During the first few minutes of Avatar, I thought “This is pretty cool.” By the thirty-minute mark, I thought “This is absolutely stunning.” By the end of the first hour, I thought “I need to see this again.”
Avatar is set in the mid-22nd century on the forest moon of Pandora. Earth is dying, but the discovery of a highly valuable mineral prompts humans to establish a mining colony on Pandora. In order to win the trust of the native Na’vi, the corporation leading the expedition creates genetically-altered Na’vi “avatars” that can be remotely controlled by human operators. Jake Sully, a former Marine who is a paraplegic as a result of a combat injury, is brought to Pandora to operate one of these avatars. Through a series of events, sully befriends a Na’vi woman and her tribe. But things take a grim turn when the humans decide to forcibly move the tribe in order to mine the rich vein of mineral beneath their village. I’m not giving too much away by disclosing that Sully decides to make a stand with the Na’vi.
Cameron’s attempt at world-building is a marvel of artistry and technical wizardry. Pandora’s vibrant and lethal ecosystem is fully realized to dazzling effect, but Cameron really outdoes himself by breathing life into the Na’vi. They are every bit as expressive and nuanced in both movement and emotion as their human counterparts. Without them, the movie is just so much eye candy and explosions. The Na’vi provide the film’s emotional core.
The story itself is a bit kludgy and bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain western. And I could have done without the forays into Gaia-inspired mysticism. I’m not sure why Hollywood has to portray alien civilizations as either technological utopias or primitive utopias. But that doesn’t make Avatar any less of a crowning achievement and one of the best science fiction movies of the decade.
