I hate this movie.
I had thought about ending the review here. That's how much dislike James Cameron and this movie. But I should continue at least a little. I owe you that much for clicking the link.
The year is 2154. Sam Worthington plays Jake who is a paraplegic ex-marine who is brought into a program on the planet Pandora to find a diplomatic solution with the indigenous Na'vi. The program is using avatars - constructs that appear as the Na'vi but have the consciousness of the "pilot" - to earn the trust of the Na'vi. Jake discovers the corporation that is funding the program is only in it to find the poorly-named resource Unobtainium to make money, and also don't care what actually happens to the Na'vi.As such, the colonel (played by Stephen Lang [who else do you get to play the hyper-aggressive soldier?]) decides it will be quicker to just wipe out the Na'vi to get what they need.
I should have loved this movie. A sci-fi with gorgeous scenery: what's not to love? But I just can't bring myself to even like it. This is probably from all the ranting and raving when it first came out about how good it was, and how it would revolutionize movies as we know them. Well it didn't, and the story itself has been told many different ways in the past.
Not only is the story ripped off from many things in the past, but the characters are all flat stereotypes, and most of the acting is poor. Worthington can hardly even hide his accent throughout most of the movie. This was supposed to be the movie that made his career. And boy did it! After this he did the "Clash of the Titans" remake, "Terminator: Salvation", "Wrath of the Titans" . . . wait, all those bombed. Not all the acting, of course. Sigourney Weaver is great as always.
There are many minor things that just plain get in the way of me liking it. All the male soldiers have stubble. OK, that can be a fairly normal thing. But when the air you breath is toxic and can kill you within minutes, you shouldn't have facial hair which prevents a seal from forming on your respirator. And the respirator is a flimsy thing that can be knocked off by moving the wrong way. There are many other things that bug me: 150 years in the future and Jake brings a normal wheelchair to a jungle planet, there is no way to track the avatars when they're in the field (the very first thing that happens is Jake gets separated from his team, and they have trillion dollar bodies they probably could have splurged an extra $100 for a freakin' GPS), the resource is named Unobtainium (super original, right there), the creatures in the movie don't look like they belong in any of the ground scenes, there are only about 4 non-male soldiers, the soldiers are still super sexist (as if there has been no progression in 150 years), all the creatures use the exact same soundbites as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (no joke, the exact same soundbites, though it is claimed the "sound artists" used real animal noises), etc. There are so many more. But most of this review has already been me bitching about how and why I hate this movie, so I should stop the list there,
I don't fault anyone for enjoying this movie, and I'm not trying to convince anyone otherwise. I just simply can't stand it. It is 2 hours and 40 minutes long, which is about an hour too long. If you haven't seen it, go watch Disney's "Pocahontas" instead. It's pretty much the same story. And much shorter. And James Cameron had nothing to do with it. I hate James Cameron. Had to be said.
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