Movie: Avatar

So... After all the negative opinions surrounding this film, i finally sat down and took it in, trying to be as open and unbiased as possible.
First i'll explain the flaws as i saw them:

1) Poor casting: Namely Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver. As Parker Selfridge, the commander of the operation on Pandora, Giovanni had hopes of playing a shallow business man looking at the bottom line of a financial transaction, but with his whiney voice and weak delivery he came off spineless and never posed any threat as the primary villain.
Sigourney had intended to play the harsh but motherly scientist, but this was also lacking because she came off as cold and somewhat detached. Of course this could have been easily avoided with a very simple amount of character development, but alas, such a thing was never attempted.

2) Forced Dialog: There were several moments in this film where a character would say something that was obviously intended to describe them but seemed out of place in natural dialog. Stephen Lang (the colonel) had a few of these moments, where he was saying things that fit the character of a "badass," but with no reason and with little effect on whoever he was talking to.

3) Flexing 3D muscle: Some scenes were obviously only part of the movie because they would look neat in 3D, which in my opinion defeats the purpose. As soon as you notice something like that it removes you from the experience, reminding you that you're just watching an illusion rather than being immersed in the environment.

4) Music: I'm not sure why Cameron would skimp on something that caused great success before. I mean we all remember that god damn Celine Dion song (Titanic) no matter how much we want to forget it. There was nothing even remotely memorable in the score for Avatar and that's a real shame.

Now for the pros:

1) Real human emotion: With Avatar i really think Cameron has combined the basic strengths of two summer movie creators: Michael Bay and Michael Mann. Bay obviously for the effects, but Mann because of the emotion. Although Mann has flopped on his most recent movies i've always thought his presentation of human expression evokes empathy in the viewer on a level not many artists can achieve. Cameron has demonstrated this a few times before, but this is his strongest example. There were moments between the main character and his love interest that i felt what they were feeling, even under all the CG of an alien face which is unbelievably impressive. The technology and creativity they used to capture human expression and convey it through an artificial face must have been astounding. So props; I felt something Cameron.

2) Originality: There were some creative quirks presented that really surprised me. The one that stood out the most was the connection the alien race had with their environment, not only on a spritual level, but on an actual physical level where they would literally plug into their environment and feel what each creature was feeling. This allowed for a really novel presentation of the evidence of actual spirituality and evidence of an afterlife in the form of a large tree that captured the memories of ancestors long dead. Really neat imagery, really beautiful idea.

3) Confirming Zoe Saldana as a fox: I explained before the detail in human expression from these aliens. Well, this girl comes off as down right sexy even though we never see her actual face or body. Just awesome. And she's my nomination for best performance in the film. Her war screams and desperate cries were spot on.

The last thing I'll mention is a really substantial risk Cameron took writing this:

4) Hatred for American culture and the killing of a butt-load of enlisted men as a statement: I understand that this movie was at the heart a social commentary against the slash and burn mentality of the US, but damn did a lot of innocent men die in this film. I had some mixed feelings about this mostly because i was relating to the alien race more than the human race, but i think it was deliberate and constructed to do exactly that; to give the viewers mixed feelings and provoke them to ask questions. A pros list aspect for sure.

So, yes, it had flaws, but i'm tired of pretentious people sticking their nose up at this film, especially those who refuse to see it. It's just a movie, and it's certainly one worth seeing and talking about.

3/5