Smurfs with weapons or Ferngully with a budget?

When I heard that my once favourite director was putting his stamp on cinema history with his latest film Avatar, I grew sceptical and found myself battling with a dilemma.

 

Are you going to betray me again?

 

From Terminator to Aliens to Terminator 2 to True Lies to Titanic. Excuse me? Titanic?

 

James…What were you thinking? Especially with the tagline, "Nothing Could Come Between Them."

 

Nothing apart from the Titanic.

 

Although the movie shared no likeness with man eating aliens, or a cyborg travelling back in time to deliver some cult classic one liners, it became the highest grossing movie of all time, so whilst I was at home feeling bitter and cheated on, James was probably bathing in a pool of $100 notes. I still would have preferred to see Schwarzenegger playing DiCaprio's role; a very cold Arnold shivering in the water of the Atlantic with Winslet by his side.

 

Detracted but not lost, back to the point at hand. So, Cameron going from my favourite director to close bottom, along side David Lynch, whose atrocity in depicting lesbianism through the means of psychedelic and symbolic imagery in Mulholland Drive took two hours of every cinema goer's lives which they will never get back. The idea of persevering through a three hour spectacle which followed blue animated aliens running around on screen seemed that Cameron had lost my trust entirely. So what did I think?

Aesthetically the movie was beautifully crafted and the wildlife in Pandora had an essence of utopia, but the story line itself just seemed a bit too generic and appeared to be a complete replica of Fergully: The Last Rainforest. Sam Worthington, co-star in the latest Terminator movie and playing Perseus in the upcoming remake of Clash of the Titans, onscreen performance lacked any form of captivating zest, but his blue animated self was an interesting watch.

 

I can't discredit Cameron for this movie, despite the lack of Schwarzenegger. He's revolutionized cinema in a different way entirely and created a vision which has taken him fourteen years.

 

It seems that people develop as time goes on; Cameron left me years ago for his new take on cinema and left me sitting on my sofa watching cheesy one liners, explosions, gun fights and the odd glimpse of a side boob.

 

If you want to watch a modern piece of cinema which subtly critiques deforestation and people who aren't washing their clothes below 30, this is the movie for you.

 

 

Goodbye James.

 

 

Theo Krekis