Welcome To Pandora (Avatar – Review)

There’s no doubt in saying Avatar (2009) by James Cameron, is the film of the season. It’s a bit hard to write a review about it, because it’s too epic for having just a few words. But let’s get to it.

James Cameron is known for telling the same story in a different way each time, and with Avatar he manages to do once again. We can say it is a mixture of Pocahontas, Dance With Wolves, Tarzan and 2001: A Space Odissey. The story it’s quite simple, and you even guess it while watching the final trailer.

Pandora is a moon where a lot of  unobtainium (a precious metal) can be found, and the humans need it because it worths a lot of money. There’s a conflict in Pandora because the main source of this metal is below the Hometree of a native humanoid culture called the Na’vi. The humans want to take the Na’vi out of there, but the Na’vi (obviously) don’t want to, and consider the humans a threat and an enemy. Jake Sully arrives there to play a mercenary role, but because of his physical problem is taken to Dr. Grace’s laboratory.

Jake is a former Marine who is paralyzed below the waist and takes the place of his dead brother, who was a scientist working on the Avatar Program, because he’s compatible with his brother’s avatar. An avatar is a human-Na’vi hybrid, that can be linked to a person’s mind. Dr. Grace Augustine is the one in charge of the project and doesn’t like him because he’s not a researcher, and doesn’t have any knowledge of the Na’vi or of Pandora’s world. At the same time, Colonel Miles Quaritch orders Jake to gain the trust of the Na’vi and gives him three months to convince them to abandon the Hometree. Otherwise, the Na’vi will be attacked and their home completely destroyed, as well as their culture and sacred places.

After a falied mission along with Grace and some others, Jake gets lost in Pandora’s forest and finds himself trapped with the world’s fauna. Then appears Neytiri, a female Na’vi who recues him and takes him to the Hometree. There, Jake discovers she’s the daughter of the tribe’s leaders. Neytiri is ordered by her parents to teach Jake all the Na’vi ways and to make him par of the clan. As the movie goes on, Jake falls in love with the Na’vi culture and with Neytiri, and realizes that the clan will never leave the Hometree. Quaritch finds out about this and prepares to attack the Na’vi. Jake confesses the reason of his arrival, and prepares the Na’vi for battle.

The movie ends with the Na’vi’s victory and they force the human to leave, allowing Jake to stay along with some friends. Then, his soul is transplanted from his human body into his Na’vi avatar.

As you can see, the film’s plot is quite predictable, but what impresses more about it is the way the story is told. Cameron’s world, Pandora, is visually fantastic and colourful, taking the spectator inside a whole new world where everything has life by its own and works different than in our world. Avatar is a film that teleports the audience to a place where fantastic things happens, and where nature has a completely different meaning.

It is said this is the film of the decade, and I have to say it might be. Not because of the plot, the casting or the characters. It is because of the technology used for its creation. The acting is quite good. Sam Wothington surprises with his role of Jake, and we can see a personal journey where the heroe tries to find his place in the universe. Zoë Saldaña shows the adventurous side of women as Neytiri, and creates a protector of life. Sigourney Weaver shows one more time why she’s one of Cameron’s favorites and about Stephen Lang… well, he manages to turn Quaritch into a really, really hateful villain, with the same stubborness of the typical villains, but raised to new levels.

So, do we have to see Avatar? I think we do. I admit I would go to see it again, maybe three more times. It is really an amazing and well-done film, and at the end of the day, it does what a film is supposed to do: entertain. Good job, Cameron! (Oh, by the way… there might be sequels…)

Avatar (2009) receives here a 4.5 rating out of 5. Feel free to comment!

Advertisement