Three months ago, the highly anticipated fantasy/scifi movie Avatar came to theatres. Exciting and enjoyable to a wide range of people, the film won 3 Oscars and was nominated for 5 others, including best picture. It blended elements of science fiction, fantasy, nature, epic battle, romance, career drama, and slight suspense.
Believable Characters in Engaging Situations
A major strength of the film is that it involves a conflict that lots of people can relate to—when the commitment to one’s job and the commitment to one’s ethics conflict. Jake Sully, an ex-soldier who lost his legs and is promised new ones if he completes his assignment, plays his part very convincingly. His face is hard with experience and determination, responding to his demanding, unempathetic, war-happy captain with the promise of success. He appears so fully committed to the mission throughout the movie that the audience is never sure of the exact moment when he decides to turn on the mission.
But the audience knows that he is considering it throughout the movie. He admits to the video journals that he knows what he has to do (his hired job), but he also talks about his depression and fatigue. It is clear that the emotional investment in the mission is grating on him; he is falling in love with the world, the culture, his place in the culture, and a female.
The audience is delighted when Jake chooses to turn against his duties and responsibilities for the things his truly really desires. Of course, even though the risk of losing the battle against the earthly weapons and squads is great, there are few cons for Jake if his side wins and he chooses to switch lives. He will have abandoned his job for a spiritual world--a divine paradise--not abandon it in a place where ethics are often considered a hindrance to working, thus giving him the same dilemma in whatever his following job would be. The audience of course would love to have Jake's opportunity, so the movie gives them a fantasy situation to indulge in.
Elements of Beauty in Pandora
The design of Cameron’s Pandora resembles a magical prehistoric era. Animals and plants are quite large and colorful, varying in levels of danger. At night, many of the living things give off light, creating a romantic, sacred glow. There are living trees with healing power, birds of prey that are each loyal to one master, and floating islands in the sky by waterfalls.
While the film promotes a pacifist, nature-loving/respecting/preserving attitude, it is nothing members of the EPA should get excited over. Plenty of mainstream, pro-earth movies have been created over the years (Pocahontas, Lord of the Rings, Fern Gully), books written (Walden, A Light in the Forest, The Travels of William Bartram, The Lorax), paintings and other artistic mediums used to show earth’s beauty (Thomas Kinkade, Planet Earth), and forests are still being destroyed to make room for malls and other types of commerce. Fans of Avatar have expressed a phenomenon they describe as “post-Avatar depression,” which refers to the sadness one feels after seeing something so beautiful and then returning to a world which does not resemble Pandora at all.
Aside from the depression of reality, Avatar provided lots of people with a memorable, uplifting, and award-winning experience.
Elisabeth Sharber - Elisabeth Sharber is a Messiah College graduate with a BA in English, and minors in politics and psychology. She is currently job ...
