The Next Step for Movies?

What is left to be said about Avatar? It seems everyone who’s seen it has already been blown away by it’s stunning graphics, the special effects, and the advances that director James Cameron has made in 3D animation. My voice would be that of just another fanboy who worships at Cameron’s feet. Still, I’d like to try and give my take on this movie and why I think it’s one of the best science-fiction films I’ve seen from the past decade.

In the year 2154, humans have left Earth and have begun exploring space. On the moon Pandora, the RDA corporation wants to mine the mineral called unobtainium but this has brought them in direct conflict with Pandora’s natives, the blue-skinned, nature-worshipping Na’vi. The humans can only move around Pandora’s toxic atmosphere either in machines or in “avatars”, human Na’vi hybrids controlled by genetically matched humans. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic former marine who volunteers to replace his twin brother who was trained to operate an avatar but was killed prior to departure for Pandora. Though Jake works under the supervision of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), he actually reports to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) a military man who wants to know how to get rid of the Na’vi and get all the unobtainium possible.

Jake’s avatar gets lost on Pandora but is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female Na’vi who learned English through Augustine’s efforts. Brought back to the holy Hometree, Neytiri’s parents are the Omaticaya tribal chief Eytucan (Wes Studi) and the priestess Mo’at (CCH Pounder). Directed by Mo’at to teach Jake in the ways of the Omaticaya, Neytiri shows the human the bond that the Na’vi have with Pandora’s animals, plants, and the mother goddess Eywa. Jake then finds himself torn between his duty and his growing appreciation for the Na’vi, specifically Neytiri.

First of all, I don’t recommend seeing Avatar for the first time without at least watching the 3D version. The last two movies I’ve seen have been in 3D (the other being A Christmas Carol) but Avatar just raised the stakes in 3D motion pictures. One might feel a bit uneasy with the 3D initially, but after a few minutes, it becomes almost a natural thing to see the film that way. The merging of the live action with the computer-generated parts is also seamless, something I was really looking forward to critiquing before entering the cinema. Worthington, Saldana and the other Na’vi went through the whole motion capture process similar to what transpired in A Christmas Carol and The Polar Express except this time, their characters also interacted with actual human actors. If I was given the chance to watch this in IMAX, I’d jump at it too just to witness what Cameron’s true vision for this epic was in the first place.

As far as plots go, I’ve heard Avatar being compared to the 90s animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest but since I didn’t see that toon, I can instead compare this to films by the great Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki’s films often have themes of environmental awareness and nature fighting against technology and there were parts of Avatar that had echoes of both Princess Mononoke and Laputa: Castle in the Sky in that regard. I definitely think Cameron had been watching a lot of anime leading up to coming up with Avatar’s story, whether it was subconscious or not though is another story.

Still, the main draw of Avatar isn’t the plot. That’s only incidental to this experience. Indeed, watching Avatar is an experience because we might have just seen the future of films with this piece. Cameron supposedly helped push for the development of the cameras and filmmaking process necessary to make what he envisioned into a reality onscreen. The effects, the visuals, the sheer spectacle of the film, these have become James Cameron’s trademarks and they’re the reason why I want to watch movies that he produces or directs. Avatar is by no means a perfect film, but despite it’s plot holes and the cheesy love subplot, it was still a fun experience to enter a cinema, put on my 3D glasses and be transported to Pandora. Isn’t that why we watch movies in the first place?