The Spoiler Alert: Avatar
Which gives it the authority and the honor to be featured as our first ever #SpoilerAlert.
And YOU GUYS! What a wonderful cinematic adventure it is. If ever there was a film to get fired up about, this is it. Avatar (2009) is a film I remember my dad raving about back in the day. I think he even went back to see it in the theater twice. I finally saw it this year and I couldn’t believe how freaking good it was, or why I had waited so long.
The Essentials: Rating: PG-13 | Category: Action, Adventure, Fantasy | Director and Writer: James Cameron | Gross: 2.7B
The Plot: This movie has the most cliché plot of all time. A group of native people has this exquisite, harmonious bond with the land and animals, there’s a magical tree, yada yada yada. One day the evil white man comes along to savagely tear it all apart, got it.
It turns out I actually saw this movie a long time ago, and I LOVED Ferngully as a child! I even had a Ferngully-themed sleepover party (I wish I could post childhood photos of it, but that is one very deep rabbit hole I cannot afford to go down).
Ferngully rocked my world.
I was really blown away by the limitless creativity and quality of execution of this movie. Watching it was sort of like playing Candy Crush for the first time — everything is just so pretty.
Being able to imagine an entirely new species with unique behaviors, beliefs and language, and placed into an enticingly beautiful world, is a skill in itself. I couldn’t believe how many “wow”s I said out loud. I wanted to be there and experience it in person. I wanted blue tiger skin. I wanted to go get my own mountain banshee, risky as it may be.
Has anyone seen this in 3D?
The Actors: There was a bit of confusion on my end regarding the actors. I had been told that the main actor was Ewan McGregor, so I kept saying things like,
“Wow, his avatar looks even more like him than his human version does!”
But yeah, the main actor is not Ewan McGregor, it is Sam Worthington. Glad I got that resolved.
Other notables include Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang. This is good casting.
Weaver is best known for her role in Alien. Michelle Rodriguez had a major role in The Fast and The Furious, relevant as this movie also has a lot of racing around. With banshees…
I did not know Zoe Saldana had sci-fi/fantasy ties, but it turns out she was in Star Trek and played a younger Nyota Uhura.
Stephen Lang’s character, Colonel Miles Quaritch, is a stereotype, pushed to ultimate hyperbole, that somehow works in its own ridiculous way. His white hair, buzz cut, the brash language, total lack of empathy, and general rage couldn’t have made him any more despicable, or any more perfectly designed for an action figure. And Lang had experience playing a military man, having depicted Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals.
Overarching themes I quite enjoyed: The natives of Pandora, the Na’vi, believe consciousness is united in all beings. Their idea of the one Being, which they call Ai’wa, is valued above the individual.
If you do yoga, you are probably familiar with the Sanskrit Namaste, which has several translations but is commonly understood as “the divine light in me honors the divine light in you”. This sentiment is seen throughout the film, as the Ai’wa in me is connecting with the Ai’wa in you.
What I liked best: It’s a love story! Bonus points for being in the fantasy genre and featuring an imaginary language. It’s sweet, inventive, and inspiring, and there is a very romantic tree that I wish existed in real life.
And if you find it difficult to simply be immersed in the most breathtaking scenery probably of your lifetime, well, there’s enough action jammed in there to keep you entertained.
What to do now: First and foremost, watch if you haven’t seen it yet. If you have, be sure to keep your eye out for December 25, 2017, the release date of Avatar 2.
If you’re into real spoilers, here’s one resource I found on all the things we know so far about Avatar 2.
Originally published at medium.com on January 1, 2016.
