We are all avatars

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2011)

The premise of the film is that a man, the protagonist of the film was a paraplegic ex marine, sent to an alien moon. Now you have to accept this premise, that it's possible to mix the DNA of this human with the natives of this orb, and to create the physical appearance of the indigenous 12 foot tall human like creatures, but with characteristics of the human. And then the human can be placed in a device where he provides the thought process of his navi avatar.
It worked for me.
Now my reader I ask you to remember the first time you discovered the wonders of our world, the first time a butterfly landed on your shoulder, or you chased fireflies, or came across a stunning natural vista. Our lives are a series of discoveries such as these, but they get to be fewer as the years go by.
I made this connection, that I, that we, are all avatars in a way. But we are not from a different world but from something else, from all that shaped us over the eons. I am not a spiritual person, in fact I'm what could be referred to as a radical rationalist. But, the organism that I'm so attached to, this self, this person who was born 70 years ago with only a relatively short time to go, is so much more than this short span of my life.
I'm an avatar, not from a different planet, but from all that came before me with DNA, some of it still functional, from primal organisms that lived billions of years ago. It's all unfolds in this organism, all the drives, all the urges, all the love and all the hate. At times it seems alien...because it is. I fear heights because I can't fly, and deep water because I have no gills, and snakes because those who survived had this fear and those who didn't never quite made it.
And probably, with all the fears and urges, all the passions that are part of us, there is something else. There is a capacity for the pleasure of being a part of something beyond ourselves. Certainly sex is a drive that has to be overwhelming, or we would have ignored it when we were under stress....which we usually were. But other pleasures..... being part of a group, a tribe, a country..... participating in a communal sing, a ceremony of belonging..... the joy in a moment of peace when all seems right with the world.
The word for this film, for me is found in this meaning of "epiphany"