Avatar

It is very challenging to write a review for Avatar. Not because the film has received much media hype or because it is the first high-definition 3D movie that took 7 years to make. It is because 300 words are two few to convey feeling and impressions. Aside the technological advances, the carefully crafted special effects and the technical mastery, it stands out for telling a simple, yet compelling, fairytale.

The idea of Avatar bears some similarities to the history of Native Indian Americans and their fight to save their land from the conquering Spaniards. The only difference is that James Cameron created the Na’vi alien humanoid tribe in the planet of Pandora to tell this story. Through the eyes of a paraplegic former marine and his Avatar, an artificially created mind-controlled body with the mix of human and Na’vi DNA, we spend the first two hours learning the customs of the Na’vi tribe and their love and appreciation for Pandora’s natural habitats. The remaining of the film deals with the Na’vi efforts to save their planet from the eminent human destruction. The humans are the bad guys who invaded the planet and want ton] exploit the planet’s rich reserves of an expensive mineral.

As the story unwinds, all the technical elements – special effects, Pandora’s environment and creatures and the Na’vi language – flow effortlessly. But as you would typically expect from James Cameron, this films offers more: a rare glimpse into greedy human nature. The film is a big critique on human ambition in the quest of money and underlies that human form an integral part of the planet’s environment. Above all, this film is a celebration of the love of nature.

Lambda.

P.S.: And please, do not dare watch this film in anything else that Imax 3D.

Tags: Avatar, cinema, James Cameron, Movie