AVATAR

Avatar was one of the most visually captivating films I’ve ever seen. I didn’t expect to be o blown away by the 3D effects, but this movie actually made it worth wearing the goofy 3D glasses for close to 3 hours. Like most of Director James Cameron’s other films, it is epic in size and scale, and will go down on record as being one of the most expensive to make. It took four years to make, but it was worth the wait. The main character, Jake Sully is a paraplegic and he’s come Pandora to take part in the Avatar program because his twin brother died. The scientists believe that his DNA/genes would be similar enough that he would be able to get into the avatar body that originally belonged to his brother. It did work, and Jake was able to walk again, at least as a Na’vi. The goal was to befriend the Na’vi people, learn their ways and basically enforce our ways on them. Schools were built, and it really looked like the humans were doing a good thing by being there. The only thing the humans were there for was a precious mineral which would bring in ridiculous amounts of money. Once the diplomatic negotiations seemed to be failing, the violence loving Colonel Quaritch announced it was time for fire power. The greedy corporate leader, Parker Selfridge gave him the okay to move the Na’vi people and blow up Hometree, which is where the largest deposit of the minerals are located.

Many people have compared this movie to Dances with Wolves, but I would say it’s incredibly similar to the story of Pocahontas. The European’s are coming in to rape and destroy the land for “gold” without a concern of how it may affect the native people. Jake Sully is John Smith (the even have the same JS initials), and Neytiri is Pocahontas. They are both daughters of the leaders of the tribes and the European’s/Human’s main explorers fall in love with them. Pocahontas and Neytiri are both tuned into Mother Nature and want to see it preserved rather than destroyed. The women both teach their men about Nature, explain her secrets so they can begin to see and love Nature as both Pocahontas and Neytiri do. In the end it works and John and Jake realize they shouldn’t be there demolishing their homeland.

Once these men have fallen in love with both their ladies and the land, they have to make an important choice of what to do. Both try to stop the one in command from coming in and wiping everything out, but it doesn’t do much so they fight against their original side to try to save the land and the native people. Pocahontas and Neytiri get angry when they find out why they came here in the first place, but eventually forgive them since in the end they tried to help. Jake chooses to stay in his avatar form to be with Neytiri and not return to Earth.

This tried and true story is found in many places, and will probably be continued to be used. There is also a bit of colonialism interlaced in these stories; a group of people (usually from a country, or in this case, humans from Earth) come over to help the other “inferior” people by introducing them to a new religion and culture. The religion of the explorers is then forced upon the native people. I couldn’t help but think of the novella The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad as the perfect example of colonialism taking over. That’s essentially what’s happening in the planet Pandora where the Na’vi live, the humans are using whatever means necessary to move the people and harvest the precious materials.

The story may be cliché, but this movie is incredible to watch, from the intense 3-D to the bright, neon colors and dramatic creatures, it’s quite a spectacle. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, and thought it was very cool that Jake was able to get his legs back. I would give it thumbs up.