Avatar

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

The movie is a brainchild of noted director James Cameron - it is a no-brainer for me to conclude that this is one of the best and worthy-of-every-peso-I-paid films I've seen this year (and hey! watching this movie on a spur-of-the-moment decision sure got rid of my "New Moon" blah-ness!).

As fond as I am of action/adventure slash science-fiction films, this movie also earns extra kudos for its underlying and timely "environmental" message but even more so for its being a tribute to one of my favorite sayings - "Imagination is more important than knowledge...."

Truly, the brain behind the creation of such a vibrant, colourful world of Pandora - with all its fantastic creatures, coupled with scenes upon scenes of the environment of this moon (of the gas giant Polyphemus), which in turn brought to my mind visions of a lush Amazonian forest multi-layered with a palette of light and colors from an underwater world - I can only be in awe. It was in early 2006 wherein Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora - and once you see it displayed in all its breathtaking grandeur on the big screen, I am sure you would be amazed also at his literally out-of-this-world imagination and highly-creative output.

Luckily, the current technology and computer-generated imagery techniques available has certainly gone a long way from those old days of stop-motion clay animation (with apologies to Gumby). "Avatar" is estimated to have cost about half a billion dollars - over $300 million to produce, and another estimated $200 million for the distribution and other costs. This film is touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. The movie is a hybrid with a full live-action combined with computer-generated characters and live environments.

Some films make up for a simple plot with eye-popping action scenes...others churn out a mental labyrinth of a story with straightforward story-telling devoid of visual effects. But sitting through approximately 3 hours of this movie, I felt that it was a refreshing blend and balance of such diametric film-making approaches.

A definition first before I plunge into the world of Pandora. What does the title refer to?

An "Avatar" is a genetically-engineered human-Na'vi hybrid used for interaction with the indigenous natives of Pandora. A human who shares genetic material with the avatar can be mentally linked to it, allowing them to control its functions and experience what it experiences, while their own body sleeps in a chamber which allows the neural connection with the avatar.

The storyline in the most simplistic description I can give is this:

**** WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD ****
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The protagonist is paraplegic former U.S. Marine Jake Sully who ends up taking his twin brother's place in the Avatar Program when the latter dies. Off our Jake goes to Pandora, the home of the Na’vi, an indigenous sentient humanoid race who are considered primitive by human standards. The Na'vi live in harmony with their unspoiled world, which the humans have found to be rich with Unobtainium, a very valuable and expensive mineral.

So here's conflict #1: Unobtanium's richest deposits are unfortunately resting underneath the Na'vi's "HomeTree" and big surprise! the military-corporate entity mining the planet for this mineral want those deposits at all costs. In fairness though, with the Avatar program, a faction of the humans on Pandora do try to befriend and learn the culture of the Na'vi ...(and am being hard-boiled but I reason out that some higher-ups just really want to "persuade" the natives to relocate)...it is only later that the bad guys do blast the "HomeTree" to perdition. Oops..I didn't mean to give that obvious development away :-)

Through a series of events, Jake Sully (or more accurately, his avatar) fortuitously ends up in the Na'vi people's Omaticayan tribe with Neytiri, the young Na'vi female who first tries to kill him when he is left behind in the dangerous forest after his thrilling encounter with some sensitive plants and a few territorial and fearsome wildlife. Later on she rescues him due to some timely floating seeds from one of their sacred trees/deity. Neytiri ends up being ordered by the tribe's leaders (incidentally her parents) to teach Jake the ways and customs of their tribe.

This is now a slippery diving platform for conflict #2 to flourish: both Jake and Neytiri develops romantic feelings for each other over the course of Jake's training. When Jake gets exposed later for what he has known will happen if he could not persuade the Na'vi to move from their home - the exposure is also after he and Neytiri have mated - not only is the mandatory dramatic scene inserted, but it gets mixed up with lots of ka-bhoom! and ka-baam! from the "Sky People"'s (another name for us greedy humans) military bombardment of the Omaticayan's home and surrounding environment resulting in horrendous loss of lives, and not just of the Na'vi.

I had a few toenail-biting moments as I was wondering what unearthly twist Cameron could introduce into the story to ensure that the Na'vi with all their "primitive" bows and arrows, even with their strong connections to the justifiable sentient trees and wild creatures, could fight and have a believable win against the mighty firepower and destruction wrought by the humans. I was also thinking madly of ideas on how these lovers of different races could end up living happily ever after with each other (a 3-meter tall, slender and blue-skinned female Na'vi lovingly cradling a gasping, nearly-dying disabled human male on her lap? uhhmm....)

There was an overflowing plateful of enjoyable movie morsels which all resulted in a very "marketable" yummy movie package

we have Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña (she portrayed the young Uhura from Star Trek, the 2009 movie), Michelle Rodriguez for starters as part of the cast and let us not forget Sam Worthington too (quite worthy being cast in his pivotal role);

we have kaboodles of seat-gripping close views of the Na'vi way of life (that rite of passage for Na'vi warriors was pulse-stopping); as well as the expected fight and action scenes;

we have a heap of majestically floating mountains/islands and ethereal scenery and the Pandoran creatures are numerous and varied enough but still familiar and quite helpful in the end;

There's the Good versus Bad formula (that Colonel Miles sure is a coldblooded meanie! and makes for a perfect I-love-to-hate antagonist though he's no parody), a sub-formula of Big Corporation versus the indigenous Na'vi...then the miracles do happen hossanahs!...hey, what's not to gobble up...er..I mean enjoy?

Oh, and just to be fair, there were a few cons for me too - but it had mostly to do with some predictable story twists. I guessed these, a by-product of my sometimes too-critical-with-movies and logical brain but in the end, I would still say - go out and watch this now as it is certainly suited for a Christmas season feel-good movie. We all love such cheer these cool December days :-)

With a couple more sequels on its way...what can I say - I will be seeing you later!