With enormously expensive movies like “Avatar” and “Titanic,” James Cameron has proven he is definitely a fan of the saying, “Go big, or go home.” Having not directed a film in over a decade, Cameron comes out swinging with “Avatar,” the highly anticipated and visually stunning motion-capture sci-fi epic. “Avatar” Is Cameron’s first directorial effort since helming “Titanic” and is on track to best the box office juggernaut as the highest grossing film of all time. That being said, with a budget hovering around $500 million, it should.
The premise: “Avatar” takes place in 2154 on the planet Pandora. The earth is in ruins, and humans roam the galaxy in search of “unobtainium” (yep, you read that right), a valuable natural resource key to the planet’s survival. The plot is similar to films like “War of the Worlds,” except that this time we are the aliens that invade and destroy.
The film’s hero is paraplegic Jake Sully (played by Australian newcomer Sam Worthington), an ex-marine who takes over his recently deceased identical twin brother’s job as part of the Avatar Program on Pandora. Jake is promised an expensive operation that will repair his damaged spinal cord if he is able to infiltrate the Na’vi, the indigenous population of Pandora, using a biologically engineered avatar, and if he can successfully persuade them to relocate so the mining corporation can extract the valuable resource.
Predictably, Jake falls in love with one of the natives and comes to embrace the Na’vi’s culture. Only too late does he realize the lengths the corporation will go to, and he is now in a race against time to stop the slaughter of his new family and the destruction of the planet he has come to love.
Sound a little hokey? Just a bit. The film tends to get a little heavy handed and hammy with what little plot it was given. If Cameron had devoted just a fraction of the time and effort on the script as he did with the breathtaking special effects, the film would have been far better off.
Bottom line: What Avatar lacks in substance, it definitely makes up for in style.