Avatar (2009)

USA/United Kingdom
written and directed by: James Cameron
starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez
comment: 11th November, 2017

Originally, I had prepared notes for a very long and detailed list of everything that upset me about Avatar. But then I watched WALL-E, teared up a bit and realized that those are basically the same films and that where Andrew Stanton did everything right, James Cameron did everything wrong. I also realized that I, as a viewer, a self-appointed critic and, last but not least, a human being, should not dedicate so much of my attention to hateful stuff, but rather I should happily cry about things that are worth it and that's it. So I'll limit myself to describing only the most fatal flaw I see in this Cameron's creation, and of course that is the screenplay. Because a fundamentally flawed script  is the only answer to the question whey didn't I enjoy a film about my two favourite subjects: 1. "People, what a bunch of bastards." and 2. "Our civilisation is doomed."

Had Cameron built a functional dramatic and emotional arc for his film, I might have had (I hope that's the corret grammar) forgiven everything I found poor and shallow. But Jake's story bears no sings of thorough design and/or execution (because the authors rely on the weakest means of telling a story, such as training montages (the only acceptable training montage is found in Zoolader - "relax and kill the prime minister of Malaysia", every other training montage signifies weak storytelling and that's a statement I firmly stand by) or unnecessarily explanatory voice-over diary. And that's why I cannot forget and forgive the bad stuff about Avatar, but I am rather inclined to percieve even the few good things as belittled and clueless. So fare thee well and should you wonder what will I do while Cameron supposedly coughs up four more of these (was?! - german for what?!), know this: I'll be rewatching "Fantastic Planet" and "Princess Mononoke" for the seventh time.