AVATAR

AVATAR
rated PG13

ART--->****
HEART->**1/2
MIND-->**
FUN--->***

The year is 2154. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a wounded marine with an assignment to the planet Pandora, a lush world filled with alien creatures and amazing biological life. Jake’s mission is to infiltrate the society of the “hostile” Na’vi aliens and win their trust, all the while feeding intel about them to his military commander, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). In order to do this he must use an avatar, or alien host body, Under the supervision of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver).

Once his consciousness is inside his avatar, Jake meets Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female alien who notices his connection with their planet and brings him to her tribe. The top corporate honcho is interested in the mineral Unubtanium, and there is a huge deposit of it under the Na’vi sacred Hometree. In his avatar, Jake learns the aliens’ ways, and eventually is accepted as one of them. The military is poised to attack. The Na’vi are ready to defend. What side will Jake choose?

As a 3D movie-going experience, James Cameron’s AVATAR can be summed up in one word.

Immersive.

Cameron's had the script for AVATAR in mind for twelve years, and now that he can finally realize his vision for the film, boy does he deliver. From the very first shot, you are taken into another world, transitioning from our reality to the planet Pandora. This isn’t just someone’s digital playground. This is a fully generated reality. It is eye catching, transcendent yet comfortable, and sometimes downright beautiful. But James Cameron's most amazing accomplishment is making the film so seamless you nearly forget you’re wearing those dorky glasses.

Make no mistake, this is a major leap forward in filmmaking. Gone are the dead eyes and wooden expressions of CGI humanoids, with stationary green screens and obvious digital background layers. For the first time in movie history, a science-fiction film has fully lived up to its visual potential. In this respect, AVATAR is a game-changer.

But what about the story?

There are 3 key elements to Cameron’s script, so let’s tackle the first one:
THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The military here is shown to be just lackeys for a profit-driven corporate war machine. “They used to be Marines,” Jake narrates while passing by the guards. But now they’re getting paid by The Man. Colonel Quaritch is the least developed character in the film; all testosterone, zero sensitivity. The reason the humans are even on this planet is because they have destroyed our once green Earth, and they need a new energy source.

Giovanni Ribisi plays Parker Selfridge, the sleazy, flippant corporate slime, a version of the Paul Reiser character from ALIENS. He’s after the mineral Unubtanium, of which even a small amount is valued in the tens of millions of dollars. He will gladly order Colonel Quaritch to annihilate the aliens unless a diplomatic solution can be found quickly.

Dr. Grace Augustine, the head scientist, is on a missionary journey, seeking to forge the aforementioned diplomatic solution. Along with Jake's discoveries living with the Na'vi, she eventually understands the link between the creatures and their environment.

Which brings us to the next major theme:
ENVIRONMENTALISM

With all the tree hugging in this movie, they should have waited four months and released it on Earth Day.

Every part of Pandora is lush and tropical, overflowing with vegetation and water and beauty and light. Simply touching a plant brings about a bioluminescent glow that radiates throughout the jungle. The Na'vi feel deeply for every entity on Pandora. The Na'vi and Pandora's creatures bond through a physical connection that infuses each with the consciousness of the other. There are gobs of luscious fruit, waterfalls, and giant trees. If the secular version of heaven was planet-bound, this is what it would look like.

The Na’vi are truly one with their environment. So much so that whenever there is a need to kill another creature, they apologize to it, say a prayer, and may even cry afterward. They gather around their Home Tree, the focal point of their culture and spirituality, swaying and chanting. They hold onto the glowing limbs of a tree, praying to their goddess.

And that leads me to the film's final big idea:
PANTHEISTIC (God in Nature) SPIRITUALITY

The Na'vi are literally connected with their planet, especially the trees. Their root system is described as similar to the synapses in our brain. All the trees are connected to the creatures and their ancestors and their spiritual life. And that’s the key: a scientific and natural explanation for their connection to a spiritual reality.

It’s no coincidence that the patriarch of the Na’vi is played by actor Wes Studi, a Native American. The influence of that culture’s earth-and-spirit belief system is pervasive in AVATAR. There are also heavy doses of oriental mysticism, the concept of an earth goddess, and outright planet worship.

In fact, these ideas are so prevalent; they nearly outweigh the rest of the story. The film is 2 hours and 45 minutes long, and Cameron spends a large amount of that time demonstrating how all this eco-paganism works. Why such an emphasis on this when we’re being sold the spectacle of a 3D popcorn action movie?

Because that is the intent of the film. To tie Environmentalism to Spirituality.

Again, the Native American influence is obvious. AVATAR is filled with worship, prayer, and rituals. All presided over by a shaman and centered on the goddess and their planet. They even mention some characteristics of their goddess; she can answer prayer and she “doesn’t take sides.” At one point, Sigourney Weaver’s character is quickly confronted with the idea of the afterlife, and she retorts, “I’m a scientist. I don’t believe in fairytales.” Later on, after truly understanding the Na'vi, she tells Jake that she knows the aliens' beliefs are real. And now Jake has experienced it too.

So let me get this straight. Grace gives up her human-ness to “become” an alien. Then she denies any human belief in the afterlife to engage in this new “natural” spirituality. Jake then identifies with the Na'vi and becomes an alien pantheist.

Of course, the narrative is structured so we sympathize with the Na'vi and begin to hate those cruel humans. Why, they're a bunch of imperialist, war mongering, shock-and-awe deploying, evil corporate nasties who just want to rape this beautiful planet. If only they could be more like the loving, tribal Na'vi.

If only we all could be more like them, communing with nature, then we would truly understand our role in the universe and when we die we can become one with the goddess of all living things, and be absorbed into the great spirit of the planet so that future generations can learn from our journey...

Wait a minute--WHAT?

James Cameron has never done a movie so focused on spirituality before, so how did he arrive at this point?

He's woven in some ideas he toyed with in THE ABYSS, with benevolent aliens warning us that they will flood the earth if we don't stop all our wars. Then came his documentary ALIENS OF THE DEEP, where he observed bioluminescent sea creatures and speculated what fictional underwater species would look like.

But the first real warning signs were his History Channel special EXODUS DECODED, where he tried to debunk the ten plagues and the parting of the red sea. Then he got involved with the completely discredited "Gospel" of Judas, and then speculated on the supposed discovery of the actual bones of Jesus in a tomb!

And now he's trying to push an ancient pagan belief system under the guise of a Hollywood blockbuster.

So, I'm split on my recommendation for this film.

On the one hand, the technological breakthroughs in both motion-capture and photo-realistic digital environments are absolutely stunning. This is beyond groundbreaking. It is a brand new experience.

On the other, the film is so heavy-handed with its kooky ideas about environmentalism and pantheism that it will undoubtedly cause spiritual confusion. That makes it a struggle for me to completely recommend it.

So what am I left with?

A SPLIT DECISION on a fantastic film with a questionable message.

If you do choose to see AVATAR, do yourself a favor and see it in 3D (find a local theater here and here and here). You will be amazed.

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OTHER NOTES:

The name of Sigourney Weaver's character, Dr. Grace Augustine. “Grace” means giving undeserved gifts, and “Augustine” references a religious leader who envisioned a heavenly city.

Interesting that the ore they are trying to mine is called Unubtanium.
It winds up actually being unobtainable.

AVATAR's plot is quite similar to this year's blink-and-you-missed-it CG animated film BATTLE FOR TERRA, about a peaceful alien race on another planet that is being invaded by that evil human military.