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Yesterday afternoon we finally gained admission to the attraction known as AVATAR. I had tried for a few weekends, even attempting to get tickets online a few days early. Yeah, I know it's called a "movie" but that is only nominally accuarate. It's what people like to call an "event". Our showing was presented in IMAX and 3-D. Neither makes a movie an event anymore, but director James "King of the World" Cameron has fashioned something far beyond a mere blockbuster, again. He's created another cultural phenomenon. If you are connected to any sort of media, you'll nod your head. AVATAR is a pop culture explosion that perhaps surpasses the likes of American Idol and Glee or Fox News (yes, that and other cable news networks qualify more as pop than news, in my view).

This movie is destined to (and already has) breed a scarily enthusiastic fandom, a subculture of geekery. There will be conventions devoted to this film, just you wait. We've seen it before. It almost doesn't matter if the film is any good. It has been roundly embraced, seen by moviegoers over and over to ensure box office clout. Cameron's TITANIC became the biggest film of all time for the same reasons. I won't preach about how many films that are that popular reflect the unambitious tastes of the masses, but.... Let me state that I thoroughly enjoyed AVATAR. For well over 2 and one-half hours, I entirely bought into its stunningly realized world. I did not think about my watch, not even once. I grinned and wowed and felt like a child.

Like Roger Ebert, I felt much like I did when I first saw the original STAR WARS. Witnessing something new, unique, unprecedented. The rich canvas that Cameron's battalion of artists has created is awe-inspiring. Even if no sort of plot existed, if we were led to just wander through the forest of Pandora and gasp at its luminescent beauty for 3 hours, I would've been satisfied. That, I believe, is the key to maximum satisfaction with this movie. It is a grand-scale carnival ride, like something at Disney World or Universal Studios. In wholly convincing three dimensions (far, far better than what I've previously experienced), we soar over woodlands atop magnificent creatures that resemble mutated dragons (one very fearsome and painted like Dark Sith from STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE) and nimbly work our away across twisty branches that illuminate with each footstep. 

here are so many carefully rendered details that you could make a lifetime hobby out of examining and marvelling at AVATAR's beauty. It's that dense. It's an event that may well silence all of those folks who claim that they can re-create a true filmgoing experience with their Blu-rays and gigantic flatscreens at home. AVATAR is remarkable also in that despite its almost 100% CGI land- (and floating mountain)scape, you really feel as if you're there. My primary beef with CGI flicks like the SPIDERMAN and the MATRIX series is that I usually feel removed from the action. Watching Spidey leap from building to building merely appeared like gawking at a video game. Seeing Neo fight 100 Agent Smiths had the same problem. If I feel, even for a second, that these supposed flesh and blood characters are merely digital bits, I stop caring. 

The good vs. evil or whatever drama the filmmakers are selling goes right out the window. Yes, I know that Neo was, at times, merely a digital being in the MATRIX films, but nonetheless. I also cite a scene in the most recent SUPERMAN, as the hero ascends into outer space. He was positively PlayStation at a crucial moment. That does not happen in AVATAR. Each creature, human or otherwise, occupies space and moves naturally. The Na'vis, a blue-skinned race of humanoids with sharply distinguished facial features and height, never seem like just an animator's fancy; they are real. So is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic Marine who signs up to work himself into the Na'vi culture in order to, well, here's where the plot starts to get clunky and predictable. The planet of Pandora is rich in a substance that an evil (of course) corporation from Earth wants/needs, desperately. In order to efficiently mine the planet of this precious metal, those pesky Na'vis need to skeedaddle, vacate their lush forest so the big machines can strip away the trees and plunder the soil beneath. 

The U.S. Military is commissioned by the corporation to get the job done. It is led by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), an intense, crusty old Colonel who spouts cliche after cliche, none more than during the final attack upon the forest when he growls things such as "I want this mission high and tight, I wanna be home for dinner." He will prove to be a really hissable, one-dimensional SOB before the film is done. Jake assimilates into the culture by inhabiting a Na'vi-type body, an "avatar" designed by a team of scientists led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). His original intention is to get to know, gain the trust of, and eventually convince the Nav'is to move out of their valuable domecile so the metal can be extracted. In exchange, the Military promises Jake a surgical procedure that will correct his handicap once he's back home. 

Of course, Jake grows very fond of his new friends, and is especially excited that as a Na'vi, he has workable legs. Adding to the complication is Neytiri, a female Na'vi specimen who is saddled with training the human in her culture and language (Cameron actually had a linguist develop it). Love will blossom. In the end, Jake has to decide if he will remain with the Na'vis and warn them of the coming destruction of their land, or continue to be a good soldier/corporate man and follow the original directive. Does the plot reek of a thousand others? Yep. Even Cameron himself states that it bears more than a passing resemblance to the 1992 animated feature, FERNGULLY. The conflict here is your basic corporate vs. environmentalist struggle, an eco-message with added parallels to some of the more imperialistic tendencies of certain governments and armed forces of late. The metaphors for recent wars are about as nuanced as a shovel to the forehead. The good guys are impassioned do-gooders with a conscience; the bad-guys are heartless machines. It's that black and white. 

The third act of this film is especially weighed down by the heavy-handedness of the screenplay. However, Cameron also incorporates into the screenplay a co-existence of science and faith that is epoused by the Na'vis. This element was far more intriguing to me than the big, overblown (but undeniably exciting) showdown at the end. We get a brief and fascinating explanation about a rather important and impossibly large tree in the center of the Pandoran forest, and how its preservation can lead to further knowledge and technological advancement. A spiritual element also figures in, a deity that will inform those who believe in the great unseen. One element does not negate the other. As we see throughout the story, strands of what appear to be fiber-optic cables dangle from the majestic tree's branches with brilliant hues. Dr. Augustine will explain what her hypotheses suggest about that tree, but then we're back to the central dilemma. Commerce trumps knowledge (and science is only there to facilitate commerce), so that tree is destined to be a pile of timber once the bombers are done with it. Only Jake, who has since renounced his race, and his Na'vi brethren with their crude bows and arrows are there to try and stop this from happening. 

My summary probably brings to mind many of films past. The STAR WARS series (especially RETURN OF THE JEDI), the MATRIX films, and even THE NEW WORLD. There is very little originality in this story. One can wish that the script was developed with as much care as the effects, but after awhile it wasn't much of an issue for me. I judge films by what I consider the creators' intentions. If I felt AVATAR was really trying to be an important, thoughtful treatise on warfare, race relations, the environment, faith, and technology, I would certainly be a detractor, despite all the visual and aural wonder. The hack job I could do on this script.....the simplemindedness of it could be staggering. What of the implications of this primitive tribe needing some Caucasian to save it? What of the Na'vis abrupt, immediate forgiveness of Jake simply because he has tamed a fearsome winged creature? On and on. I remember cringing at Cameron's TRUE LIES, how the humiliation of a lead female character is played for grand comic effect, yet still enjoyed the wild ride that the film was. TITANIC's script also doesn't really hold up to much scrutiny (particularly the characterizations), but I was impressed just the same. 

Cameron is a CGI-era P.T. Barnum, though, and it should've been clear way back where his interests lie. When he created THE ABYSS in 1988, we were treated to cutting edge computer tech. Then with TERMINATOR 2, we gasped at the "liquid metal." With each film, Cameron pushed the boundaries of what computers could realize, how he could fool the audience again. You might say he is the greatest technician in the business, but then you might also rightly say the same of George Lucas (especially lately). Maybe Cameron should find a co-conspirator to work on the screenplays, someone like a Harold Pinter who could really give us dramatic meat and in-depth characters. They'd truly be "kings of the world," at least the cinematic one. Or maybe blockbusters like AVATAR should just be that, while quieter, much smaller pics remain the thoughtful pieces they are. All of that stated, AVATAR is still most certainly worth experiencing. At least see it in 3-D. It is astonishing and wondrous; just try to keep your inner critic muzzled until the credits roll.