One for the Environmentalists

It's been quite a while since James Cameron (Titanic, Aliens) has put out anything new. Thankfully, he hasn't lost any creativity. Avatar reaffirms Cameron's imagination, but is brought down by the completely over-exaggerated propaganda of the environmentalist theme.

Avatar features the futuristic world of 2154, in which the RDA Corporation is mining on the planet of Pandora for unobtanium, a rare and valuable resource. The corporation discovers an enormous unobtanium deposit under a huge tree known as “home tree” that is center of the Na’vi people’s civilization. To get the Na’vi people to abandon their tree peacefully and mine the deposit under it, the RDA Corporation develops replica bodies of the natives known as “Avatars” and invents a way to transfer the mind of a human into the body of a Na’vi replica. The corporation decides on Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a marine who has recently lost his legs in battle, to use the avatar and diplomatically convince the Na’vi to leave home tree. Throughout the movie, Jake becomes attached to the Na’vi’s nature-centered way of life and eventually turns against the humans as they try to destroy home tree.

The civilization of the Na’vi people is one that is totally centered around nature. So much so, that they worship Eywa, the goddess of nature. Not only that, but to communicate with animals, the Na’vi have a special strand of hair that they can “plug” in to similar strands on animals. They can even use this mechanism with special spirit trees to listen to their ancestors past. This is a central aspect of the environmentalist propaganda- the idea of being “one” with nature. Everything you could possibly imagine about the Na’vi civilization is linked in some way to nature. This isn’t in of itself bad, but what’s behind the whole propaganda is the idea that the Na’vi way of life is superior to humanity’s destructive nature.

There are two aspects to the way Avatar portrays this superiority, firstly, the movie’s exaggerated portrayal of humanity’s ruthlessness and brutality, and secondly, the idea that humanity, in all it’s brutality, is wrong and the Na’vi lifestyle is ideal. A prime example of the exaggeration of humanity’s destructive nature is the military officer in command of the RDA’s work on Pandora. The commander, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) has leg sized arms, a large scar on his face, and is literally always frowning. However, there is much more than just his “G.I. Joe” appearance. His military decisions are unrealistically heartless. Without question, he commands for the destruction of home tree, knowing that the entire Na’vi civilization peacefully lives inside of it. Not only does he destroy the home of the Na’vi, but he sets out to their last place of shelter to exterminate their race completely. What I find most convincing about the unreality of all this is the fact that Quaritch loves his work. This is just one example of quite a few.

The second aspect to the movie’s propaganda is the suggestion that the Na’vi lifestyle, the one focused totally around nature, is ideal. Avatar accomplishes this primarily through the main character, Jake Sully. During his time in the avatar, Jake grows in his liking of the Na’vi culture and sees the “faults” with humanity’s nature. In the end, he bonds with the culture so much that he turns on the humans, and eventually ends up leading the Na’vi into battle. As he prays to Ewya before the final battle, he says, as a human, “I know we’ve gone wrong”. And then of course, contrary to what he is told, Eywa sides with the “preservers of nature” and aids the Na’vi in the final battle.

So pretty much, in simple terms, the whole propaganda aspect of Avatar comes down to this: it’s totally exaggerated.

Despite all this propaganda, the movie benefits from a creative plot devised by James Cameron and incredible special effects. I like the describe the plot of Avatar as a combination of Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves and John Woo’s Face Off with the addition of James Cameron’s creative touch. Who else could’ve thought up ten-foot blue aliens, giant floating mountains, a tree taller than anything you could imagine, and all the incredible animals to which Pandora is home? Not only did he come up with all these things and work them all into one movie, but he added an amazing plot which reflects his skill and ingenuity as a writer. Avatar’s plot has it all- sci-fi action, dialog, and even some romance.

In summary, Avatar is definitely one worth seeing in theaters for its special effects, visuals, and creative plot, but only if you don’t mind a huge propaganda theme all throughout.

***1/2 Out of *****