Avatar (2009)

Written and directed by James Cameron






This movie reminded me of Pocahontas, Jurassic Park and Laputa - all of which I adore. Apparently mashing them up wasn't such a bad idea, since Avatar still succeeded in being an original story despite all the references. Avatar is clearly a product of its time: A judging finger pointing at the ones guilty for destroying our own environment just as full of wonders as the one on Pandora. As a treehugger to the bone I hope the message has reached the thousands of guilty ones sitting everywhere in the audience. Individuals may not have strength over authorities but masses do. I completely fell in love with Pandora and it's people, the culture of the na'vi's. It wasn't mind-blowing, as living inside huge trees and communicating with the nature was already introduced in, for example, Lord of the Rings (elves, anyone?) as well as in many other stories, but I did enjoy it nevertheless. I loved the design of the na'vi race as well as all the flora and fauna; The science-based point of view on mother nature was fascinating. I was suprised to find a reference to the war on terrorism as well. Near the end of the movie, where the evil commander (you know, the "Papa Dragon") holds a speech for his soldiers before the final battle, he says: "Fight terror with terror." These are the words that were used to justify the invasion to Iraq during the early decade and the words that still keep the military forces present. The situation is kind of comparable to the one in the movie: The natives simply try to defend their land from the ones exploiting and raping, and thus may seem aggressive and threatening. War is blind on both sides. The music was, in my case, disturbing, as it kept on reminding me of Titanic. I don't know why James Cameron wanted James Horner to write the score for this spectacle as well: He seems to use the same kind of elements whatever music he writes. I heard the same instruments, same rhythms, same themes even. The native music was the best part of the score, yet it too reminded me of the choral parts in Titanic. The worst parts of the movie were the well-known cliches of american blockbusters: Predictability, happy ending, romantic relationship on the main focus. - I hate predictability: I knew within the first five minutes how the movie was going to roll all the way to the end. Of course he'd stay with the na'vi's, he'd fall in love, learn their ways, betray everyone, be an outcast, boo-hoo, and of course they'd win the ultimate battle (and there is going to be an ultimate battle, of course, with a preceding smaller mid-battle). I would have loved some edge on the ending! The remaining humans all dead instead of exile, just to set an example. Now it was just too smooth to be interesting. - Romance is something people love to focus on, because it's sweet yet bitter and oh-so-familiar. It's easy for the large audience to pay attention to emotions; They don't require thinking since they run on primal instinct. I'm sick and tired of romance, at least in movies. Why must every story revolve around a romantic relationship between two people? Wake up: There's more to life than that! This story as many others would have worked fine, if not better, without the relationship courageously surviving in the middle of all the epic struggle. But all in all it was a good movie: Complete, influential and visually high quality. I wouldn't have noticed it's three hours long (whew) if the 3D-glasses hadn't started to hurt and my neck scream in agony. Most importantly it got me thinking: Even though in the movie they claimed our planet is dead, that we have killed our mother, I still believe the heart of the earth is beating somewhere, in places far from cities like mine. I will travel to those places one day, and when I do I might end up like Jake Sully: never wanting to leave again.