Wick's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

Transcendentally beautiful yet cravenly appalling, brilliant yet formulaic, James Cameron’s latest magnum opus induces awe and disgust in equal measure. The former comes from its stunningly realized vision of an Edenic world, the latter from the seditious anti-Americanism that animates the story.

Avatar measures up to its considerable hype and fills its nearly 3 hour length, yet its reprehensible politics and high-toned B-movie story suggest it’s likely to go down in history as little more than technical triumph.

Will Fox sell enough tix and DVDs to justify its quarter billion dollar investment? Yes, especially given how well the Die Yankee Pig storyline will play in anti-American markets. Will it be as big as JC’s Titanic? No. While teenage girls won’t be disappointed with Avatar’s inter-species Romeo & Juliet romance, neither are they likely to come back again and again as they did to see Kate fall for Leo.

Acting - Great 4.0

Stephen Lang’s stunning performance personifies the movie’s core conundrum: A technical achievement of the highest order, it deeply betrays the honor of the United States. How could Lang, arguably the most upright actor of his generation, have stooped to play an ex-Marine Col. Craven type? He is, after all, the man who wrote and performed Beyond Glory, a one-man play about Medal of Honor recipients.

Sam Worthington comes across as a generic stud, just as he did in Terminator Salvation.

Zoë Saldaña voices Neytiri – the universe’s coolest alien – as sensually strong and oh so sexy. Capable of inducing blue balls? Hell yeah. Coming on top of her smoking hot Uhura, she’s the new Eartha Kitt.

Sigourney Weaver barks effectively as the curmudgeonly scientist. But what’s up with her being a smoker? Hell, the woman doesn’t even have good cigarette moves. She looks like a priss with a hot rod. Damnit, what’s this thing doing in my hand!?

Giovanni Ribisi has grown to be a real man. Bully for him. He plays a perfect asshole here and does it well.

Film - Very Good 3.5

Cameron, a formulaic button pusher of the highest order, is extremely skilled at the fundamentals of filmcraft. To wit, every creature and most details – once introduced – return in key roles later in the story. He’s also a supremely accomplished SciFi conceptualist, as he proved with Terminator and Aliens. The King of Pandora doesn’t disappoint here, employing his fully fleshed-out avatar concept to brilliant ends. Bravo.

Edge - Risqué 1.7

Perhaps the most objectionable behavior is Sigourney Weaver’s smoking, as described in Acting above. Oops, am I being PC or is JC being adolescent?

Reality - Surreal 3.0

Avatar’s worldview starts where the HuffPost’s leaves off. Call it HuffMeth: Left wing whack, tweaked out in 3D. Characteristically stuck in the 60s, its whole rape and pillage ethos went out with Nam movies like Platoon, yet continues to loom like a Deathstar in Hollywood’s tragically hip worldview.

At the movie’s nadir – former US Marines destroy a civilization’s iconic tower by shooting missiles into its base and then watching it topple – it becomes clear that JC has foisted an obscene world on us in which 9/11 is fodder for popcorn propaganda. Nothing if not brilliantly calculating, he must figure that global audiences will be enticed to buy tickets for the privilege to jeer Americans.

JC isn’t new to craven images: In True Lies he had the Governator and Jamie Lee Curtis conduct their long awaited clinch in the warm glow of a – what? – nuclear explosion. The guy’s a gas. Rhymes with ass.

Finally, as if to reinforce the post-post-9/11 sense, my screening of Avatar was preceded by a trailer for Knight and Day, where Tom Cruise apparently plays a hijacker who kills everyone on an airliner. Great. Just great.

16 Comments

• Wick Feb 21, 2010 10:43PM

  Regarding Spaceghost’s Review
  Terrific review Ghost.

• MJ5K Feb 9, 2010 4:03PM

  True. I mean, I still tell the people the same old: “Did I enjoy the movie? Yes. Will I look back on it 10 years from now with the nostalgic factor of movies like ‘Dark Knight’? No.”

• Wick Feb 8, 2010 11:13PM

  I stand by my original assessment: “it’s likely to go down in history as little more than technical triumph.” Still, Hollywood loves a winner so much – especially one that includes America the Ugly politics – that JC might take home the Best Picture Oscar.

  FWIW, the Best Picture of the year was clearly Up In The Air. Up is also deserving.

• MJ5K Feb 8, 2010 4:43PM

  Man, the more I hear about Avatar, the less I like it. The hype is just ridiculous and its not as brilliant as most make it out to be. They’re practically treating Cameron like God and their treating the movie like the second coming of Christ.

  What do you think, Wick?

• MJ5K Jan 15, 2010 7:05AM

  Regarding SCDL’s Review
  Eek, typo. I meant to write dizzy XD

• MJ5K Jan 15, 2010 7:05AM

  Regarding SCDL’s Review
  Haha “When I watched it in 3D it made me dizzt after awhile.” You could not have said it best.

• Wick Jan 3, 2010 11:52AM

  Sigourney Weaver? She doesn’t even have good cigarette moves.

• MJ5K Dec 30, 2009 7:08PM

  Regarding hurwizzle’s Review
  IMO, the best performance in the movie was Sigourney Weaver. However, Worthington is an excellent young actor and I look forward to seeing more of his performances in the future.

• jasonhurwitz Dec 29, 2009 2:41PM

  Best actor was, without a doubt, Stephan Lang (as I said in my review). I don’t think Worthington was bad, I just don’t think he was anything overly special.

• MJ5K Dec 28, 2009 9:27PM

  Regarding hurwizzle’s Review
  Well it looks like we have a difference of opinion lol Solid review, Hurwizzle. However, I HIGHLY disagree on Sam Worthington, he was the best actor in the whole movie.

• MJ5K Dec 26, 2009 1:24PM

  And again, someone rates it Good 3.5. I guess these Wikker Pikkers weren’t too blown away. I’m just glad that I’m not alone in my opinion on the film.

• Wick Dec 24, 2009 12:21AM

  Given the hype, just good is a letdown. Notwithstanding me saying it measured up to its hype, the Trust Weighted Scores say your lead nails it. Don’t shrink from a good shot MJ.

• MJ5K Dec 23, 2009 11:01PM

  Oh well I was just kidding of course. This movie wasn’t a letdown at all. It was just good, not great.

• Wick Dec 23, 2009 8:37PM

  Regarding MetalJunky5000’s Review
  Yep, but I think you came up with the best lead: “BIG MOVIE!!! BIG STARS!!! BIG DIRECTOR!!! BIG LETDOWN!!!” Nails it.

• MJ5K Dec 23, 2009 7:42PM

  Man, we all gave it the same rating. Great minds truly think alike.

• Wick Dec 21, 2009 9:18PM

  Regarding moviebuffman’s Review
  Thanks for going first on Avatar mb-man. I was heading towards giving it 4 beams but didn’t feel right doing that. Then I revisited your review and saw 3.5, which seemed just right. A quick fine tune to my acting and film sliders, and all fell in line.

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