples are the anenome-like creatures floating around, and the ash falling in the aftermath of the first major battle. Beautiful.
We are so close now to having digital actors it's untrue - many, many times during the film it seemed that Zoe Saldana's Neytiri was just her wearing prosthetics and makeup, it looked that good. They've fixed the dead-eye problem too. I did feel that the other Na'vi weren't quite as good but that is to be expected I suppose as even a $500m movie has to constrain somewhere. Sigourney Weaver's avatar looked spookily like her but this meant that it looked to me like more of a caricature rather than a believable creature.
Being able to achieve all of these remarkable effects is the very reason James Cameron waited 14 years from original idea to finally being able to realise his vision. It sure as hell can't have taken 14 years to put the story together - in fact I would love to see the original idea notes for the film from way back then as I would be surprised if it wasn't a massively different plot, certainly not the bundle of old ideas he's put together here. It seems as if in the past decade spent filming in remote areas and underwater JC has developed a healthy respect for the Earth but also a massive loathing of humankind. It's fair enough to produce a film dealing with environmental issues and taking a swipe at the blood-for-oil mentality, but it is another to try and pass it off as something original by wrapping it up in (admittedly astonishing) special effects. It felt at times as if the film was just a big 3D shovel with "Humans Bad, Nature Good" written on it, hitting me in the face.
There are enough posts on the web pulling the plot apart and showing that it's just a rehash of "Pocahontas", "Dances with Wolves", "Fern Gully" and so on, so I'm not going to bother with all that. I will say I found the story very predictable at every stage - not once did I think "wow, really didn't see that coming", everything from Jake being accepted into the tribe, to getting the girl (and how he did it), to what came thundering out of the forest to finally see off the troops at the end of the battle. The "Noble Savage" thing has been done to death, but in this the Na'vi were just protrayed as SO GOOD it was untrue - even when it became clear to the main Big Warrior Na'vi that this fake half-breed thing was going to take his bird he didn't do anything about it! No demands of a fight to the death or anything! Then when all the tribes (which had only been vaguely mentioned once in passing until then) were visited there was not a hint of any bad-blood between them. What are the chances of that? Even if you look at untouched tribes on Earth that's not realistic, they're still animals for pete's sake. Or is it just me being cynical? The people who feel suicidal that they can't go and actually live on Pandora would probably disagree with me, I'm sure...
Obviously people go to see films for different reasons, some just want a firework show which they go back to see again and again because it's so pretty, but I like to think back a week, month, year later and think "That film was just great, the character of xxxx was so great", and remembering dialogue or set-pieces. I've thought almost nothing about Avatar at all over the past week except for today when getting ready to write this. It's mostly gone from my mind already, which is a real shame for something that is actually an important moment in cinema.
Still, I didn't actually pay for the ticket, and I can't complain about losing 3 hours of my life or anything. I think people should go and see it, but only in the way it was intended. I doubt I'll see it again, and definitely won't be getting the Blu-Ray. That just won't work until we have 3D TV - I'm kind of reminded of the Simpsons episode where Homer quits drinking and tries to watch a baseball game while sober, "I never realised how boring this game is...".
Anyway, I'd like to see the following things happen next:
1 - It should clean up the tech awards at the Oscars, but definitely NOT get anywhere near the Best Film award.
2 - JC makes "Battle Angel Alita" next before (or instead of) 2 more Avatar sequels as he has threatened.
3 - Give David Fincher the money and this technology for him to go and take another run at "Rendezvous with Rama". That story actually deserves the treatment
4 - Keep Michael Bay and Roland Emerich the hell away from this tech, on pain of death. At least Cameron knows how to direct an action scene.
8/10 in IMax 3D. 5/10 if I'd seen it in 2D or on DVD.
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