“Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move.”

Avatar is set in the year 2154, when a bunch of humans go to a planet called Pandora to colonize as their new home. Jake Sully, the main character, is an ex-marine and is part of a group that takes on an avatar body, a body designed to replicate the DNA of both the host and the Na’vi, the humanlike species that lives on the planet, tasked with learning more about the Na’vi, so that they can eventually get a valuable resource for Earth. However, throughout the film, Jake becomes torn between the Na’vi and his duty, as he finds a valuable place for himself with the people there and has fallen in love.

I’ve never been crazy about the Avatar movies, and especially not the first one, and earlier this year, I rewatched them, and my thoughts were the same. However, I decided to give this a proper rewatch and another chance before Fire & Ash comes out. I have to say, while I still don’t think this is a terrific film by any means, I enjoyed it quite a bit more this time. I guess I’ll just get the obvious out of the way and talk about the visual effects first. Sure, they’ve dated ever so slightly in the sixteen years since this film’s release, but they are still absolutely terrific and mesmerizing. They are better than most movies nowadays, and the effort that went into the movie must have been insane.

James Cameron created a completely believable and lived-in world, and one that was entirely believable and immersive. It’s one of the most unique and interesting worlds ever created in film, and it only gets better with the sequels (I’m assuming with Fire & Ash). Even though I’ve never been a big fan of this movie, I’ve always gotten lost in the world of Pandora every time I’ve revisited it. The creatures, the plants, everything is so well done and entirely different than anything I’ve seen in other movies.

My biggest criticism of the movie is the story, which I’ll get into later, but the one aspect of it that I do really like is the relationship between Jake and Neytiri, one of the Na’vi. I’ve always loved that Jake finds his place with this new group of people outside of his species, and as a result, falls in love with one of them. Their chemistry is really well done, and I think both Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña give terrific performances.

The third act is also really epic. All the explosions, the flying sequences, and the action are incredible and such a blast to watch. It’s the one part of the movie that I’ve always enjoyed because of how entertaining it is. Sure, it kind of correlates with my problems with the story, but I love it nonetheless.

But, as I already said twice, the story is pretty weak. It’s a very paint-by-numbers story that has plenty of clichés and is overall extremely predictable. It’s been said to death pretty much, but the plot is basically Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas in space, but not extremely effective (I know Pocahontas isn’t anything to write home about either). If you removed all the spectacle from Avatar, I think you’d have a pretty weak and shallow movie, which is unfortunate coming from James Cameron, as that’s never really been something I’ve had a problem with when it comes to his previous films. I know this has been mentioned about a million times, but it’s so blatant that you can’t really make a review for this film without mentioning it.

I’ve just never really found myself caring about the actual Na’vi themselves, or anything that revolves around saving their people from the colonizers, another somewhat cliché plot point. I just don’t find the Na’vi very compelling (except Neytiri) - they’re downright hostile pretty much from beginning to end, which is understandable because of the story, but doesn’t really help me connect with them. If James Cameron had made them a little more resonant, the film would have been significantly better. Because of this, whenever all of the big emotional moments hit, they, well, don’t really hit.

So, I gave Avatar yet another chance, and my thoughts remain pretty much the same; however, I did enjoy it a bit more for whatever reason this time. The story is weak, but the spectacle of it all cannot be understated.