But it had to be, you don't spend that much money on a 'epic' film, only to run with something other than a bog standard hollywood narrative, it would be a crazy gamble that could've lost them money.....
The narrative isn't, as Lee argues, the problem. While the narrative is basically one of the John Campbell Mythic Character Kits the characters remain, even after three hours, those archetypes.
Ironically, Cameron has used many of these charactersand even actorsbefore in Aliens, who explored the same para-military themes, but which used deeper characterization to tell the story in a more efficient way.
By the first 20 minutes of
Aliens, we understand that Lt. Gorman is new and untested; the sergeant used to an outfit that's barely in control; Hudson is a bit of a coward, but uses his mouth to hide his fear; Hicks is apathetic; and there's the nice bit of sly dialogue that tells you everything you need to know about the relationship between the two 'smart-gun' operators. The movie has also told you the situation and let you know that despite everything, things are going to go very, very badly.
And
Aliens isn't exactly Oscar-bait, but it manages to allow its characters room enough to act and breathe, while moving quickly from each action-packed set-piece. By the end, Gorman makes a brave-decision and sacrifice, Carter remains unchanged but pays for his mistakes, Ripley turns to face the creature rather than running and Hudson stands his ground.
However, in
Avatar, very little changes in the characters. Rather, Jake Scully gets a new skill-set and "learns to love."
Avatar is an incredible ride, but
The Hurt Locker has an emotional impact that Avatar does not. I would argue that
District 9 is at least as good as
The Hurt Locker and that
Up's first 10 minutes should become the new standard for sleek story-telling. Sans dialogue
Up tells the life-story of a couple in a few minutes.
Avatar takes three hours of THX-sound and 3D-fury and fails to make its characters real. Pandora, however, feels like it was almost there.
