I feel like I should hate this movie. First, there's the plot. It's formulaic. And not only is the plot trite and shopworn, it's at least borderline racist: White guy stumbles into a group of his exotic enemies who, with echoes of the "Noble Savage," are so much deeper and more in tune with nature than he is, becomes part of the group despite the hostility of some of its members, overcomes his prejudices and casts off his old self, wins the heart of the beautiful Native Girl, becomes best buds with the young Native guy who had most wanted to kill him, learns to use their weapons and skills even better than they can, becomes their savior/messiah figure, and leads them in battle against his own (evil, exploitative) people who can't see the value of the wonderful culture they're about to destroy. With assorted variations, it's been used in any number of movies: Dances with Wolves, Fern Gully, Pocahontas, The Last Samurai, Star Trek: Insurrection, and on and on. And the predictability! It's not just that the overall plot is a formula, but there isn't a single plot surprise in the movie. I saw every "twist" coming a mile away. I think it was Chekov (Anton, not Pavel) who said that if you show a gun in Act 1, you have to use it in Act 3. Well, James Cameron shows us a lot of guns, both literal and figurative, in this movie, and each time he does, you can easily predict exactly how he's going to use it. I won't go into specifics, even though you can't really "spoil" a movie this predictable. You'll know what I mean if you watch the movie.
And characterization? Forget about it. Two characters in this movie are fleshed out to the point where I suppose they could generously be described as three-dimensional (yet still cliché). Every other character is an archetype, if not a stereotype.
Oh, and then there are the heavy-handed "messages." Respect for the environment is Good. Murdering indigenous people in order to destroy their land and take their resources is Bad. Well, no frakkin' duh. Like we need a movie to point those things out for us. (But despite what some people have said, Avatar is not anti-war at all. It's pro-war. It's anti-imperialism, but it's very much in favor of warring to protect yourself against imperialism. That's definitely not a pacifist message.)
So, it sounds like I hated this movie, doesn't it? But I didn't. I loved it. Despite everything I just wrote, I absolutely loved it. It's actually kind of annoying. Despite my self-ascribed good taste, despite everything I think I know about movies and film-making and literature and story-telling, despite my ability to "deconstruct" this film and any other film from start to finish, backwards and forwards, inside and out, James Cameron can make a movie filled with everything I think should make for a bad film and keep me riveted for two and a half hours, entertain me, move me, and transport me to another world. I kind of hate that he has that much power over me.
In Part 2, I'll explain why I loved the movie so much.
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