Its director, James Cameron, hadlocked horns with studio execs as he obsessively-compulsively fixated onpost-production reediting. The film ran way over budget, surpassing the $200million plateau. Who would want to see a depressing three-hour tragedy about abunch of people drowning in the cold waters of the North Atlantic-during the holiday season no less? Who indeed?
Courtesy of an unprecedented 15consecutive weeks at the apex of the domestic charts and strong internationalappeal, the film became the leading box office hit of all time. Eventually, itgrossed a mind-boggling $1.8 billion dollars worldwide. In addition, Titanic garnered a record tying11-Oscars, including the coveted best film award.
Flush with success, the film'sauteur, James Cameron had wanted to follow up immediately with a futuristicfantasy script that he had written. However, he recognized that the technologyto translate his vision onto the screen did not exist yet. When Cameron saw thecharacter of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he concluded that hecould perfect the requisite technology. Cameron has publicly pontificated thathis Avatar will change moviemakingforever. Wags wondered aloud whether these were hubristic rants of anegomaniac. Hubristic perhaps, but the extraordinary quality of Avatar has forced Cameron's detractorsto eat their words.
Avatar is set on the distant planetPandorain the year 2154. Humans have befouled their home planet and depletedits natural resources. A mega-corporation has established a beachhead onPandora, where they are mining unobtanium, a precious mineral that fetches $20million per kilo. The biggest impediment to the corporation's avaricious agendais the presence of the Na'vi, a 10-foot tall, cobalt blue-skinned, yellow-eyedspecies. The richest lode of unobtanium lies directly under a sacred site ofthis ferocious indigenous tribe.
The corporation's point man, ParkerSelfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), is overtly disdainful of the Na'vi, referring tothem as "blue monkeys." He plans to displace the Na'vi from theirtraditional lands as a prelude to strip-mining the unobtanium. His preliminaryscheme involves persuading the Na'vi to voluntarily move. To this end, hehas recruited the services of cerebrotonic scientist, Dr. Grace Augustine(Sigourney Weaver). She has developed avatars, ersatz Na'vi, which can beremotely operated by their highly trained human counterparts. These avatarswill try to interface with Na'vi and engage in peaceful dialogue. Of course, ifdiplomacy fails, mercenary troops under Col. Miles Quaritch (a scene-stealingStephen Lang) will be dispatched.
Enter Marine grunt, Jake Sully (SamWorthington from Terminator Salvation).He is a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, crippled in battle. By happenstance, histwin brother, who had been prepared to be an avatar operator, has beenmurdered. Although Jake is devoid of training or scientific inclination, he isa DNA match for the avatar, which had been custom designed for his slain sibling.Over Dr. Augustine's vehement protestations, Jake is assigned to replacehisbrother in the science corps.
In his proxy avatar body, Jakeregains the use of his legs and virile vitality. With his mobility and zest forlife restored, he meets Neytiri (voiced by Zoe Saldana), a lithe Na'vihuntress. She turns out to be the daughter of the tribe's chief, Eytukan(voiced by Wes Studi from The Lastof the Mohicans). Will Jake's exposureto the Na'vi's synergistic co-existence with nature trigger an epiphany? Willhe eschew his role as lackey of the corporate oligarchy?
Cameron's screenplay does not drawfrom any literary work or mythic antecedent. Though original and set in anextra-terrestrial future, it is evocative of the sensibility that pervades suchrevisionist Westerns as A Man CalledHorse and Dances With Wolves.There are strong echoes of U.S.imperialistic fervor that manifested in Vietnamand later Iraq.The bellicose mercenary leader, Quaritch, snorts phrases like "pre-emptivestrike" and "shock and awe" with cavalier abandon. Implicit inthe film's subtext is a critique of corporate greed and its profit at all costsethos. Avatar offers an alternativeset of values, one congruent with the veneration of nature, practiced by theNa'vi.
Despite a running time of over twoand a half hours, you never feel the length of this film. Credit the tautpacing in conjunction with a compelling storyline, plenty of action, nuancedcharacters, resonant iconography, sharp dialogue delivered by a strong ensemblecast, and, most of all, sensational production values. Though eye-popping inits depiction of otherworldly flora and fauna, the performance capture C.G.I.never seems gimmicky or threatens to overwhelm the film.
Avatar adroitly blends cutting edgetechnology with classic narrative panache. It is a triumph of cinematic magic
