Avatar

20^th Century Fox

Various Releases

DVD and Blu Ray

Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully; a disabled ex-marine who finds a new life on a distant planet known as Pandora. He has taken over a highly specialized job after the death of his brother and with little training must step into his shoes.

On Pandora, a problem has arisen with the indigenous population of the planet, the Na’vi. They are not pleased with the mining corporation’s intrusion onto their land and begin to fight back. In an attempt at negotiation the Avatar Program is developed whereby a human operator can transplant his or her consciousness, on a temporal basis, into a genetically modified Na’vi body. This is significant since the Na’vi are very different from humans; ten feet in height, blue skinned and superior in strength. They live are semi primitive lifestyle with a animistic belief system.

While this scientific program led by Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) is working at negotiation, the military is also making its presence felt. Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) leads their operation on Pandora and wants to use “shock and awe” to force the natives to submit. When Jake becomes separated from his team his is rescued by Neytiri and unwittingly finds himself at the centre of Na’vi society. As he is trained in their ways and traditions he must decide which side he will fight for when the chips are down.

Avatar is a difficult film to review. From one perspective it is a true marvel of modern cinematography, using the latest CGI to create an amazing new world. The look of the film is truly unique since it was shot using a new form of camera known as the Fusion 3D which is able to truly mix CGI and real time action into a realistic high definition film. When you add in Peter Jackson's Weta Digital visual-effects you know this will be ground-breaking work of cinema. But this is part of the problem, while it might be the most expensive film ever made and certainly the most visually stunning; it has put style before substance, visual appeal over plot and character development.

Avatar is marked by an incredibly simplistic plot, one which has literally no depth whatsoever. While the characters of Jake Sully and Grace Augustine may be of some interest, the Na’vi are stereotypes of the most obvious form. But that is not the worst of it. Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge) who is the head of the corporation are comic book characters. At times Quaritch is so ridiculously over the top you want to laugh.

Avatar is also terribly paced, it is a three hour film and the vast majority seems taken up with Jake’s new age adventure on Pandora. Then suddenly the war starts and the whole film moves from a mushy love-in to a violent action film. While Avatar received a PG rating in the US, it was rated M in Australia, not surprising in my mind considering the violence in some of the later scenes.

While it certainly has its emotionally powerful set-pieces, the intense destruction of the Na’vi “World Tree” comes to mind; these are few considering the length of the film.

The most obvious flaws in Avatar come from the simplistic reduction of significant themes into a “good vs. evil”- indigenous vs. corporation plot and the saturation of the film with new age mumbo jumbo. It is truly amazing how Avatar reduces a range of highly complex themes and motifs into a ludicrously simple “us vs. them” presentation. Let us look at some of these themes and motifs.

The Noble Savage

The Na’vi are presented are some sort of idealized indigenous people. They are what we might expect a native people to look like if filtered through the lens of a new age fantasy author. They are not only supposedly one with the land but part of it in some sort of unique way; the planet is actually alive and operates like a gigantic brain or organism and the Na’vi are able to literally tap into it using it to store and access “race memories”. I think most indigenous people watching Avatar would laugh and ask Is this really how you see us ?

The religion and mystical practises are all horribly new age with an abundance of chants (taken from a myriad of cultures) and drumming. This whole presentation reduces the reality of indigenous cultures to an idealised myth. Let’s take a couple of examples. The American Indians had a fascinating and complex culture but at the same time it was also undoubtedly brutal using various forms of body scarification, mutilation and ritual scalping of the enemy in war time. The Mayans are another good example who made human sacrifice the centre of their religious traditions. While this does not take away from the beauty and majesty of their art and architecture, it does make it difficult to idealize a culture which thought tearing out a living heart was a significant religious rite.

Colonization

Cameron extends this same simplification to the issue of colonization. It is ever so simple to place the Na’vi on another planet so that issues of colonization can be addressed in a truly reductionist manner. The reality is that with the development of complex western civilization at some stage cultures had to clash. We are on one planet with limited space and it is naive to think that native cultures could continue to exist in blissful isolation while the rest the world moves on into industrialization. By placing the Na’vi on Pandora, Cameron simplifies the whole issue of colonization to the level of stupidity and does not grapple with the problem at all.

Industrialization

Cameron portrays the military-corporate complex in a comic book manner; they represent the “Ugly American” who wants to make money at all costs and has no time for native rights or the environment. Certainly there are elements of this portrayal that ring true, especially in regards to right wing American politicians and their corporate buddies. However, once again, it has been simplified to a level that it does not really grapple with the theme in any significant manner.

The corporation has not just gone to Pandora to rape and pillage, they have brought with them a scientific team and have been trying to negotiate some sort of solution. The question that arises is what should a corporation does when faced with the superstition of a small group of people which is blocking access to a multi-billion dollar supply of precious metals or minerals ? Certainly some level of respect is required but are we required to show respect to all sorts of bizarre and superstitious beliefs at the cost of development. Certainly the violent military overkill as shown in Avatar is emotionally powerful but it is manipulative. The reality is that on planet earth we have to make do with the resources we have and there is no evidence for a world soul or other such rot so should such beliefs stand in the face of progress ?

New Age Mysticism

This leads to the major flaw of the film; it is saturated with new age mumbo jumbo. From the “Native Savage” depiction of the Na’vi to the silly idea that Pandora is a living brain and that cutting down a single tree would hurt the “Goddess”, the film is filled with truly superstitious notions. There is a constant use of new age type music, idealized depictions of Jake’s quest for Na’vi initiation to the related demonization of western civilization. In Avatar, of course, the evil corporation is thrown off the planet and must return home but on Spaceship Earth there is no escape pod so what does Cameron think we should do ? Does Avatar really advocate returning to the trees and living in “tune with nature” as noble savages. This is hokum and dangerous hokum at that; it reduces debates about indigenous and environmental issues to feel good mysticism.

Environmentalism

Avatar’s handling of environmentalism is no better than any of the other subjects. While it certainly offers an emotive and powerful depiction of the effects of using the military to access the land and resources of a native people it does not engage in any real exploration of the subject. Once again it is the evil corporation vs. the environment and the solution seems to be leave the planet as it is. That may be fine for mythical Pandora but hardly a solution for planet earth. This simplistic reduction of the whole environment debate to a “return to the trees” level does not really do any justice to the complexity of the issue especially when we are living in a time when climate change is such a threat. I would really go as far as to say that Avatar is reckless in its simplistic portrayal of such issues and ultimately will hurt rather than help the environmental debate.

Avatar is a film about which I am very ambivalent, I have written a long review as it is a major release which is getting maximum publicity and it would be amiss for us not to discuss it. It is a visually stunning film with amazing CGI, but while it is a feast for the eyes it will sadly leave the mind wanting.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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