Avatar
Dir: James Cameron
2009
**
Seeing as I'm the last person on the planet to have seen Avatar, the hype was always going to effect my judgement, although I tried not to let it. The 3D special effects were very clever, groundbreaking so I'm told and for the best part very good but...is it just me or did the Na'vi people look rubbish? I mean really, all that time, effort and money and that is the best James Cameron could do? Also, the effects as clever as they are, were great as a back-drop but didn't amount to anything as important as character, which was kind of how it was billed. Most of the night scenes are just one big jungle-themed neon disco, it reminded me of once getting drunk in a horrible jungle themed dance club in the early 90's, a memory I could have done without revisiting.  I also thought the idea of the Jungle being one big Internet conduit a bit lame. USB ponytails? Seriously? All that money and the height of your imagination and your views on society and spirituality peak at USB ponytails? Oh, and notice how every Na'vi is actually black and every Na'vi scene has a ladysmith black mambazo style song accompanying it? It's this and many other unimaginative ideas that made me loose interest to be honest. At one point I wondered if the whole film was a reaction to 9/11 and was an anti-war film in disguise but I don't think James Cameron is that clever. The story is too simple and unimaginative. They could have concentrated on so many of the interesting aspects of the story but instead skipped over them. They could of had a big build up to the discovery of the Na'vi, they could have made more of the Avatar experience - something that the film Surrogates did much better for a lot less money. What about the alien sex scene? You could have made a whole film about the chemistry, intimacy, ethics etc of having sex with an alien (think Cronenburg maybe). The one scene I did like was when Neytiri first encounters Jake Scully's real body but then again, it was over too soon. It wasn't a bad film but it really isn't anything special. The effects were good but I can't say I liked most of them, especially when most of the human scenes looked like video game chapters between actual gaming time in old 90's computer games. The fact that this is one of the most successful films of all time makes me a little bit sad.