Avatar

I feel like I owe some words on "Avatar" after my geeked-out teaser post from August, which was written partly in response to the general dismissiveness across the internet to the teaser trailer (dubbed "Dances with ThunderSmurfs" by talkbackers at Ain't It Cool). As the movie was probably the most expensive ever made, both the future of Cameron's career and potentially the future of 3-D movies were at stake, I was hoping for its success.

Careful what you wish for. "Avatar," insanely, has become the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide (yes, there's that adjusted-for-inflation caveat that gets thrown around, but even accounting for inflation it's on pace to have more estimated global ticket sales than any previous film, with only his own "Titanic" as the potential contender). I'm not sure that I liked "Avatar" enough in the end to be proud of it for the achievement, although I expect that I'll be pleased in the coming years to see more 3-D mainstream films, which I still believe adds another layer of connection with a film. (My dream would be a 3-D of a calm and thoughtful film like "Dinner with André," giving it all the intimacy of seeing it performed live at the theater but with the immediacy of feeling like you were present on stage.)

It's not that I thought "Avatar" was bad, but I didn't get the same emotional impact that I did from some of his previous films. "The Abyss" was also a groundbreaking technological achievement in a story filled with soldiers on the brink of war, but at the heart of that film was an estranged marriage finding a rekindling in the midst of the strain. The love story of "Avatar" felt too offhand, too inauthentic to me, and when that collapses, the movie becomes just spectacle. (Incredible spectacle, to be sure — entertaining spectacle, but nothing I feel like I need to return to.)

I don't mean to suggest that every action movie need to be anchored by a piercing love story, only that that's Cameron forte. Even in "Aliens" and "Terminator 2," which were love stories more of a parental sort, raw emotion provided the through-line for the films. The glue to "Terminator 2" was Edward Furlong (yes, Edward Furlong) reacting everything that was happening around him in with realistic young emotion -- his anger at his mother, his love for his mother, and his pushing for independence from his mother rolled up into a single moment, or his treating the Terminator as human because he simply doesn't know how to distance himself emotionally from a human face the way his very hardened mother has.

On the contrary, "Avatar"'s lead character seems to me to be dead inside from the very beginning, with his legs crushed and his brother dead, half-heartedly making his way through life. I was waiting for Jake to finally arrive, to fully wake up, buhis new life inside the avatar felt like little more than an extended Rocky-esque training sequence. I always felt the pull of immediacy back to the familiar realm of the humans rather than ever settling into a non-action piece of normal, simple life with the Na'vi. It never felt like he got to settle for a moment, to show himself.

Perhaps it doesn't help that he starts out more or less as a secret agent within Na'vi culture, needing to be careful not to let his guard down by design. (That is, in fact, what I didn't much like about Cameron's "True Lies," his only major film that I have distaste for. The false fronts and false bravado the characters struggle to maintain tamps down any hint of vulernable emotion beneath.) I kept waiting for Jake to let his new compatriots in on the humans' plans and cement his status as a trusted insider, but he refused to let down his facade until well after his cover was blown for him.

In the end, the love story of "Avatar" seemed to most resemble "She's All That," one of those umpteen high school movies where the jock dates the hot girl under false pretenses, his cover is blown, she rejects him with really good reason, and then he needs to atone through some outlandish gesture. Say what you will about "Titanic," but at least "Romeo and Juliet" has a better pedigree if you want to crib your love story.