Who's Your Driver?

Last night, I saw another masterpiece (in full 3D) from the "King of the World", James Cameron (director of Terminator, Aliens and Titanic) ----- Avatar

If you're a fan of Nickelodeon's Avatar, you'd think you're going to watch firebenders, airbenders et. al. .. but that's another movie for another day (The Last Airbender). For now, here's my take on James Cameron's Avatar. Note: may contain spoilers

Avatar is about Pandora (an Earth-sized moon) inhabited by mystical humanoids (Na'vi) and their conflict with humans who are after their resources --- rocks they could sell for millions per kilo back on Earth.. and of course the love story of Jake (a paraplegic marine) and the Na'vi princess Neytiri. Humans were able to discover and create a synthetic Na'vi they call Avatar and have a "driver" control it via a very complex neurologic (and genetic) process. They created Avatars so that they'd be vehicles of diplomacy with the local inhabitants of Pandora, so they can harvest the resources as.. how they put it, humane, as possible. But as the story progresses, Jake questions the motives and methods of the side he's on.

Narratively the film works perfectly on the cinematic level. The first forty minutes or so require patience as it is the weakest part of the film and offers some dreariness... at some point draggy..  but when the second act takes off, it's sky high. You might say "I've seen this story before"... human greed.. Ferngully, Pocahontas...Starcraft even.. but never in this medium. I must make a remark regarding the much-discussed technological achievements. CGI is incredible..you can't tell where the real thing ends and the CGI begins.

There was a line in this film that struck chords for me - "They killed their Mother Earth.. now they're here to kill yours." The killing of spirituality and nature is an evil I have always hated about my own race, and I really hope this film acts as a realization to others who perhaps have never properly thought about it before. There are parts of this film that shows a real destruction of a beautiful world, and I literally had to hold my hand to my mouth. In fact, a number of times I surfaced from my lethargy and found my mouth gaping.

This isn't just a film, this is an experience. Beautiful, breathtaking... See it in full 3D.
My Rating: 8/10