Clare Shepherd reviews AVATAR (3D) (12A) (From Stroud News and Journal)

Clare Shepherd reviews AVATAR (3D) (12A)

5:30pm Tuesday 22nd December 2009

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AVATAR (3D) (12A) WHEN James Cameron clutched the 11th Oscar of the night awarded to Titanic in 1998 and announced he was "The King of the World", the world winced. This arrogance was not too surprising, coming from a man whose huge ego andreputation for being difficult are legendary. However if you take a moment to consider his body of work, you can’t help but admire how good a film maker he is: from bettering a classic movie with Aliens (1986), the groundbreaking effects in The Abyss (1989), possibly one of the best chase films ever made in Terminator (1984), and once more breaking the effects mould with Terminator 2 (1991) to Titanic (1997), which took what could have been a cheesy love story and turned it into an epic disaster movie. Cameron’s work has always been pioneering. Post Titanic, he decided to turn his attention to 3D and 11 years later he re-emerged with Avatar.

Paraplegic marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) volunteers to travel to another planet to be part of a mining mission to source a highly expensive precious mineral to send back to Earth, which we get the impression is not in good shape. His part in the project is to befriend the native population the Na’vi by inhabiting a Na’vi avatar – a biological being which is controlled by Jake’s unconscious mind – and persuading the Na’vi to move from their main home, because it happens to be on the richest seam of the precious mineral in the whole planet. The ominous presence of a large military force implies there is not very much time being allocated to a diplomatic solution. Jake takes to his Na’vi alter-ego with relish, becomes a part of the tribe, falls in love and inevitably goes native at around about the time the colonialists run out of diplomatic patience.

The story is one we’ve seen before: swap the Na’vi with the Native American and you get A Man Called Horse (1970) or Dances With Wolves (1990). It is clichéd, predictable and yet it might just be one of the greatest films ever made. Its greatness comes not in plot and performance; both perfectly fine, but that Cameron’s work on 3D means nothing will ever be the same again. Until Avatar, 3D could be seen as a bit of a marketing gimmick, usually with some visual tricks to shock the audience, but this film takes it further. The key to the film’s success is that James Cameron didn’t go "Let’s make a film in 3D" and try and fit the film to it, he made a film that simply had to be shot in 3D in order to work. It is not the perfect film but it is a glimpse of the future and grudgingly you have to admit that Cameron’s pronouncement 11 years ago might just be true (at least for now). Clare Shepherd 8/10

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