A magical world...

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2010)

I was reluctant to watch this movie as it did have some less than ringing endorsement in some reviews. Mostly I was reluctant to watch this movie as it was as huge as James Cameron's "Titanic", and I had some issues with how the story in that was told...watching "Titanic", I kept thinking that there were better ways that the story could have been told (I reviewed that movie here too). The positive comments I'd heard about the 3D experience made me want to see this movie...eventually. Watched it last week.
Anyway, I had less problems with this movie than with Titanic. There have been numerous articles in the press about plot-holes in "Avatar", but I steered clear of reading them. Can't say that I really noticed too many or thought that they ruined the movie.
It was my choice to watch this movie at iMax, here in Australia, as I find their screens more immersive and, more importantly, their sound levels are loud and deep and powerful without being deafening like the suburban chains are.
The plot of the movie concerns a human expedition to an inhabited moon in a far flung galaxy. Humans seek to mine a certain mineral but have humanoid natives to deal with. They try to get the humanoids to accept mining on their moon voluntarily. There is also a large military contingent accompanying the humans...presumably just in case the natives are amenable to their plans.
To get the natives (known as "Na'vi") to accede to their desire to mine their moon, the human contingent have created hybrid human/Na'vi bodies, in which to transfer the consciousness of people like scientists and military personnel. These hybrids are the "avatars" of the title. The strategy is to gain the trust of the Na'vi and have them agree to their plans.
Things don't go according to plan. One of the humans, Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington), falls in love with one of the Na'vi (Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana) when he is inhabiting the human/Na'vi hybrid. Part of Jake's essential conflict is a moral choice between carrying out the humans plans versus respecting the wishes of the Na'vi.
Pandora, the moon the Na'vi inhabit, is magical to look at, and even more magical when experienced in 3D. It is a well realised world...copious plants and exotic animals dwell on it. It's this world which makes "Avatar" such a compelling movie-going experience.
My initial impulse was to give this movie 9/10, but I'm giving it 8/10 as the one thing this movie lacks is an emotional core. It's wonderful to look at, but it was mostly spectacle to me, and not much emotional involvement.
I do have to say though that it's my impression that it's a very human characteristic of colonisers to at first wish to destroy anything which does not bow to their will. After all resistance has been crushed, nostalgia is created for the vanquished...place names take on native titles, as do streets etc. One can say that "Avatar" has its heart in the right place, but it is a heart full of nostalgia for what must 'necessarily' be destroyed in the real world of the coloniser. In this way "Avatar" is a "what if" kind of story...and maybe one I feel sympathetic too, as applied to the real world.