Does Avatar deserve its Titanic appeal?

In 1997, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave a certain film 11 Oscars — Best Picture included — because it broke box office records, presented dazzling special effects and broke just about everyone’s heart with its true-to-life tragedy.

In reality, however, it was a bad film that has not withstood the test of time.

That film was Titanic, and, if its 11 Oscars are any indication, director James Cameron’s late ‘90s megahit made it easy for everyone — members of the Academy included — to forget all about a small art film also nominated for Best Picture, called L.A. Confidential, which was in fact the best movie of that year.

With last Sunday’s Golden Globes ushering in the 2010 awards season and the Oscars drawing ever closer, strange-yet-familiar circumstances keep developing and, just like in 1997, all of these developments just so happen to include Cameron.

The filmmaker, who has not directed a mainstream film since Titanic, has been quite busy during the last 12 years, working diligently to surpass not only his own colossally successful and award-winning film but also every other film in the history of motion pictures.

With the release of his monumental film Avatar at the end of last year, many believe Cameron has done just that: Box office revenues and many notable film critics seem to constantly justify this very claim.

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan recently wrote, “Think of Avatar as The Jazz Singer of 3-D filmmaking.” With this bold statement, Turan quite seriously compares Avatar to the 1927 film, which was the first feature-length motion picture to feature synchronized talking and singing.

But it also appears as though the Hollywood Foreign Press Association completely agreed with this stipulation, awarding Cameron’s film with both the Best Picture and Best Director awards, which has now prompted many to believe that Avatar will continue on to the Academy Awards with the same fortune, just like Titanic.

But as a motion picture, does Avatar really deserve all of the praise and awards it has already received and might possibly receive in the future?

An interesting aspect of Turan’s review is that after he compares Cameron’s work to The Jazz Singer, he goes on to add, “Think of [Avatar] as the most expensive and accomplished Saturday matinee movie ever made,” and in labeling it a “matinee movie,” he is completely correct.

As visually stunning as it is, there is no debating the unoriginality of the film’s actual plot. Once you strip away all of the “performance-capture” animation and 3-D special effects, you are left with a bland storyline peopled with characters and featuring dialogue that can be considered both cliché and predictable.

What makes Avatar so great is its visuals, not its overall story. Accordingly, it seems strange that  it was recognized at the Golden Globes to be the Best Picture of 2009.

To qualify as a Best Picture candidate, one would expect a film to excel and amaze in all areas of filmmaking, not just visuals and special effects. Cameron’s film certainly does not do this.

All the same, at this point it is inescapably clear that Avatar will be one of the front-runners in this year’s Academy Award ceremony with not only nominations but also wins. Though he might not make off with 11 Oscars this time around, it is very possible that Cameron will not only take home an Oscar for Best Director but one for Best Picture as well.

If this does happen again, the smaller, less talked about and practically unnoticed film that actually does deserve the bulk of this season’s praise and awards will likely be forgotten because of its less than remarkable showing at the box office.

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s exhilarating film The Hurt Locker, which depicts the intensity of an army bomb squad as they diffuse explosives during the Iraq war, is a great film, but hardly anyone has seen it.

It lacks the mass appeal and stunning visuals that have captivated Avatar’s audiences, but what it does have is state of the art direction, a brilliant script and flawless performances to back it up.

The Hurt Locker constitutes every dimension of exactly what a Best Picture contender should — just like L.A. Confidential did — but there is no way it can compete with the momentum of Avatar.

James Cameron has, in fact, made a ground-breaking film that has changed the presentation of cinema, and like The Jazz Singer — which did not win Best Picture — Avatar deserves to be recognized for how completely it has revolutionized the way audiences experience movies. Still, it should not masquerade as the best film of the past year, let alone all time.