...James Cameron

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(this article is heavily informed by the below-mentioned _New Yorker_ profile)

I went to see _Avatar_ in 3D last night at the Arclight. In LA, one forgets what a "nerd" looks like in LA when everyone is so vacuously chic...well, if you needed a reminder just step into the lobby of the Arclight last night, where people who don't usually give a **** about cinema were gathered in droves to see James Cameron's latest opus in 3D. Now the movie had me engaged from the word go...but at the same time it was the stupidest, laziest piece of crap. You see, James Cameron is a technician and an effects creator of the highest order. He creates concepts to go along with these brilliant creations and then puts himself (and sadistically everyone who works with him) into extreme hyperdrive to realize these great creations. However, he is the most immature, obnoxious man (read the New Yorker Profile: James Cameron and “Avatar”: newyorker.com ) and his lack of interest in letting other people besides his god-complex self influence or impact him in any way really colors his characters. Mainly in that they really have no color at all. James Cameron believes in the macho everyman. And the best women are really men who are rewritten with female names. He supposedly thoroughly creates a universe with painstaking detail, yet his universes are always nuance-free. Semi-spoiler example: At the pivotal moment in the script, a "hail mary decision" allows Sully to connect and control the most powerful creature in ALL of Pandora (i'm talking about an ENTIRE (fictional) planet, not the music website that gives you the same crappy New Order and Talking Heads songs when you try to create a Smiths or Cure channel) Also, when greedy corporate people make a decision no one can stop them, while our current economy shows that to be the truth, at least people can make the musings of stopping them. Such musings would be an interesting direction for the script to take. But no, the script is SO SO SO SO simple. People who kick ass are cool, kicking ass is cool and greed is bad. (However, the extreme money-making of the studios and of Cameron is A-OK. ) Cameron has such an incredible talent, but too bad he pours all of it into a simplistic, stupid plots and simplistic (but brilliantly acted- Sigourney Weaver is so so so good- but it's all her) characters. But then again, as Cameron shows in his evil corporate characters, when one has the power to control vast wealth and resources, they don't use such power judiciously.