Review: AVATAR IN CONCERT, Royal Albert Hall

James Cameron’s Avatar was this weekend the latest to be screened at the Royal Albert Hall as part of their Films In Concert series.

Released in 2009, the story of blue-skinned giant aliens of Pandora fighting corporate greed has become the highest grossing movie of all time, raking in almost $3bn in box office receipts. Its director is no stranger to blockbusters having helmed two others in the top four biggest movies in Titanic and 2022 sequel Avatar: Way Of The Water both generating around $2.3bn. Hollywood still lags some way behind video games when it comes to parting punters from their cash - Grand Theft Auto V has brought in $8.6bn since its 2013 debut - but Cameron is still undeniably the most bankable director in town.

That means that there is no shortage of people wanting to work with him but, as revealed in a pre-show interview with Avatar: Way Of The Water composer Simon Franglen and Avatar In Concert producer Pierre O’Reilly, he has often leant of the talents of two men who died since working on Avatar.

Producer Jon Landau passed away from cancer this July after collaborating with Cameron for over 31 years on both Avatar films as well as Titanic. Franglen’s predecessor James Horner also had a long career with Cameron and we have him to thank (or blame) for Celine Dion’s funeral and wedding reception favourite “My Heart Will Go On”. Cameron was understandably coy about the third film in the series titled Avatar: Fire And Ash which will be released next year, saying that it will focus on some of the characters that we have seen in the first two films and will be both “harrowing and uplifting”.

The screening is brought to vivid life thanks to the excellent Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and its conductor Ludwig Wicki, the National Youth Choir and soloists Eric Rigler (whistle) and Eleanor Grant (vocals). The back line of percussionists add real volume to the proceedings especially in the dramatic action scenes. There are well over one hundred musicians on stage who totally transform the emotional power of every set piece. Hearing the violins kick in during the beautiful flying scenes (which Cameron says he had to fight with studio execs to keep in) lifts the experience to a new level.

The film still holds up as an exciting and well-paced outing. Cameron’s direction is fluid and often skips what would have been dull exposition, sometimes dropping us right into the middle of a scene. That can lead to plot holes but that’s rarely an audience’s chief concern in genre films like this. The visuals look a little shonky - congrats on anyone who worked out that Neytiri was played by Zoe Saldaña who didn’t know beforehand - but the technology has come on leaps and bounds over the last 15 years. The action is crisp and, at times, brutal while the real tenderness in the script between the characters and their world shines through.

The acting is a very mixed bag. If this was Saldaña’s breakout role, it did the opposite for Sam Worthington whose film career stalled until the sequel. Cameron had Matt Damon in mind and even went so far as offering him 10% of the box office back end, a deal which would've meant a $250 million payday but Damon turned him down to play Jason Bourne (regrets, he’s had a few). Worthington isn’t terrible but his pastrami acting (both beef and hammy) is by far the worst part of Avatar. 

If anything, it is the supporting characters that shine the brightest. As Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar programme and Jake’s mentor, Sigourney Weaver is a feisty scientist who rubs up against Giovanni Ribisi’s amoral corporate administrator Parker Selfridge who is determined to mine as much unobtainium from the planet as he can. Stephen Lang plays the antagonist Colonel Miles Quaritch with vigour and a truly evil glint in his eye. Laz Alonso, who would go on to play Mother’s Milk in the infamously violent series The Boys, plays a minor role as the warrior Tsu'tey. Although Augustine and Quaritch meet their demise in the first film, Weaver and Lang both returned for Avatar: Way Of The Water.

For those worried about how AI will shape Hollywood, it is worth noting that 60% of Avatar is computer-generated while, for its sequel, that figure was around 90% with only two shots in the three-hour plus running time being entirely free of CGI. Those battling against the algorithm may have already lost the war. 

Upcoming screenings in the Film In Concert series include Home Alone, Gladiator and Back To The Future. 

To post a comment, you must register and login.