It has been suggested by Owen Gleiberman at EW.com that this year’s Oscar race for Best Picture may come down to Avatar vs. Up in the Air. I have yet to see Up in the Air, but I’m still trying to forget that Slumdog Millionaire won last year, so if Avatar wins Best Picture at the Oscars, I think I may just give up on the Academy.
Just as Inglourious Basterds has all the hallmarks of a Tarantino picture, Avatar contains those of James Cameron: using cutting edge visuals in an attempt to cover up the fact that the film is full of canned lines, prototypical characters, and wasted talent.
Avatar will reel in technical awards, as it should (there is no denying it is pretty to look at), but it is a sad day if we’ve reached a point where the Academy will award Best Picture to a piece of eye candy. Titanic was borderline in this regard, but the fact that even Cameron can’t waste Kate Winslet’s talent must have saved it because it is one of the few Best Picture winners of recent years that won without a half-decent script.
It would be unfair to call Cameron “lazy” because a lazy person could not pull off what he does as far as visual effects go. However, Cameron either needs to take a course in time-management or learn how to delegate because for all that Avatar possesses in technical innovation, it lacks in the fundamentals of original storytelling. The film is full of stock characters whom Cameron doesn’t need to take the time to develop because we already know what prototype they fit from a facial expression and a couple of short lines (see, for example, Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy). We don’t need to learn about the character’s background or even see them for more than five minutes before they do something to affect the plot because we already know who they are; we’ve seen them in every action/sci-fi movie ever made.
Cameron is not exactly lauded as a screenwriter (of Titanic‘s 14 Oscar nominations, a notable omission was Best Original Screenplay). Let’s be honest: he couldn’t write his way out of a paper bag, and Avatar is proof positive. The script is riddled with canned lines from action movies involving the military (“I didn’t sign up for this!”), colonization (“..a fresh start on a new world..”), skeptical smarty-pantses (“Just relax and let your mind go blank. That shouldn’t be hard for you.”), overcoming adversity when outgunned (“We will send them a message…”), and demolition deadlines (“You’ve got one hour.”) The crowning glory, though, is a Cameron original; the hard-to-get element that is the cause of so much trouble in the film is…get this… “Unobtanium”! The overarching metaphor are obvious in a “beat you over the head with it” sort of way; coupled with poor writing, this does a great job of distracting from the message of the film.
Considering Cameron’s ineffective script, it’s rather poetic that poor communication serves as an important plot device on a couple of occasions throughout the film. My parting words to Mr. Cameron: “Physician, heal thyself!”
Do yourself a favour, fair reader: If you can, do what I did, and see Precious almost immediately after you watch Avatar; it will help restore your faith in filmmaking as storytelling, and this could take a while, so best to get started right away.
Weakened State 