Avatoss

Cinema and indeed all fictional narratives are about the immersion of the audience in an imaginary world. Lose yourself amongst the rich tapestry of storytelling as the film-maker weaves another world around you, laugh and cry with the characters as their foibles and traumas poke at your emotive receptors. That's the theory anyway. I saw Avatar last week, an event in itself so over-hyperbolised it's easy to forget that the crux of this medium is supposedly story. Quite a decent premise; greedy imperialist industrialist corporation invading and subjugating the indigenous population of a planet to rape its natural resources (the somewhat farcically named Unobtanium, this is perhaps the subtlest idea in the whole film) The plucky natives fight back and along the way we see them as people too thanks to the crippled ex-marine who interacts with them and learns to appreciate their culture. Okay so I lied, its a hackneyed and obvious idea done better numerous times before by better film makers. But, you don't focus on the social commentary you gawp like slack jawed dolts in the face of the 3-D experience. Gasp! As anything to hand looms threateningly out from the screen. Marvel! at the rich and dense landscape in 3-D so realistic you can feel the alien bracken under you feet. Sob! At the rainfall leaves you wiping you face in belief it's precipitating in the auditorium. To be fair the film looks great. It really does. Unfortunately it's a turgid, slog through the barest and flimsiest excuse for getting your money in a long time. Not for James Cameron the boring and lengthy process of characterisation, instead everyone is a two-dimensional construct. This guy's legs don't work-he wishes they did. This woman empathises with the natives - we can learn from them. This guy's in charge of the corporation - Boo, hiss. etc. ad nauseum. With the all too predictable result that I couldn't give a toss. I didn't feel like I was watching people just barely scribbled pitch ideas. They all felt like 'the one who...' so the inevitable death of several protagonists again just felt like a passing exposition point to move us to the next set piece CGI wonderment. In short it felt like a bad video game. At one point the lead actor even had to undergo a series of 'tutorial' style tests to learn how to interact in the world. The problem with this being there is no control in cinema, a lack of depth can be forgiven when you get to interact with the world and explore it yourself but this felt like a late night college halls night from a decade ago slumped with a mind addled by various intoxicants staring blearily at someone with the motor skills of a squashed weasel playing Sonic the Hedgehog.
Avatar could have made some interesting and brave points; instead it chickened out. There was seemingly no serious consideration of different cultures peacefully co-existing through understanding and dialogue. Instead the message is 'if I've got a bigger stick than you then this is my land' a worrying message in these troubled times. Also the native people only triumph through the help of the plucky white man who falls in love. The subtext here being that without inside intervention they are intrinsically doomed. There was no talk, no negotiation, no interaction just a lot of fighting.
Gandhi once said that you should open all the windows of your house and let other cultures in without them blowing you over. Know your culture and heritage but understand and empathise with others. James Cameron seems to be propagating the message that we should bolt all our windows and doors and sit watching them with a shotgun. Oh and people of different colours can't co-exist in harmony without losing their own identity.