I will admit it, I was one of those people who was more than skeptical about how much I was going to like this film after first seeing the trailer a while back. I just didn’t think I was going to relate to the plight of some blue, anorexic looking humanoids. And frankly, I was a little concerned about some roundabout cross-species love. But you know what they say about books and their covers.
James Cameron’s Avatar has been a long time coming, but the end product clearly shows that this time was used wisely. During this time, Cameron constructed a story of two conflicting species, the Na’vi who inhabit the planet Pandora, and the humans encroaching on their home in the hopes of harvesting a valuable mineral from beneath the tree they inhabit. Though the humans have tried negotiating with the Na’vi to gain control of the land, it is clear that patience is growing thin with trying to appease this “lesser” species and the military forces brought to the planet are more than willing to take a less subtle approach in order to complete the objective. With one last attempt at keeping consciences clean, Jake Sully, a paraplegic soldier, and many members of the science team are given avatars made to look and move like the Na’vi in the hopes of helping to bring the negotiations to an end.
Though the main story is simple enough, the complexities of the world created are quite outstanding and expansive, constructing a planet that is easily one of the most aesthetically beautiful things put on screen. Pandora’s colors, plant and animal life are spectacular things to see, and not to belittle the animation of this film, but the look harks back to the magical experience I had of first seeing the underwater world of Finding Nemo. As in Nemo, everything in this ecosystem has a fluid movement and a wide range of colors, looks and textures to compliment the depth of the story. Having said that, Pandora is just as stunning under the surface, and an encyclopedia could be written to fully explain the imaginative species of animals and plant life, as well as the history, culture, religion and daily life of the Na’vi people.
With the dedication to creating this new world, it’s unfortunate to say that the backstory to the plight of the human race seems too vague to fully understand what they are doing on this planet. For one thing, there are only a few references to the planet from which the humans come from, which probably could be assumed to be Earth; however, there is no date or timeline to fully get one’s bearings in the setting of this film. Even a simple explanation to the human history leading up to this point would have added a complexity to them, who instead are weakened by how one sided they are, and are therefore very hard to relate to (especially in comparison to the relatability of the Na’vi). Though I suppose this was done for this reason, the film would be much more complex if it presented the duality between the two species so that there is a question of who to side with, if even possible to side with one race at all. Furthermore, an explanation for how desperate and harsh the humans act towards another people would have made for a much more interesting battle that takes place later in the film, especially considering that some of the best villains throughout film history are those that are easy to relate to and have understandable explanations behind their actions. Instead, we are left with soldiers like Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), a brute who is more of a raging bull than a human being with emotions and compassion.
Though there is an overbearing feeling of a loss of humanity, there are a few heroes among the despicable lot found in Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), and Dr. Max Patel (Dileep Rao). And though Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully is the character that acts as a way into the Na’vi way of life for the audience, this film goes to Zoe Saldana’s portrayal of the Na’vi princess Neytiri. It was performances like hers that allowed me to see past my fears that the blue people would keep me from becoming invested in these characters, thanks in large part to the dedication and commitment these actors had to their characters during the motion and performance capture sessions. Which again proves that the animation for this film far surpasses anything I have seen before.
Avatar uses a basic story that makes it easy to see a few steps ahead in the plotline; however, this film is so stunning that this is more than forgivable. The world of Pandora and the creatures and people that inhabit it are so immersive that the outstanding 3D technology and visual effects are far from being the only thing that will be remembered about this film for a long time to come.
Final Grade: A-
Middle of the Row 
“it’s unfortunate to say that the backstory to the plight of the human race seems too vague to fully understand what they are doing on this planet”
It’s fairly clear that the skypeople are from Earth, and that we have by the time of the story wrought total destruction upon our home planet. Jakesully even says that there is “nothing green” left on the skypeople’s homeworld.
“however, there is no date or timeline to fully get one’s bearings in the setting of this film”
At the bottom of Jakesully’s video log there is a date. The destruction of the Home Tree takes place at the end of August, 2154.
“It was performances like hers that allowed me to see past my fears that the blue people would keep me from becoming invested in these characters, thanks in large part to the dedication and commitment these actors had to their characters”
The movie tells the story of the destruction of any number of indigenous, real life human tribes/races, including, very specifically, the Native Amerindian tribes decimated during the nineteenth century. One Na’vi tribe is even referred to as the “Horse tribe of the plains”, which is pretty much how the Comanche are referred to in history books.
The true significance of this text is found in recognising that it’s not about ‘blue monkeys’ on a distant world, but about us, and that sometimes ‘us’ includes people who live in jungles, or deserts, or on plains, where there are things that some of the rest of ‘us’ want to have for ourselves.
Pandora, in mythology, released all the bad things into the world, but the last thing to come out of her fabled box, once all the miseries and horrors had escaped, was Hope. Avatar is James Cameron trying to tell us that we need not give up hope of saving this world, the Earth, just yet. But, if we’re going to save it, we need to start listening to the planet’s needs, via the only people who can communicate with the planet. And we’d better do that before they’re all gone, these people.
IMHO.