Review of Avatar (2011) by Henry P — 29 Nov 2014
Humanity is deeply flawed. This theme is present in James Cameron's newest vision: Avatar. His first method of conveying this message is through the characters. The story follows ex-marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who dreams of flying (And walking on his own two feet), so he agrees to take his deceased brother's place on a scientific research mission on the planet Pandora, on a human colony where we meet several greedy authority figures and good people trying to do their job.
There, Jake is connected to the body of his brother's avatar, created through brilliant motion capture. After that, we get an amazing journey. Jake's value of his character is his relatability: We all dream of something, and his is to fly, which we see him do.
The plot is very swift, despite the rather extreme length of the actual film. The use of montages does the job of showing Jake's journey and saves time. There are the usual sci-fi plot holes though, such as the how the whole "Avatar" program works, or when they say "20 seconds and you're unconcious" about the atmosphere of Pandora, and a character goes more than 20 seconds without oxygen and they're still moving around.
Suspend disbelief. The picture is amazing, with both beautiful jungles and photo-realistic, believable-looking na'vi (The actual "Avatars") and photo-realistic 22nd century machines all bring life into this film's visual.
James Horner does a wonderful job with the soundtrack, giving a grand score for a grand picture. This film is not all death-and-destruction because there are moments of humor, but also moments of the theme "Humanity is deeply flawed.
" The whole basis is similar to how European settlers treated Native Americans, and the bad guys are painted as one-dimensional-greed-whores. It is also to be noted the humans, good and bad, are all white.
This may disconcert some viewers, but we have to face the truth here: This happened in the 17th-19th centuries with the New World, and it's reflected here. And that is what makes it great: Show the evil inside the common man! Show humanity is as deeply flawed there as it was with European colonization.
Humanity may be flawed, but James Cameron shows the good in humanity with Avatar. We may be cruel when it comes to new peoples, but not with film!
This review of Avatar (2011) was written by Henry P on 29 Nov 2014.
Avatar has generally received positive reviews.
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