CheekyChicago

Avatar made me sick. It wasn’t the astronomical budget or the mind-boggling box office returns or even James Cameron’s unstoppable ego. The 3D experience left me physically ill, with a pounding headache and a powerful urge to vomit. But what makes me feel worse is that Avatar might actually win Best Picture…and it doesn’t deserve this honor. Cameron has a hard on for special effects, but he can’t get it up for a moving storyline.

I readily admit I haven’t seen all 10 nominees, but I’m judging Avatar purely on its own merits and flaws. To be fair, the film was a technological marvel and all of the hype about Pandora was fully warranted. Cameron shoved the movie-making industry forward, disrupting the status quo and altering the way audiences view the silver screen. He invented a new world and the technology to capture it. I don’t want to diminish this accomplishment, but it’s incomplete.

No matter how breathtaking the visuals, they can’t replace the importance of story. Let’s face it, Cameron hardly broke new ground in this arena. In fact, he simply recycled one of the oldest, most clichéd plotlines in cinematic history, without even devising new characters. The Na’vi are the Native Americans, a peaceful culture that respects harmony and values nature. The Americans are the cowboys, a reckless, irresponsible group motivated by greed and power, prone to brutality and violence. Guns versus arrows. Armor against loincloths. Crew cuts compared to long locks. The symbolism is anything but subtle and while I don’t mind a message movie, there’s no middle ground between good and evil…as defined by Cameron himself. It’s a cartoonish approach to a serious struggle and instead of exploring the emotional terrain of two cultures colliding, he illustrates the conflict with explosions. Cameron doesn’t go for the heart, he goes for the jugular.

You can easily argue that a blockbuster doesn’t need a complex story or emotional depth. If the goal is action and entertainment, then the storyline is secondary and the characters might be a distant third. When it comes to the Academy Awards and the most prestigious annual honor for a film, different criteria apply. It’s simply not enough to dazzle with special effects and skimp on a heartfelt story. Cameron deserves plenty of Oscar statuettes for the technical wonders of Avatar, but I hope the Best Picture category leaves him empty-handed.