AVATAR (2009)

Has it really been 15 years since James Cameron’s Avatar first hit cinema screens? Watching it today, it’s simply another film to catch on Disney+ or Blu-ray, but back in 2009, this was the biggest movie event of the year—by a country mile—and the world was waiting to see if Cameron had another huge hit on his hands following the phenomenally-successful Titanic (1997).

Just as the saying “history repeats itself” goes, before its release, the Canadian-born filmmaker found himself in similar circumstances to that of 1997: here he was betting a very large sum of studio money, $237M to be exact, on a seemingly very risky proposition, only this time, instead of an old-fashioned love story set on a doomed cruise liner, this was a 3D science fiction movie featuring nine-foot-high blue creatures. Of course, we all now know that, just like with Titanic, Cameron had the last laugh with Avatar ending up being the highest-earning movie in history ($2.923BN) and winner of multiple Academy Awards.

In 2154, Earth is ravaged by ecological collapse and resource depletion. Humanity turns to Pandora, a habitable moon in Alpha Centauri, rich in the valuable mineral unobtanium. As Pandora’s atmosphere is toxic to humans, scientists use Na’vi-human hybrids, or “avatars”, to interact with the native Na’vi population. After his twin brother’s death, paraplegic marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) joins the avatar program, lured by a fat paycheque and a chance to regain mobility. Once on Pandora, Jake becomes separated from his group and is reluctantly taken in by the Na’vi to learn their ways. Unbeknownst to them, he’s tasked with convincing them to abandon their sacred Hometree, which sits atop a vast unobtanium deposit—or risk military destruction. As Jake immerses himself in Na’vi culture and falls for Princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), he questions humanity’s motives. Realising the colonists’ plans will devastate Pandora, Jake defies his mission and chooses to fight alongside the Na’vi to protect their world.

Despite being over two-and-a-half-hours (minus credits), the film doesn’t waste any time with baggy exposition; no credits, not even a title—just a shot of Pandora’s expansive forest looming ever closer, and Worthington’s voiceover begins: “When I was lying there in the VA hospital with a big hole blown through the middle of my life, I started having these dreams of flying. I was free. Sooner or later, though, you always have to wake up.” Cut to a close-up of Sully as he wakes up in his cryo-tube, bathed in a dark blue light with drops of zero-gravity condensation floating around him.

Thinking back to my first experience seeing this at the cinema, I remember being slightly concerned that the entire movie would be full of narration, but thankfully Cameron keeps this to a minimum throughout, however, this opening cleverly concludes with shots of Sully’s twin brother being cremated and the protagonist saying “One life ends, another begins” that add some dramatic heft—and double meaning—to what Sully is about to encounter…

Typically, as with most of the director’s previous work, the script here is incredibly economical in the way it lays the foundations for the story; within the first few minutes, everything is explained with streamlined precision and there is no muddled exposition. From the get-go you can start to see why the film had such an enormous (especially for 2009) budget: apart from the detailed sets and impressive VFX shots of the opening spacecraft flying towards a beautifully realised deep-space vista, there lies a real lived-in aesthetic going on, and while your mind knows that what you’re looking at is pure fantasy, you accept it because it doesn’t look too fantastical. All this world-building does a lot of the heavy lifting with immersing you into Cameron’s world and holding your attention early on.

If you thought Avatar’s plot—with its unsubtle storyline elements concerning imperialism, racism, and militarism—runs fairly close to such films as Dances With Wolves (1991), Pocahontas (1995), and The Last Samurai (2003), you certainly wouldn’t be the first as this was one of the main talking points from critics upon its release. To Cameron’s credit, he never pretended that this was a completely original story but was based heavily on various sci-fi novels he’d read during his childhood, including Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series, while also taking inspiration from such films as The Emerald Forest (1985) and At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991), as well as using Hayao Miyazaki’s anime Princess Mononoke (1997) as a visual influence for his designs on the ecosystem of Pandora.

As much as all of the common themes that run throughout Cameron’s films since The Terminator (1984): corporate greed and man’s hubris, fear of nuclear weapons, conflict between A.I. and humanity or nature—as well as strong female characters with a smattering of romance—Avatar was the director’s first movie to reflect his strong views on the environment so explicitly. This curiosity with all things of a greener nature started when he was just 17 and his family moved from Canada to California where he surfed and scuba-dived. During this time he developed a huge interest in the ocean which was part of his inspiration behind making The Abyss (1989) and Titanic. Fast forward to 1994 when his take on Bond, True Lies, was released and it was at this point where Cameron first wrote his 80-page sci-fi-with-an-environmental-message movie treatment. He planned to shoot it straight after Titanic but was forced to wait as he realised that the technology available then wasn’t ready to fulfil his vision.

That decision was obviously a smart move, as even though this space opera’s story is far from unique, Cameron’s ace up his sleeve was indeed his cutting-edge VFX and game-changing 3D technology that he employed with his usual flair and mastery. Before its release, the director commented that “industry experts predict 3D cinema will never be the same again”, and he was more or less right.

Following Avatar, every Hollywood movie with a sizeable budget came with a 3D viewing option. Unfortunately, with the exception of just a handful of titles that actually used Cameron’s Fusion stereoscopic cameras, such as Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) every title that held the 3D banner was converted digitally in post-production to varying degrees of success. Funnily enough, Sam Worthington’s following role in the remake of Clash of the Titans (2010) was one of those titles criticised heavily for its poor use of post-created 3D.

In 2D on a TV screen, Avatar certainly doesn’t look mediocre. The visual palette from Italian-American cinematographer Mauro Fiore has something resembling a live-action anime feature with a combination of bright colours and subtly contrasting mix of light and dark tones; all balanced to perfection. However, viewing this in 3D, the groundbreaking cameras transport you into this otherworldly universe and what you see is a feast for your optic nerves: think something of a cross between a lush tropical forest crossed with all of Earth’s best paradise spots—with a subtle splash of magic mushroom psychedelia thrown in for good measure. The scene where Jake and Neytiri first meet at night, with all the bioluminescent light coming from the plants still to this day lives rent-free in my memory. Not only that, the shots have real depth (even in 2D), with the camerawork and VFX brought together seamlessly to make you think that what you’re seeing is real.

Talking of technology, alongside his passion for the planet, Cameron has always been obsessed with tech: be it cool-looking weaponry/vehicles in Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), or specially developed submarines in The Abyss; the man always doubles down on his designs to make everything either function for real, or get as close to something that looks perfectly believable—and Avatar is no exception. From the opening scene, we see the spacecraft transporting Sully to Pandora using some sort of solar sail for propulsion—not unlike the James Webb telescope—and the main military transport vehicle seen throughout looks a bit like the helicopters used in Vietnam mixed with the drop-ship out of Aliens.

It’s no accident that this prop artistry is of such a high calibre: much like Ridley Scott, Cameron has a keen eye for drawing and design, this talent was first put to good use when he started in the film industry, working for legendary producer Roger Corman as a model-maker on Star Wars rip-off Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He then worked on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) with some visual effect work.

Regarding the performances, Sam Worthington’s acting is solid; he does just enough with his ‘fish-out-of-water’ role to be convincing most of the time, but never more than that. Luckily, he has some seriously talented support to back him up. First off, Zoe Saldana as Na’vi princess Neytiri really impresses. Up to this point, she’d only appeared in small roles in Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal (2004), and just before stepping foot on Pandora, played Uhura in JJ Abrams’ successful reboot of Star Trek (2008). Despite being fully immersed in her mo-cap alien guise, she gives a performance that has echoes of a strong African/Native American warrior—not just with the way she talks, but her athleticism throughout; little wonder that she grew up with a passion for dance and ballet.

The ever-dependable Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters) adds some gravitas as exobiologist and head of the Avatar programme, Dr Grace Augustine. She provides a lot of the humour with her witty quips aimed at Sully who she first resents, but grows to like. However, it’s Stephen Lang as the bombastic, take-no-prisoners Colonel Quaritch, who proves to be the real star player. Apparently, he auditioned for Aliens (not hard to imagine him in that) but for some reason wasn’t successful, yet Cameron wisely remembered the former-Broadway actor and chose him as the main villain—and Lang really goes for it with full gusto, making quite the impression from his opening scene as he’s talking to the new arrivals with such lines like “If there’s a hell, you might want to go there for some R&R, after a tour on Pandora”, and he just keeps getting more gruff and nasty as the film progresses.

15 years on, Avatar holds up remarkably well. As already established, the story is somewhat derivative, but it’s still presented and executed in such a way that you don’t care. The story trundles along at a pace, James Horner’s score blends heart-pounding brass, tribal-sounding vocals, and melancholic string work, to give a real emotional layer to the movie—and there are set-pieces throughout that thrill and excite in equal measure—quite a feat when you consider that a large percentage of what’s in front of you is all rendered on a computer.

One could argue that, at times, the film leans too much into its environmentalism subtext, and its quasi-religious/spiritual element gets a bit too hokey, but damn, it’s still all incredibly entertaining. Standout scenes that pack a real punch include the destruction of the Na’vi’s Hometree, the main battle sequence, that final showdown between Sully and Quaritch, and I challenge anyone not to be at least slightly moved at how Sully’s story ends up.

For my money, I wish Cameron had left Pandora here and moved on with other stories like the recently mentioned Last Train from Hiroshima. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), while visually stunning, was seriously lacking in the script department. The family theme just about worked but everything else felt contrived. Let’s hope what follows is an improvement, but at least this first instalment still proves engaging and makes for a solid piece of entertainment.

USA • UK | 2009 | 162 MINUTES | 2.39:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH • SPANISH

Cast & Crew

writer & director: James Cameron.
starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez & Sigourney Weaver.