The movie starts on-board a spaceship headed to planet Pandora. The mission is to relocate the indigenous humanoids, known as the Na'vi, from Hometree so that the humans can extract a rare mineral known as unobtanium (real original, right?) The main character is a human named Jack Sullivan, an ex-marine who was sent in as a replacement for his late brother, who was supposed to be on a mission to negotiate the terms of the Na'vi's relocation through the use of an avatar, a shell that resembles a Na'vi body, and is mixed with DNA from the Na'vi and Humans, and grown in tubes. Jack Sullivan takes this mission because he is a paraplegic. Controlling an avatar would mean to realize his dream of being able to walk again. However, he meets Col. Miles Quaritch, a more experienced Marine than Jack, and Miles makes him a promise that if he succeeds in his mission, he'll give Jack a new set of legs so he can walk again. So, Jack finally gets ready to link with his new avatar, along with Grace Augustine and Norm Spellman, and Jack adapts to his avatar body very well. However, on his first day, he gets lost in the woods, and has to survive the night. Well, just when it looks like he is about to get defeated, a Na'vi, who we later find out is the princess of the Omaticaya tribe, Neytiri, steps in and saves him, and also refrains from killing Norm due to a sign from their sacred tree that convinces her she should let them live. His relationship with her is tense at first, but eventually she is convinced to let him into the village to meet the rest of her people, and Jack is allowed to live, on the condition that he has to learn the ways of the Na'vi. He starts out clumsy at first, but over the course of time, he learns the language, and works all the way up to the point that he learns to tame the wild beasts that the Na'vi use. Eventually, Jake falls in love with Neytiri, but just as Jake falls in love with the jungles of Pandora, the bulldozers come in and try to invade Hometree. Eventually, Jake reveals the whole plan of the Humans to force the Na'Vi to relocate, and this causes everyone in the tribe to lose their trust in Jake. However, Neytiri's mother, Mo'at, gives Jake a second chance, and offers him the opportunity to prove that he is a Na'vi. So, in order to gain their trust, Jake tames a Toruk, the most fearsome flying beast on Pandora that only one Na'vi has ever been able to tame. So, then Jake comes to Hometree with the Toruk, and people see him as the Na'vi legendary hero, Toruk Makto, and he declares a war against the Humans bent on destroying Hometree.
I saw the movie in 3D, too, and had to wear the dorky pair of glasses pictured on the left. Imagine what these would look like on your face. But the technology behind these glasses is impressive, it makes it seem like the characters in the movie are right there in front of you. However, the movie didn't even need 3D. The special effects were incredible, and even though I spotted a few movie clichés (like the thrown in love story and how in every movie the good guys always win), they didn't really feel that forced, and the movie's director, James Cameron, made everything in the movie work really well. However, that's not the number one reason why I loved this movie. If you can look past all the glitz and glamor, you'll see that deep down, the movie has a deeper metaphorical meaning to it. One of the movie's main bad guys, Parker Selfridge, represents the evils of Capitalism and Imperialism, and the Na'vi almost make me think of the indigenous Americans and their way of life before the pilgrims came in and dispossessed them of their land. And in a way, that's what this movie indirectly seems to be all about. The Na'vi, much like the Native Americans, were about to be dispossessed of their land, and they stood and fought. And, like Jake, some colonists did assimilate with the Native Americans because they found that their way of life was superior to the ones the colonists were living. My only concern is that this message would be lost on all the millions of moviegoers who have followed the hype, and would fail to see the deeper meaning that this movie has in store for people that would think about it in this light. In that way, this movie is a work of pure genius, and that means a lot coming from me, since most modern movies just seem too cliché and boring to me. So, yes, it was definitely worth the hype that surrounds it. If I had to give this movie a rating from 1 to 10, I would give this a perfect 10. If you haven't already, you need to go see this movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment