Avatar (Theatrical)

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Since his Oscar-winning 1997 film "Titanic," James Cameron has done very little in the way of big-screen attractions. Now in 2009 for 20th Century Fox, he returns to writing and directing with the extraordinary science-fiction/fantasy "Avatar." I would assume that since we haven´t seen much from Cameron in the past decade, he would certainly have his work cut out for him. I would also imagine if you found the one-dimensional narrative in "Titanic" entertaining enough, then you would have no problems enjoying "Avatar."

The story itself is one that has been told far too many times in American culture. I couldn´t stop thinking that just about every Western ever made has told the same story. In fact, Disney´s "Pocahontas" is kind of similar, if not a carbon copy, of the story. What we have is a paraplegic soldier, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who has the chance to join a science/military experiment on a distant planet, with a group led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). The fine doctor needs Jake to interact with a tribe of alien beings known as the Na´vi, but he will have to do this in an avatar body that looks identical to a Na´vi. The attempt is to get the Na´vi to move from one gigantic tree they live in. Of course, this would be because the attractive, blue fantasy creatures live directly above the mother load of a very valuable mineral, a mineral we know very little about other than it´s worthy enough to turn greedy humans into savages.

Leading the pack of people we love to hate is Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi). Parker is leading the pack of workers to mine the alien planet and will stop at nothing, including the use of military force. Parker´s only concerns are money, power, and obsessive greed. Leading that military coalition is Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who is by far the most overacted, one dimensional character in the bunch. Colonel Miles is that one character that should have died eight scenes ago but always manages to narrowly escape peril. It´s like when Austin Powers is falling out that window with Robin Swallows and yelling, "Why won´t you die?"

As the story lugs on, you can almost paint in the outcome by the obvious numbers left on the screen. As Jake spends more time in his avatar body, the more he finds a connection within himself and the Na´vi. Naturally, there´s the subtle love angle with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), but certainly not at the domination level of "Titanic." No, this film throws us a common plot with literally no surprises, and uses some very attractive visuals to make us enjoy the taste of that big spoon in our mouth.

The Good:
Hands down, the best thing about "Avatar" are the visuals alone. It´s certainly going to be the drooling joy of anyone fascinated with visual effects and sound. Yes, it will be part of your Blu-ray "show off" editions. Not that there´s anything too original here, as I would say Cameron is just utilizing the visual arts of science fiction and fantasy that have already been around for decades. What we get here is a simple-enough story to paint up some wonderful visuals to stare at. Oh, and let´s not forget things we get to blow up, too.