Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
Director: James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator 2)
Running Time: 2 hr 41 min
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2009
Budget: N/A
Criticsf Thumbs Up: 80%
“A fully believable, flesh-and-blood romance…” Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
“…godawful dialogue…” Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
Part District 9 and part Surrogates, this sci-fi thriller is spectacular visually but pretty unspectacular otherwise. Like the latter film, Avatar explores the concept of everyday human beings transposing themselves into entirely new bodies, which protagonist Jake Sully greatly benefits from. Sully (Worthington) is at first a broken-down paraplegic ex-Marine but then gains the ability to run and leap as a blue, feline-faced, 10-foot-tall Avatar of an alien species called the Na’vis. As part of a mission to stop Earth’s energy crisis by retrieving the bounty of ore on their planet, Sully is assigned to study the Na’vis but ends up becoming one of them and falling in love with the beautiful, strong Neytiri (Saldana). This love story, however, is cheesy and predictable. In fact, the whole film – all 2 hours and 41 minutes of it – is overly and disappointingly predictable. Also frustrating is the lack of any complexity or depth to Sully’s feelings. Whereas District 9’s protagonist struggled with his human connections as he transformed into an alien, Sully doesn’t appear to have any confliction or remorse. The reason to see, Avatar, however is for the stunning 3-D techniques and the awe-inspiring mythical world of the Na’vis.
