Avatar

Avatar – 2009, James Cameron

Avatar is not a very healthy fantasy. Do we all want to be taller and thinner and bluer? Maybe if the human race were to find an alien planet occupied by a sexier versions of ourselves we would create our own version, only slightly better looking. We would indulge in paradise like the main characters of the film. The Na’vi that Sam Worthington possesses is more ripped than any other Na’vi male, and the Na’vi version of Sigourney Weaver looks younger than any other Na’vi female and has bigger tits.

As on screen fantasy goes this is the best looking and most compelling ever created (and I’ve seen The Red Shoes). In fact the most unrealistic things in a totally unreal world are the one dimensional, corporate bad guys. They make Disney villains look like well established characters. It’s a very lazy plot to have evil men destroy a paradise they don’t understand. All the effort that went into the creation of this film warranted a more mature and developed story.

Cameron must have been satisfied enough with his ‘biological-internet-circle-of-life’ to bother coming up with a more original plot to wrap around it. This is understandable as the world of Avatar is a good reflection of what the people of earth (the cinema going ones that matter that is) desire most. Huge amounts of human effort are put into the two goals everyone shares; to be attractive and to have lots of friends. We are achieving this though exposure to the ‘celebrity ideal’, and through social networking and all the friendships it provides, both real and superficial. Imagine if through natural evolution everyone was slim and gorgeous, and the very plants that grew around us provided a spiritual connection to the entire planet. Avatar is our greatest artificial fantasy in biological form. How long before Na’vi porn becomes a well established fetish? Move over Furry Fandom, Na’vi is the new ‘Yiff’.

There is a lot to like about Avatar though. If the Lord of The Rings films hadn’t convinced us that an imaginary world could be created on screen without looking fake, Avatar certainly does. With enough resources the greatest visions that the human imagination is capable of can be brought to life. I am truly grateful to Cameron and his production team. Cinema will benefit from the technical advances of this film. Unfortunately, the power of this new technology will be put to more bad use than good. I’m not looking forward to what Michael Bay and McG have planned for motion capture based CGI.

Some folks out there will not go to see Avatar for the same reason I didn’t go to see Transformers 2 ie sick of big budget bullshit being rammed down my throat. But this is one spectacle that is worth seeing. I suppose it really has to be seen in the IMAX, but does anyone else find 3D a bit blurry?

This is just the beginning.