“Avatar” looked like an ava-turkey. With production and promotion costs soaring toward $300 million, it had early earmarks of a Jim Cameron boondoggle. After 12 years away, the “Titanic” showboat was investing the gross domestic product of a small nation into a two-hour, 41-minute vanity project about steroidal smurfs with magic ponytails!?
‘Avatar’
3 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Director: James Cameron
Rated PG-13 for intense, epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language, and some smoking
Running time: 161 minutes
Avatar opens in D.C.-area theaters Friday. Check listings for special midnight showings.
Indeed, it is long and indulgent. But for extended stretches when the writer-director-producer illustrates his wildly invented planet of Pandora and the strange/spiritual culture of its blue race of 10-foot Na’vi, “Avatar” is utterly transporting and at times stunningly beautiful. Part war movie, part love story, the huge sci-fi spectacle also advances the artistic application of the technologies of 3-D and “performance-capture” (the melding of live acting with CGI animation).
Alas, Cameron’s dialogue remains as leaden as ever. His antagonists and politically correct message come via sledgehammer. And his excessive action scenes pander shamelessly to fanboy tastes. Nevertheless, the popcorn-movie King of the World takes a one-star script and lends it five-star entertainment value.
Set in the year 2154, it references many predecessors. Like “Dances With Wolves,” the military man protagonist Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) learns the enchanting folkways of, falls for and eventually becomes one of the indigenous people he is supposed to oppose. Unlike Kevin Costner, the physically challenged hero here is a fish out of water through mental remote control. Recalling the virtual reality of “The Matrix” movies, Jake “drives” a cobalt-colored doppelganger that can survive Pandora’s climate and infiltrate.
A greedy corporation on an energy-starved Earth wants a special mineral, called “Unobtainium,” deposited under sacred land. The scientists on the project, led by the determined Grace (Sigourney Weaver), want to respect the Na’vi and use mixed-DNA avatars to extract it peacefully. But the weasel executive in charge on Pandora (Giovanni Ribisi) is prone to let Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the cartoonishly evil leader of the mercenary security forces, confront them instead.
Jake is caught between the two factions until his avatar’s relationship with the enticing Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and her clan deepens. Let the epic battle of capitalist imperialism versus human and environmental dignity begin.
Before that — with its ethereal flora-based religion, dangerous/exciting fauna and near-naked treehouse life — jungle love and adventure ensue as an extraterrestrial, cutting-edge “Jurassic Park” or “Tarzan.” A decent multicultural supporting cast includes Michelle Rodriguez, C.C.H. Pounder and Wes Studi — though visual thrills trump thespian skills for an ingenious if immoderate “Avatar.”
