Avatar (2009) - Cameron's simplistic action-adventure wins with visuals

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+ Most Profitable Movie of the Decade: 805.16 mil. $ range
+ Best 3D Movie of the Year + Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year (2,787.9 mil. $ gross) + Most Profitable Movie of the Year (minimum 805.16 mil. $)

The visual wonders of James Cameron's Avatar are teased on this exciting poster for the film

A disabled Marine gets torn between the duties of his job and his experiences with the unusual Na'vi creatures of the wondrous moon planet Pandora, where the military are working to secure a natural resource.

Avatar is written and directed by Ontarian master filmmaker James Cameron (Piranha II: The Spawning (1981)).

It is a 3D action-adventure spectacle that overwhelms with its delicious CGI-created visuals, colors, environments, photography (by Mauro Fiore (Tears of the Sun (2003))) and thundering, huge orchestral score (by James Horner (Flightplan (2005))). The avatar story has eerie co-meanings a decade later, as modern life lived more via digital avatars in games and virtual realities are now no longer a distant future but life for some people, (which has no relation to the spiritual avatar existence seen in the film here.)

Giovanni Ribisi (Heaven (2002)) is great as the corporate douche villain exploiter of the magical Pandora world. Apart from him the cast comes across a bit lackluster, with Sam Worthington (The Great Raid (2005)) lacking some energy and charisma in the lead, which also has him narrate throughout the film. The other stars don't fault, but Avatar's story is just too tiringly simplistic to allow them to shine dramatically: There's the evil, drab, culturally poor, Western, capitalistic-military complex run by white guys Ribisi and Stephen Lang (The Nut Job (2014)); and then there are the ethnic-native American-like non-Westerners, who respect nature and have spiritual insight and a colorful culture. The woman scientist (Sigourney Weaver (The Girl in the Park (2007))), the woman in the military (Michelle Rodriguez (Machete (2010))) and the Na'vi woman (Zoe Saldana (Colombiana (2011))) are all inherently good; men are more often often bad, especially the white ones. It is the politically correct Hollywood worldview to a nauseating fault.

- Unfair? Not really. Avatar presents a kid movie-tried simplicity for grown-ups, and if it wasn't tiresome the first or second time you saw it, it is destined to be the third time. Cameron's stories had more nuance and intelligence in Terminator (1984, 1991) and Titanic (1997). Nevertheless Avatar is astonishing in terms of visuals and effects, proving perhaps mainly that many wonders can be accomplished with boundless capital.

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Aliens (1986) or, Alien War

If you forgot what it was all about, see the amazing images of Avatar in its trailer here

Cost: 237 - 310 mil. $ (different accounts)
Box office: 2,787.9 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned at least 8.99 times the cost)
[Avatar premiered 10 December (London, United Kingdom) and runs 161 minutes. Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1994, but the film only came into active development 12 years later. Shooting took place in Hawaii, California, including Los Angeles, and in Wellington, New Zealand from April - December 2007 with reshoots in May 2009. The film pioneered several new leaps in technology and special digital effects. Cameron dictated that only vegan food be served on the set due to his climate change awareness. A reported 150 mil. $ were spent to market the film. It opened #1 to a 77 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for the following 6 (!) weeks, and in the top 5 for another 5 weeks (#2-#4-#2-#4-#5), grossing a record 760.5 mil. $ (27.3 % of the total gross) in its long 34 week release there. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 204.1 mil. $ (7.3 %) and France with 175.6 mil. $ (6.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. It made an additional excess of 190.8 mil. $ on the home video market. It was nominated for 9 Oscars: It won Best Cinematography (Mauro Fiore (Training Day (2001))), Visual Effects and Art Direction. It lost Best Film to The Hurt Locker, Director to Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow, Editing to Hurt Locker, Music (James Horner) to Michael Giacchino for Up and Sound Mixing and Sound Editing to Hurt Locker. It won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, 2/8 BAFTA noms, was nominated for a César award and a David di Donatello award, 2 Grammys and many other honors. 4 sequels are planned with Cameron at the helm; with Avatar 2 and 3 having completed shooting in November 2018, set for releases in Christmas 2020 and 2021. Since the film, Cameron has only co-directed the Avatar-inspired TV movie Toruk: The First Flight (2016). Sam Worthington (Macbeth (2006)) returned in Clash of the Titans (2010), Zoe Saldana (Premium (2006)) in Death at a Funeral (2010), and Weaver in Crazy on the Outside (2010). Avatar is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Avatar?