Cameron sets new record as Avatar claims highest grossing film ever

Avatar (2009) - dir. James Cameron - 4 stars

This is a film that was hailed as the dawn of a new type of cinema before it was even released. It created enough hype and speculation to rival an Apple product release (watch out on January 27!). I paid good money to experience this creation as it was meant to be. Off I went to the Odeon Leicester Square, put on my 3D glasses and got ready to be sucked into Pandora. I must say that I was amazed at what I saw, and I do agree that this film will change how science-fiction films are made and seen. However, I draw the line there. Despite its three dimensional presentation and (virtual?) reality, the characters are sadly two dimensional stereotypes and the story a revised version of Pocahontas. I guess Cameron thought that with enough 3D and bigger, meaner dragons, he could cover these shortcomings.

But I must not be so harsh. After all, Cameron has been dreaming up this film ever since he was a kid, and it shows. The detail that has gone into making Pandora a real, breathing world is evident. This is a complete world filled with herbivores, carnivores, insects, plants, you name it. It is so painstakingly created that it is real for all we know. There are many minutes in the film where the main purpose is to indulge the viewer in their new surroundings. These scenes would have normally been considered unnecessary, but in Avatar I thoroughly enjoyed them following the main character touch everything and gasp and giggle in amazement.

Unfortunately, the characters and the story don't feel so real3D. All of the characters are basic stereotypes, from your evil corporate head to the good scientist. No one has any twist in their story and they all act as expected. Cameron probably assumed viewers would not require such character depth given that the story is a very common one. I'm actually most surprised and disappointed with the story overall. It is basically the story of Pocahontas or the genocide of the native Americans by the colonists. The only uniqueness of Avatar is that the ending is different from either. Everything else feels as if Cameron took the Pocahontas script and put it on Pandora instead of America with some explosions for good measure.

Overall, I feel like Avatar was really an experiment for the movie industry to see if the experience could be made worth it so as to draw the crowds into the movie theatres instead of pirating copies to watch at home. With its recent position as the highest grossing film ever made in history, I'm sure we'll see more films like Avatar grace our local screens and that Hollywood is a fan. My skepticism aside, Avatar is worth seeing because despite its shortcomings and its very long running time, it engrosses the viewer in a completely new world, which is why it deserves four stars. I do not doubt that this will be the medium in which we see science-fiction going forward, but traditional film making is not over yet. After all, 3D is just make-up.