As I write this, I just finished watching James Cameron win both best director and best picture awards for Avatar at The Golden Globes, a semi-phony awards ceremony that is still seen by some as an indicator of chances at the more legitimate Oscar ceremony. When he won best director, Cameron very honestly stated that he “expected Kathryn to win” – referring to Katheryn Bigelow, the director of The Hurt Locker, one of my favorite movies of 2009.
He should have. Because, while The Hurt Locker is a brutal and real depiction of people in an incredibly stressful situation – defusing IEDs in Iraq – Avatar is one of the most thin sloppy and false movies I saw last year. And I’m not talking about the CGI, I’m referring to the characters and plot. It’s thin as gruel, Saturday-morning television stuff. As South Park so aptly parodied it early this year, it’s “Dances with Smurfs”, played in large IMAX-scaled size. And in 3D!
Do I hate it? No, I’m frustrated by it. I’m disappointed by it. I like James Cameron, but more as a director than a writer. This was an opportunity lost, because Cameron refused to accept that he is NOT A GOOD WRITER he did it all by himself, and he needed help (much Like Lucas realized as he was writing the last Star Wars prequel). There is not one moment as I watched the film that I cared or sympathized with any of the characters on screen. Movies are about association and empathy and I did. Not. Care.
Is it stunning? Absolutely. Is it award-winning, for the visuals alone? Yes. Is it good, to me? No. To me it is Transformers 2 with a slightly better plot and better design and cinematography. As technology advances, and the visuals we see in it become commonplace and better filmmakers and writers realize than now anything can happen, I suspect it will not age well.
Yes, it is making a quazillion dollars. Good. It’s the closest thing we have right now in theatres to original SF, and I hope that Hollywood sees this and takes a chance on adapting some GOOD SF to theatre screens, like, well, anything Baen publishes right now. Or maybe that great Harlan Ellison I ROBOT script he did two-plus decades ago. They’d have to rename it, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the Will Smith movie.
Anyway, I know there are people who LOVE Avatar. And I’m happy for them. Movies are, like all art, received as personal experiences – you take something, or you leave it. You love it, or you hate it. For me, Avatar is a brilliant technological achievement without any real characters I care about.
It is a pretty, empty box.