Film Review: Avatar

“Avatar” takes place in 2154 and centers around a paraplegic Marine named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). Jake has been persuaded to take the place of his recently-deceased brother for a mission on the far away moon of Pandora. Via an avatar that mixes human and alien DNA, Jake inhabits the body of a Na'vi, a blue, ten-foot tall native of Pandora. The scientific team led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) wants Jake to learn more about the Na’vi and its culture.

Greedy corporate head Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and gung-ho military Colonel Quartich (Stephen Lang) have other plans for Sully. In order for Selfridge's company to obtain Pandora's largest deposit of the valuable mineral Unobtanium, Selfridge and Quartich want Jake to infiltrate and gather info on the Na'vi in order to drive the natives out of their homes.

Jake dives into his assignments (literally) and eventually begins to bond with the Na'vi, falling in love with the daughter of the tribe's leader, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), in the process. As the next few months progress, Jake begins to become more conflicted about what he's doing for the corporation. When things go south, Quaritch begins to implement his plan to remove the Na'vi by any means necessary (read: deadly force). This forces Jake to take a stand - and fight in an epic battle that will determine the ultimate fate of Pandora.

If you go solely for the visual experience, you will find that "Avatar" doesn't disappoint. James Cameron spent years waiting for technology to catch up to what he had in mind for the movie. He then another couple of years in production, with most of that period focused on perfecting the film's computer animation (which, as you would expect, is incredible). The end result is a film that is a beautiful-looking film. A mix of the latest in 3-D and motion-capture technology, Cameron succeeds when it comes to immersing viewers with Pandora's exotic plant, animal and alien life. Many a film of late have made use of 3-D technology, but nothing like this.

While the technical aspects of "Avatar" knock our movie going socks off, Cameron's writing and directing does anything but. Now, we all know that Cameron isn't the world's best storyteller. Look at his last narrative film, 1997's "Titanic". The screenplay was as basic and corny as they get. A junior-high version of "Romeo and Juliet" with stereotypical characters and groundbreaking visual effects. But Cameron made the story work. He overrode the rudimentary plot and people by evoking great performances from his leads and connecting with the viewer on an emotional level while smartly balancing the human aspects with the technical.

Not so here. With "Avatar", which comes across as "Dances With Wolves" (itself a variation on 1976's "A Man Called Horse") by way of the video game "Halo", we get a James Cameron that is only obsessed with the technical side of film making. Like George Lucas with his "Star Wars" prequels and Robert Zemeckis with his work of late, Cameron just doesn't seem interested in anything outside of how far he can push the latest technology. I can forgive him for the lack of story originality, clunky dialogue and character development (the latter despite the best intentions of the cast). But I can't excuse the lackadaisical attitude that Cameron shows while dealing with them. While he succeeds in immersing us in the world of Pandora, he never gets us to connect with the characters and events. Even the big action sequences, Cameron's area of directing excellence, lack the sense of excitement of his earlier work.

I didn't hate "Avatar". Something this beautiful to look at is hard to entirely dismiss, especially when you experience it on the big screen and in 3-D. No, I was just massively disappointed with it. It certainly isn't the first movie to put the visuals before the plot and it won't be the last. But given James Cameron's track record in the sci-fi genre, one can't help but expect more. Much more. Many will love the film, and I wish I could be one of them. Perhaps there is an avatar out there that will allow me to do that. Rated PG-13. 163 minutes. Two stars out of four.