Avatar Review: We are all Jake Sully... pt. 2

At first the opportunity to walk again even if it means through an alien creatures eyes, is amazingly clear. Jake almost salivates when he enters his avatar for the first time, running and jumping about, and enjoying a renewed freedom.Jake's life is a tragedy unto itself. He's lost the use of his legs, confining him to a rugged wheel chair. He's status in his life so far is painfully clear, and it's painted on the back of that chair in the word 'Grunt'. He's given part of his life to the military and they have seemingly returned precious little. Adding to his tragedy is the loss of his twin brother. It's never implicit on screen, but one can infer and imagine that his brother was a research scientist and also at odds with his twins warlike ways.












...experience as a human in jungles
of earth or on other worlds will not
help him on Pandora.

As Jake begins to explore the jungle he, like us, is mystified and stunned by the beauty and the elegance of the Pandoran jungle. Soon, through a wild animal attack and a night of fear, we meet our first Naavi, Neytiri, a princess of the Naavi people. (Why does it always have to be a princess?) She is thin, but strung and agile, and everything action she takes is efficient and or deadly. She is as dangerous as the jungle she calls home, and Jake's intrusion into that world is one that is unwelcome...at first. She saves Jake's life, though she is disgusted by his very existence. She quickly shows the naive Jake that his experience as a human in jungles on earth or on other worlds will not help him on Pandora. One of the most shocking things is her putting out his fire. This is an act that has some many layers of significance.












Fire for humans is a sign of civilization, it is one element what separates us from the animals, and its duel purpose of protection and destruction embodies our relationship with technology. For Neytiri to extinguish Jake's fire would be an act tantamount to murder for many of our ancestors. Yet she does so because the fire makes jake blind to the world that he thought he was seeing. The act opens his eyes to the illumination the Pandoran jungle provides for itself, and yet another amazing dimension of Pandora dazzles our eyes.

It is easy to see humanity becoming
the aggressors as they are in Avatar.

The Naavi are an amalgamation 0f many different native cultures. The tribes of south america, the now nearly extinct cultures of North America, the zulu warriors of Africa, the Dayak tribes of Indonesia. Yet they are different then these, and here is where nuance is shown. They are reflections of a people more in tune with their environment. Wether technology has ever been a facet of thier lives is not known, nor is it asked here. They confound us, especially during a time when most of us have a link to technology nearly from birth. It is easy to see humanity becoming the aggressors as they are in Avatar. What is shown, is their stark contrast to the technology crazed and greed driven humans that have come to their world. While not all humans share in this greed, it is not hard to draw direct allegory to some of the events in our own shared history. An examination of which still inspires ire and anger at the ravages of our own species.














After being examined by the Na'avi, Jake is allowed to live and invited to learn the ways of the Na'avi. At which point the second act of the movie begins. It's a period of learning and unlearning, and a time for us to learn just how connected to the planet the Na'avi people are.











While the plot of the rest film at this point is predictable, the execution of the storyline is where Cameron shows brilliance. There are a handful of lines that or clumsy and not 'poetic' but there are moments of cinematic brilliance where what is seen on screen creates a spectacle that both awes and inspires.

If you don't see Avatar, then you will
have missed a major part of the beginning
of the second century of film making.

By the films end, we have seen our hero undergo a transformation, and find an ending a bit different then Cameron's pastiche for bleak or bittersweet conclusions. If you dont see Avatar, then you will have missed a major part of the beginning of the second century of film making. Sci-fi movies have a new standard to reach... one created on a planet called Pandora.