Contrary to what I feared, I was not the last person in the United States to see the 3D IMAX version of Avatar. The theater was packed and Avatar continues to rule the box office. But for me, Avatar was a first — the first time I cried at a movie while wearing 3D glasses.  It will take me weeks to process that one. I knew the special effects were, as a friend of mine said, “game changers,” but I didn’t expect the moving story and first rate performances from lesser known actors. I know this film is manipulative, but it manipulated me so well that I didn’t resent it; I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.  

Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is in a wheelchair, and his scientist brother is dead. Fortunately, they were identical twins, so Jake can now control the avatar (a combination of human and alien genetic material) made for his brother, and continue the mission on the planet Pandora. Although head scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) scoffs at his lack of scientific training, Jake is able to infiltrate the indigenous Na’vi, and live among them. The Na’vi are large, lean and blue and seem like Native Americans. But an evil corporation headed by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) funds the project and wants to mine the valuable mineral found on Pandora.  Helping the corporation is scary Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). But Jake is becoming more and more entranced with the wonders of Pandora and its people, especially Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and finds his avatar life more compelling than his actual life. His divided loyalties will be severely tested.

“You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora,” Colonel Quaritch thunders. But why would anyone want to be in Kansas when you could be in Pandora? Its aliens are different enough to look cool, but not so different as to be repulsive, like the aliens in District Nine. And who doesn’t like the color blue? Pandora has no buildings or pollution; instead it has forests and mountains in vibrant colors, and is as beautiful as a dream. The animals are frightening and glorious. The spectacular effects don’t look like effects; like the Na’vi themselves, they look real enough to touch. Perhaps the best thing about the 3D is that it is subtle. Unlike other films in 3D, and even the 3D previews before the film, Avatar doesn’t play to the gimmick by having items fly at the audience for pure shock effect. The 3D is used to give depth, and make Pandora more intoxicating and more convincing.

Newcomer Sam Worthington sounds like a marine on recruitment advertisement, with no trace of his Australian/English accent. As a human in a wheelchair, he grimaces when he has to move his legs,  and wears a stoic expression when taunted with cries of “meals on wheels” from the crew on his ship. As an avatar, Worthington yells with jubilation as he runs with long strides across Pandora. Stephen Lang’s ripped and scarred Colonel Quaritch is fiery as the power hungry military guy who wants to destroy the natives. He doesn’t see the beauty in Pandora as he growls at his men, “If there is a hell, you might want to go there for some R &R after Pandora.” Lang is terrifying and strong, and formidable as a bad guy. Although only seen as a blue Na’vi, Zoe Saldana gives her character Neytiri strength and dignity, as she educates Jake in the ways of Pandora, showing him how to hunt, train animals and respect nature. (Despite the fact that the Na’vi are less technologically advanced, women hunt and rule, and seem to be equal partners with the men in every way.) One of my favorite small scenes in the film is after Neytiri saves Jake’s life by killing the wild animals attacking him. After he thanks her, she replies with both sadness and anger, “Don’t thank. You don’t thank for this! This is sad.”

The romance between Jake and Neytiri is an old story, but the characters and the actors make it work. It is hard not to root for them, and for wheelchair bound Jake to live a life where he can jump and run. Avatar strikes the familiar chords of respect for nature and the environment, as the Earth has become polluted, and the Na’vi have more than a spiritual connection with their natural world. They also respect the lives of the animals in the forest, killing them only when they need to, and then quickly, painlessly and with a prayer.  But the state of the art effects serve to heighten these themes in a very powerful way. The haunting score from James Horner (he also wrote A Beautiful Mind  and Titanic ) is both accessible and appropriately exotic, and enhances the emotional impact of these scenes.

Shortly after Avatar opened, news reports of “post Avatar depression” surfaced. It seems that some people felt sad and even suicidal after exiting the film. They wanted to live on Pandora, instead of the actual world.  I am sorry that people felt sad, but I see this intense reaction to the film as a good thing. A film about respect for nature and life and cultural differences is breaking box office records. After seeing this film, people want to live in a world more beautiful than our current one. This fills me with optimism and hope. 

Avatar.  Directed by James Cameron.  Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoe Saldana(Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Grace Augustine) Stephen Lang (Colonel Miles Quaritch),Joel Moore (Norm Spellman), Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge)and Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy Chacon). Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 2009.

 

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

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