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AVATAR |
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Wow, "Avatar" is crazy good! James Cameron's futuristic thriller is "Star Wars" great. It almost scares me how truly riveted I was while watching "Avatar"; riveted like I was in 1977 while watching George Lucas' first "Star Wars: A New Hope". "Avatar" has every element
that made "Star Wars" great - a tried and true storyline of good versus evil; greed and treachery, love and lust; the empire versus the rebellion; detail to the nth degree; and everything else that makes the great movies great! This is what movie making is all about. Take note Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay and Wolfgang Petersen - there is more to movie making than splashing effects and a lot of volume! |
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First a bit of history. When the Europeans came to what is now the United States, they began relocation the natives to make way for settlers - that was after they realized they could successfully enslave them. As valuable assets were discovered on native lands,
the removal escalated to war - the First and Second Indian Wars. Called such as only the Civil War interrupted the relocation. The most famous of the re-locations was the Trail of Tears when the Eastern Cherokee, Seminole and other southeastern natives where forcibly moved to desolate Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Yes there where rebellions but in the end
technology and military numbers overcame birthright and passion. "Avatar" revisits these transgressions by placing the same events in the year 2154. Earth has pretty much depleted it's resources and is mining other worlds. One of the worlds of interest in Pandora - a remote moon in a distant solar system. It turns out that Pandora is rich in a mineral unlike any planet yet discovered. Humans have every intention to getting their hands on the
mineral by hook or by crook. The only thing standing in their way are an elegant but primitive native peoples called Nabi. The Nabi are One with their planet (which turns out to be a very hostile planet despite the beauty) and not really interested in moving. |
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So the humans send in the marines to "negotiate". One of these marines is a paraplegic named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) whose identical twin brother was killed. Jake is brought in because his brother was part of and
elaborate military program that created Nabi-like beings called avatars. The avatars look like Nabi and can breathe the atmosphere. Moreover, they are controlled by hot-wiring the mind of a marine into the body. (Uh, yeah, you suddenly are thinking of the recent Bruce Willis fiasco "Surrogates").
The plan is to infiltrate the Nabi, become one with them and somewhat peacefully convince them to relocate. (Sort of the same mission the US Army used in Viet Nam with the early advisors who were place to sabotage the North Vietnamese!) Sully is brought in because the avatars are expensive and he can control his brother's avatar. In exchange for his cooperation he is promised an expensive operation that will give him full use of his original legs. The shady kind of deals the US Armed services is famous for
making. He agrees and with the help of lead scientist Grace (Sigourney Weaver) he takes over the avatar. |
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He begins his mission only to learn the hard way how dangerous the flora and fauna of Pandora really is. He immediately gets into life threatening peril and is rescued by a lovely
female Nabi named Neytiri (played dutifully by the suddenly popular Zoe Saldana). Neytiri immediately realises that he is out of place and warns him to take caution, all the while falling for his boyish, gung-ho marine charms. That's when the military deceit kicks in. Not willing to wait for "negotiations, the military sends in its mechanized forces to speed up the process - basically kill the Nabi. This surprises Sully and he now feels a sense of betrayal towards him. Now the fun begins. "Avatar" takes off on a surrealistic adventure much like we remember from "Star Wars". We care about the characters and a filled with awe by the CGI created planet and the extremely well crafted Nabi. Much like Lucas did with his "Star Wars" saga, Cameron supplied the Nabi with their own language which will no doubt make it's rounds on the Internet. More importantly, Cameron has crafted a film that the majority of the watchers will want to see multiple times on the big screen. Just like "Star Wars". I'm no soothsayer, but "Avatar" may well be the biggest movie ever! It may be the best movie of the year! We'll see. With a production cost of $230 million (possibly the most expensive movie ever made) and at 163 minutes it will certainly need to be both. --GEOFFREY BURTON
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