Our ongoing series looking at movies that took the blockbuster genre into the realms of excess. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
By John J. Joex
Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 Stars
When I began the Blockbuster Overload column several months ago, the first film that I covered was Return of the Jedi and I commented that it had allowed corporate cynicism to seep into its filmmaking process and had placed the marketability of the franchise over artistic merits. As this column is winding down (for now at least), it’s only appropriate that I visit a film that I consider a direct antecedent to Return of the Jedi in that it was designed more to promote a brand and launch a franchise than to tell a good story or to elevate the artistic integrity of genre cinema. James Cameron’s Avatar hit the theaters in late 2009 and went on to achieve the status as the highest grossing film ever while also raking in tons of cash through its merchandising and tie-ins and setting up a highly profitable film franchise designed to carry on for many years. But that was all according to the perfectly crafted, well orchestrated plan that launched this big screen product as one of the most successful brandings in recent memory.
When the Blockbuster Era began back in the mid-70’s, visionary filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg saw the potential of feature films especially considering the technical capabilities available to them by that time. They realized that within their grasp were the fantastic tales that had often previously been relegated to B-Movie status and that had rarely been allowed the budget they needed to realize their ambitions. These filmmakers set out to make these movies and to finally deliver the grand experience that had long been just beneath the surface, though rarely tapped with genre films. They did this with a sense of vigor, ingenuity, and sincerity that infused itself into the early films they delivered such as Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. And they inspired many more visionary filmmakers to follow in their path.
But by the 80’s, the energy and inspiration had started to wane as Hollywood warmed to the cash cow that was the Science Fiction and Fantasy Blockbuster and corporate cynicism began to trump artistic achievement. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones films proved the profitability of film franchises and the movie studios began to focus more and more on creating a sustainable product, with high merchandising value. The third film in the Star Wars franchise, Return of the Jedi, very much solidified this position and set the path that the industry would follow in the coming decades (and you can read more about that at this link). And even though many Blockbusters that would follow would still manage to succeed artistically, the vapid yet titillating, audience-friendly extravaganza would come to dominate the genre. Which brings us back to Avatar, a film that acts as a poster-child for this type of movie.
Not that Avatar is necessarily a bad film. It’s actually quite enjoyable, at least on the visual level. In fact, based on that standard it likely stands as the most accomplished genre film to date. But once you take the visuals away, it quickly begins to deflate. It has an almost by-the-numbers formulaic plot that draws heavily from films or stories that have preceded it, primarily the Pocahontas legend as well as the Kevin Costner film Dances With Wolves (as well as some of Cameron’s own films like Aliens). Revisiting old material is not bad in itself, though, even Shakespeare borrowed ideas for his plays. But Avatar does nothing to give its story a fresh spin other than dress it up with exceptional visuals. And the fact is that the story itself works to counterbalance the technical achievements of the film as it descends into mind-numbing territory at times. The idea of a greedy corporation uprooting an indigenous population in order to strip the land of its natural resources has worked its way through any of a number of movies, television shows, books and even Dr. Seuss stories (The Lorax). And Avatar gives no new twist on the idea, it just makes it a whole lot cooler to look at (and one could argue that the message quickly gets lost in the visuals, or that people can more easily ignore it). The movie very quickly descends into cliché-ridden piffle about an evil corporation backed by gung-ho jarheads versus the technically inferior noble savages whose purity of spirit eventually overcomes the specter of greed.
Cameron has succeeded in instilling a message into his previous films, most notably with The Abyss (the full version). With Avatar, though, he outright fails because the movie feels far too calculated as it plays off of populist sympathies but seems to lack much commitment. And for this reason it feels insincere, like he only grafted the message on to give the film some sort of credibility and prove that it’s more than just a special effects extravaganza. But it has that empty feeling of trying to tie some respected cause to a corporate product, like a “Go Green” Barbie doll, or a “Peace Force” G.I. Joe. And on top of that, it seems rather ingenuine to try and deliver a message about the evils of corporate greed by way of a mega-blockbuster designed primarily with the purpose of propping up a franchise intended to rake in the profits for its studio and creators for years to come. At this point the art of filmmaking is dead, trumped by the art of marketing, branding, and merchandising.
What makes this such a travesty is that Cameron is a quite accomplished genre filmmaker with movies like the first two Terminator films and Aliens on his resume, and he even revealed his more visionary side with The Abyss. All four of those films are well respected works of Science Fiction cinema. And while Avatar has also achieved high notices in the ranks of genre movies, it stands there on its technical achievements alone. Even its apologists would have a hard time arguing in favor of its artistic merits. So ultimately, it succeeds on a sensory level, but delivers little in the way of depth beneath its dazzle and shine.
Earlier in the same year that Avatar came out, a much less heralded CGI film called Battle for Terra briefly graced the theaters and delivered a very similar story. But this film, made on a fraction of the $240 million budget that brought Avatar to life, had much more depth and sincerity and delivered a far more satisfying viewing experience. Unfortunately it quickly disappeared next to the competition from the mega-blockbusters pushing it out of the cinemas. But I recommend giving that one a look if you want to see a similar story carried off with much better filmcraft.
Buy Avatar and Battle for Terra on DVD from Amazon.com:
