Movie Tour: Avatar

One of the most talked about movies of the year came out a couple weeks ago. It is James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic, which as you may or may not know, is the highest grossing film of all time. How do you follow up something like that? Well, with something like this.

Plot Summary

Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine, takes an assignment to the distant world of Pandora to take the place of his deceased brother for a special program. The natives of Pandora are a race of humanoids called the Na'vi, and the project is to breed figures that look like Na'vi, but use the consciousness of the human operator. The avatar is the Na'vi representation of the human. We quickly learn that the Na'vi are hostile to the humans, but it is not without reason. There is a particular element found on Pandora, and the richest source of it is located right where one of the Na'vi clans live. The inevitable conflict between the humans and the Na'vi is completely over this particular resource.

Review

Wow. It's not often that a movie this big lives up to the hype, but I felt as though Avatar certainly did. The world of Pandora is incredible. It is a beautiful location and the world is unlike anything I could have ever imagined. The storyline, to use Katie's line, is a modern-day cowboys and Indians. And realistically, the connections between what happened in America when the settlers drove out the Native Americans, and what happens in this movie is startling. Some of the actions of the Na'vi and the humans will bring it into focus. The worst part about the movie is the language, but even that is not horrible.

Recommendation

Go see it. I don't care if you see it in 3D (like we did), IMAX, or just on a regular screen, this movie is incredible. Perhaps the worst part about it is the fact that it makes you stop and take a look at our own heritage as Americans. It is ironic that Katie and I were talking about what happened to the Native Americans not even a week ago, and then we see this movie that is a metaphor for those very events.

Best Part

There is so much to like about this movie that I'm not sure I can narrow it down to just one part. The scenery is astounding. Yes, I realize that it is almost entirely CG, but that doesn't matter. If that's the case, then it's the best animated movie that I have seen in my entire life. The storyline is thought-provoking, and even the acting is not horrible (which is sometimes the case in effects-driven movies). Now that I've said that, though, I think the best part is seeing the main character develop over the course of the film. It begins as a mission and ends as a way of life.