I have finally joined the ranks of millions who have Seen Avatar and I am glad to see that I am not alone in my experience of the post-Avatar blues: http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html?iref=allsearch . It seems people were in some cases entertaining suicidal thoughts that they were not in the world of Pandora and that it was not a reality they could ever experience. Though my sadness came in a small part from that fact that I was not a Na'vi and never would be, I was much more saddened by the thought the Avatar world could become a reality. It made me sad that people are clearly capable of destroying something as good and honourable as the Na'vi way of life, as evidenced so many times on our own world - Just look at 'cowboys and indians' - However, I consoled myself with the argument that the film was not just about the bad and despicable ways of humanity, and how we have destroyed our world, but more about the idea that several good people can outweigh the will of many bad, about the overriding power of love and about never giving up.
A 'Review' of Avatar
I say 'review' because this will be more of a discussion. The world James Cameron has crafted is quite simply stunning in it's detail and one can see how it's conception has taken ten years. The language is fully formed, the biology and geology of the world of Pandora wonderfully alien and yet explicable by science. I especially loved the bio-luminescence and also the symbiotic nature of everything on the planet linked by the neural pathways which connect everything in something akin to a hive-mind, but much more autonomous. I can't help thinking that if there were some kind of planet-wide mind keeping our world in balance then the need for weapons, technology and religions would be negated and the world would be a better and happier place!
The title of this blog, 'a very BRAVE film' is my personal opinion of the one overriding aspect of the film which I found particularly astounding and that was its rating, 12A. I think every 12-year-old should see this film as it will give them a conscience. An idea of eco-friendliness and more importantly an idea of what war is really like, not an idealised construct, but something unpleasant, devastating and sad, with no redeeming features. I especially admire the film for being able to kill-off many of it's main characters and having the courage to display scenes of war the like of which are only usually seen on the news - the burning bodies, the wounds, the utter heartbreak at loss of property and loved ones. A particularly disturbing scene shows one of the Pandoran 'Horses' running past on fire - a very powerful image.
One of the most important aspects to the creation of the Pandoran world, in my opinion, was that of scale, so much of the film simply wouldn't have worked if the Na'vi had been human-sized. The end fight scene, where they admittedly out-gunned would have been a bloody slaughter if it were not for the Na'vi's superior size and strength. I also admired the way the Na'vi were much more graceful that the humans, despite the size-difference, where conventionally larger creatures are seen as lumbering and clumsy, whereas smaller ones are seen as quick and delicate of movement.
I'm still getting over my post-Avatar-blues - it may seem silly to anyone who just saw this as a few hours happy diversion from reality and as nothing more serious than that, but I believe that this film has touched something profound in the core of many of us which has made us question our own humanity. I only wish that any future space-travel will be undertaken from an Earth like the one in Star Trek - ultimately non-confrontational, exploration based and free from warmongers and not the broken planet hinted at by the characters in Avatar. If ,like in Avatar, benign science ultimately prevails I think we can rest assured that should the Na'vi turn out to be real, our friendship with them is assured.
