Avatar in 3-D is Visually Captivating

It was difficult to avoid the hype as well as the negative opinions about Avatar all around me, since I chose to see it a couple of weeks after the film’s release. I tried my best though to block out everything I had heard about the movie and approach it with an open mind.

I was initially skeptical about seeing it in 3-D because I had never felt compelled to see a 3-D film in the movie theater. Traditionally as a medium it has never been very popular, brushed off like a cheap gimmick by most audiences.

However Avatar completely blew my expectations out of the water for what 3-D has to offer.  The film is visually captivating because  James Cameron creates an incredibly convincing science fiction film, paying attention to even the smallest details in every environment. His careful portrait of this world is stunning and engrossing in a way that fully convinced me of 3-D’s serious potential to revolutionize cinema and revitalize public interest in seeing movies in the theater.

Avatar takes place on the alien planet of Pandora, the wooded home to a peaceful tribal civilization called the Na’vi. Human beings have arrived on Pandora with an eye on the precious natural resources the Na’vi population sits atop. In an effort to gain an understanding of the these strange alien creatures, humans created The Avatar Program.

In this program, trained scientists control biologically engineered beings called avatars that are part human and part Na’vi. Humans use these beings to infiltrate Na’vi culture and to gain the trust of the people. So far their attempts have only met with moderate success.

Our story’s hero is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a soldier called to take over his twin brother’s avatar when his brother dies just before deployment in the program. Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, as a biological match, he’s the logical choice to take his brother’s place.

As a soldier, Sully is initially looked down upon by the team of scientists led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), because he lacks the training and the academic pedigree of the others in the group. As an operator of his avatar though Jake is a natural and controls his other body with the greatest of ease.

When Jake gets separated from his group on a routine scouting mission he finds himself alone and ill-prepared to handle the foreign wildlife. Neytiri, the intriguing daughter of Na’vi tribal leaders, saves his life from the wild beasts. He follows her to their settlement where the leaders agree to teach him in the ways of their people, initiating him as a warrior into the Na’vi culture.

Once the military finds out Jake has become part of the Na’vi inner circle, they look to exploit the tactical information he possesses about their stronghold. For a time, Jake is complacent in helping them because he believes the army will repay his help with returning him the use of his legs.

Jake spends three months training in the jungles of Pandora learning the ways of the Na’vi warriors. The visually vibrant jungle scenes of his training bring out the advantages of 3-D and were the primary element in convincing me it’s not just a lame gimmick, but rather an opportunity for filmmaking to mature in the coming years.

When the military and corporate interests decide to inflict violence on the Na’vi people to access the resources the alien people posses, Jake turns against his fellow humans and takes up the mantle of tribal people, leading them in defense of their planet.

Aside from being a beautiful film, Avatar features strong performances from Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington. Sigourney Weaver’s character Dr. Grace Augustine is a strong maternal character who’s slightly rough around the edges reminiscent of her role as Ellen Ripley from James Cameron’s Aliens. It’s easy to see how much she cares about the people on her team and about the wellbeing of the Na’vi.

Worthington’s Jake Sully is a typical military man, headstrong and reckless , willing to give his life to a cause he believes in. Like most human beings Sully looks down on the Na’vi and uses them for leverage to get the use of his legs back. As the story progresses Sully matures though, as he grows in understanding of the Na’vi. He grows to love them and to truly believe their way of life.

Giovanni Ribisi is worth mentioning as Parker Selfridge, the corporate head of operations on Pandora, representing the business interests in the project to harvest resources from the planet. A thoroughly unlikable character, in many ways he also echoes Paul Reiser’s corporate drone from Aliens, more concerned with the bottom line than the human costs of the mission.

To its credit, Avatar kept me glued to the screen, captivating me from the moment it began until the moment it finished. It genuinely created a childlike sense of awe and wonder as I was watching it, that I don’t remember feeling at a movie in a long time.

While the story and dialogue were rather predictable, I didn’t necessarily consider it a bad thing. As an action epic and a tale of good versus evil Avatar is fulfilling despite being relatively formulaic.

✭✭✭✭ ½