Avatar

Avatar

After I watched “Avatar,” I felt kind of how I did when I saw “Star Wars” in 1977. That was another film I walked into with no idea what was about to hit me. James Cameron’s movie has been targeted by so many skeptical arrows prior to release, just as his “Titanic” was. Once again he has shut them up simply by making a great film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely.

“Avatar” is not just sensational entertainment, although it is that. It is a technical breakthrough. It carries a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is destined to create a cult following. It contains such visual detailing that it demands to be seen twice, IMAX if possible. It invents a new language, Na’vi, as “Lord of the Rings” did (mercifully this one can’t be spoken by humans). It creates new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see if you hope to have any claim on being a well-informed moviegoer.

The story takes place in 2154 about a mission by U.S.A.F colonel Miles Quaritch and ex-marine Jake Sully and other soldiers to Earth-like moon Pandora which orbits around Polyphemus located in Alpha Centauri A system (itself being 4 light years away from Earth). Pandora’s atmosphere contains poisonous gasses for humans but not for its inhabitants whom are called Na’vi tall (about 10 feet), blue-skinned humanoids with tails; because of different atmospheric pressure on this moon’s surface compared with Earth’s, humans need technology like exo suits or avatars (which look like Na’vis themselves) in order breathe freely outside their aircrafts while traveling around this world so they supposedly blend better among locals.

The Earthlings have come for Unobtanium, a mineral that floats in vast quantities beneath Hometree six miles tall and filled with explosives if attacked by humans. But Pandora is not defenseless; it has its own warriors too, led by princess Neytiri who is also Jake’s love interest.

The plot of “Avatar” can be summed up quite simply: It’s about the good guys saving Pandora from the bad guys. However, as with all Cameron films (except “Titanic”), it’s how he tells the story that keeps you mesmerized for slightly more than two hours.

Pandora harbors a planetary forest inhabited peacefully by the Na’vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed race of slender giants, each one perhaps 12 feet tall. The atmosphere is not breathable by humans, and the landscape makes us pygmies. To venture out of our landing craft, we use avatars Na’vi lookalikes grown organically and mind-controlled by humans who remain wired up in a trance-like state on the ship. While acting as avatars, they see, fear, taste and feel like Na’vi do this last quality allowing them to perform physical feats beyond human capability such as climbing trees effortlessly or leaping huge distances across rivers full of giant lily pads.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has been recruited because he’s a genetic match for his dead twin brother whose avatar was created at great expense. In theory therefore there should be no danger to Jake’s life since even if his avatar dies during mission then only thing affected physically would be his legs which are paralyzed anyway but could be fixed later through surgery.

So basically nothing can happen to him while being an Avatar except getting killed twice once when real body gets destroyed after link with artificial one is severed, another time when artificial body itself gets killed off within virtual reality based world created by scientists working on project which involved making multiple copies of same Na’vi body controlled simultaneously through different human brains connected wirelessly to computers located elsewhere but if that happened then those people would lose connection with their avatars too because they share same nervous system (link between them being established through use of cables connecting various parts located inside each person’s brain).

The Na’vi survive on this planet by knowing it well, living in harmony with nature, and being wise about the creatures they share with. In this and countless other ways they resemble Native Americans. Like them, they tame another species to carry them around not horses, but graceful flying dragon-like creatures. The scene involving Jake capturing and taming one of these great beasts is one of the film’s greats sequences.

Like “Star Wars” and “LOTR,” “Avatar” employs a new generation of special effects. Cameron said it would, and many doubted him. It does. Pandora is very largely CGI. The Na’vi are embodied through motion capture techniques, convincingly. They look like specific, persuasive individuals, yet sidestep the eerie Uncanny Valley effect. And Cameron and his artists succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue skinned giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet–I’ll be damned. Sexy.

At 163 minutes, the film doesn’t feel too long. It contains so much. The human stories. The Na’vi stories, for the Na’vi are also developed as individuals. The complexity of the planet, which harbors a global secret. The ultimate warfare, with Jake joining the resistance against his former comrades. Small graceful details like a floating creature that looks like a cross between a blowing dandelion seed and a drifting jellyfish, and embodies goodness. Or astonishing floating cloud-islands.

I’ve complained that many recent films abandon story telling in their third acts and go for wall to wall action. Cameron essentially does that here , but has invested well in establishing his characters so that it matters what they do in battle and how they do it. There are issues at stake greater than simply which side wins.

Cameron promised he’d unveil the next generation of 3-D in “Avatar.” I’m a notorious skeptic about this process, a needless distraction from the perfect realism of movies in 2-D. Cameron’s iteration is the best I’ve seen and more importantly, one of the most carefully employed. The film never uses 3-D simply because it has it, and doesn’t promiscuously violate the fourth wall.

He also seems quite aware of 3-D’s weakness for dimming the picture, and even with a film set largely in interiors and a rain forest, there’s sufficient light. I saw the film in 3-D on a good screen at the AMC River East and was impressed. I might be awesome in True IMAX. Good luck in getting a ticket before February.

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected .

Watch Avatar For Free On Gomovies.