Avatar – Pandora’s box opens for our race..

When Fox set an initial production and distribution budget of 350 ( revised later to 500 ) million for Avatar, Murdoch (Newscorp) would have been rubbing his hands in glee only because it is Cameron’s movie and expectedly should stay afloat unlike the real Titanic on it’s maiden journey. This movie is one which can be best described as a Director’s imagination traveling beyond a million galaxies. Cameron has probably exceeded his own expectations with this script which he tailored fifteen years back and he has gone on to create a marvel. A marvel which probably exploits existing visual effects technology to the hilt. I watched it earlier in a state of the art 4D theatre at the HKIA and sat spellbound the entire time.

The movie is not science fiction alone, it garners a lot of due credit to sensitivities and emotions by the Na’vis who live on planet Pandora. The humans being the aliens are largely seen as the insensitive lot who continue the same agenda of colonization on planet Pandora 4.3 light years away as they have done so for centuries on planet earth. The behavioral aspects of the Na’vis closely resembled the aboriginal race of Australia & New Zealand who were traumatized by the white man’s discovery of their land. Corporatization continues by the humans on Pandora, where the resources await plundering for profit alone. The Na’vis live one with nature and attuned to its ways, the religious beliefs can be seen as shades of Hinduism and Buddhism. The sparingly few humans with a good heart are like Greenpeace activists who fight tooth and nail for the survival of the Na’vi race, Pandora’s diverse animal life forms, the home tree – Kelutrel and a religious tree of souls which houses a Na’vi Goddess. The biggest message in this movie is to not mess with nature and her life forms. At the end, when the Na’vis face defeat, it is the angstiks (Hammerhead animal form), which bulldozed their way through the human army, enabling the Na’vis to win the ground battle. The air battle is won by the Na’vis with the assistance of the Banshees (resembles flying dinosaurs of Jurassic age). 

Avatar should have been viewed at the recent summit for climate change in Copenhagen, there would not have been any walkouts by the African nations and a better result may have ensued as the delegates would have understood well and truly the importance of our natural resources.The only dialogue which I laughed at rather loudly was when the antagonist, (the Colonel) in 2154 sounds like George Bush in 2001 with his statement “ we must fight terror with terror”. I am not going to speak further about the plot and spoil your fun, this movie is a must see and seeing it and experiencing the hi tech visual shocks is a must.

Back to earth, I wish we humans lived like the Na’vis. The Na’vis connect with their animal forms in a bizarre fashion; they touch their long braids with a duct like opening in the animals to make that connect. We do not have to do such difficult things; we can just let them live in their habitats peacefully. Come a day when we earthlings get attacked by aliens we would need the support from our animal kingdom or probably there will be no animals around by then. What will be the new “avatar” for us ?

Cast – Sam Worthington , Sigourney Weaver , Zoe Saldana
Director – James Cameron
Rating – ****