Directed by: James Cameron
Written By: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, & Michelle Rodriguez
Runtime: 15 min
Rating: N/A
Trailer

Game-changer (n): 1. An innovation, improvement or advancement that, once introduced, forever changes the course of its medium. 2. A revolutionary, entertaining, captivating, extremely well-made film. 3. A damn good movie. Synonyms: Citizen Kane, L’avventura, Battleship Potemkin, Toy Story. Antonyms: The 15 minutes of James Cameron’s Avatar shown nationwide in an extravaganza cleverly dubbed Avatar Day; the 15 eye-straining, action-packed, occasionally gripping, always gorgeous – and always dead-eyed – minutes I was fortunate enough to see today. I say fortunate, because now I can lower my expectations back to Earth, where they belong.

What I’ve always loved about Cameron’s films has nothing to do with time-traveling machines, murderous aliens, vengeful terrorists, or underwater mysteries. No, what I love is that no matter how otherworldly the plot’s events are, the story’s heart is always completely human. And if I care about the people, I care about, I believe in, what happens to them. I saw vestiges of this Cameron as Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang, wonderful in Public Enemies) informs his troops of the dangers awaiting them on the planet Pandora; dangers he guarantees will claim some of their lives; dangers wheelchair-bound Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is ready to face. And once his consciousness is transferred into an avatar, a tall, lanky, long-tailed, blue-skinned creature, he faces these dangers, running up against – and running from – Pandora’s many perils, until a native, Neytiri (Zoë Saldana), rescues him. She becomes his guide, showing him the wonders of her home planet, integrating Jake into her way of life. Jake’s final exam, the footage’s closing sequence, is his attempt to commandeer a pterodactyl-looking animal. Jake rolls and rumbles with it, dangling over endless drops, dodging flapping wings, and daring to claim the beast as his own. They soon soar around Pandora as one. The union between Cameron’s CGI world and the 3D in which it is presented, however, is far less successful.

I’ve yet to see a film that benefits from 3D. Instead of focusing on the story, I spend the running time blinking to ease the strain on my eyes and wondering how this gimmick has sadly become a trend. Cameron employs the usual tricks of the trade: tails sweep out into the audience, guns point at our faces, and people and plants occupy planes at every depth of the field. I’m not sure what I was expecting – perhaps not much – but I struggle to see what will be so revolutionary about 3D’s use, once the full film is released on December 18th. What I saw tonight, I saw before, in Beowulf and Coraline: an expensive, pretty distraction. Take off the glasses, and I’m not sure how much lies below Avatar’s surface.

But this much is clear: a lot of time, effort, and money went into, and is surely still going into, this movie. Pandora is absolutely beautiful on the huge IMAX screen. At times – very brief times – it almost looks real, and my heart skips a beat, longing for the photorealism that is always promised, but never delivered. Avatar, like its mo-cap predecessors, gets the same rise out of me as one of Metal Gear Solid’s cutscenes: none. I cannot identify with blue beings with dead eyes; motion capture technology keeps me from seeing into their souls, and seeing them as anything but computer creations. I fear Avatar will be Cameron’s coldest film, all spectacle and no sincerity. This is shaping up to be an experiment similar to Watchmen: a story decades in the making, nuanced and heart-shaking on paper, but, when finally realized, remains as it was on the page: flat. And how draining those 15 minutes were. Not emotionally, but physically. Never have my eyes been so tired, so soon. Scour the discussion section of any film site, and you’ll come across talk of the dastardly things Avatar’s cinematic revolution will do to our eyes. I suppose this is that dastardly thing.

Sitting in the theater, waiting for the lights to dim, I remembered the electricity in the air as a packed house waited for the debut of The Dark Knight’s trailer. After our first glimpse of the havoc The Joker unleashes on Gotham City, the room erupted in applause, with unified voices begging, pleading, chanting, “One more time.” As the lights rose tonight, quiet applause gave way to hushed conversations on the way out: “What’s for dinner?”

Clarence Hammond
© Cinephile Magazine, 2009