When it comes to “cinematic masterpieces,” many people like to argue what is truly on top between your animated masterpieces like “Wall-E,” your thriller horror movies like “Get Out” or “Hereditary,” and even some super hero movies like “IRON-MAN” and “Captain-America,” but there is only one movie that has taken the world by storm, changed the people’s out look on life and caused a widespread depression simply because our world was nowhere near as interesting as the environment of the movie; “Avatar” was a movie for the ages.
“Avatar” stands alone as the highest grossing movie in the world, earning over $2.9 billion. “Avatar” won 91 awards, 3 Oscars, and 131 nominations in total. Not only is it one of the most successful films of all time, but it is also gave its viewers the most beautiful and
well thought out settings in movie history.
“Avatar” is a movie taking place on a moon named “Pandora,” home to elaborate wildlife and an intelligent native species called the Na’vi. This moon was so captivating and alive that viewers distraught at the fact Earth was nowhere near as beautiful nor interesting as Pandora;
This phenomenon was titled post-Avatar depression syndrome, causing people to worry about how our world may turn out in the future, and felt disconnected from nature.
The main focus of the movie was on the indigenous people of Pandora. The Na’vi are a hunter-gatherer type of civilization with various tribes, they are blue humanoid creatures who stand at 8- to 10-foot tall in adulthood.
What makes the Na’vi so interesting is their culture and religion which are both centered around something even more special than their NBA height, superhuman strength, or even their unmatched hunting skills, the Na’vi posses a biological feature of their body that essentially works like a neuro-link to nature, it’s called a Kuru. The Na’vi can connect to plants and wild life with the Kuru and have integrated it into their culture and religion.
The concept of this indigenous group of people who can connect directly to nature created a very interesting set up for the conflict with the antagonist of the movie, the humans. The conflict between thre Na’vi and the humans is where the movie gets into
displaying their message to the people. “Avatar” shows this elaborate world with this intriguing culture and gets the viewer attached to drive through two points, the self destructive nature of humans, and humans’ discriminatory tendencies.
This movie takes place far in the future, it’s stated in the movie that earth is becoming uninhabitable, so on a quest to find possibly new locations to inhabit they come across Pandora. Along with Pandora’s complex ecosystems it’s also home to a very valuable
resource called “unobtanium,” Pandora has this resource in full. This causes the humans to essentially excavate the home of the Na’vi, due to the location having a high concentration of this resource. The humans plow the forests and destroy the environment to
reach this resource, demonstrating the very problems and actions that placed them in the position they’re currently in.
The two main antagonists demonstrate a form of discrimination against the Na’vi, calling them “savages,” they ignore the culture of the Na’vi and their values and view them only as cavemen like aliens. “Avatar” shows a future where we as a society truly don’t learn from our mistakes and reach a point of no return. This movie shows us our worst future and the worst parts of our past, they showcase these problems after getting the viewer attached the Na’vi, causing the viewer too see the Na’vi as the “good guys” and the humans the “bad guys,” the fact a movie could so easily cause someone to turn on their own species from pure immersion and story telling is a true display of masterful writing.
“Avatar” is a story about discrimination, nature conservation, and war, yet it still compacts more elements into the plot of the movie, including romance and even a coming of age story. Our two main characters feature Natiri and Jake Sully. Jake is a human who switches between a human body and a Na’vi body to infiltrate to Na’vi culture and community, but just like the audience he becomes captivated by the culture, world of Pandora, and Neytiri.
Jake experiences the world of Pandora through the eyes of a Na’vi, this allows him to see the value of the world and turns him against humanity to save the life he has built of Pandora. Neytiri teaches Jake the way of the Na’vi, knowing who he really is she teaches him anyway. She watches Jake grow into this new version of himself, whilst Jake watches as the beauty of the world unfolds before him, through this journey they fall for each other.
This movie showcases elaborate world building, great visuals, and an exciting plot, but what truly puts this movie above the rest is the incredible acting; Even down to the side cast not one character feels dull or useless. The main actor, Sam Worthington, played Jake Sully close to perfection, he portrays character in such a way where the viewer can place themselves in the shoes of a man in the middle of his life experiencing this new world with such ignorance as if he was just born again. The second main actor, Zoe Saldana, played Neytiri. Even through the CGI Zoe portrays raw emotions through Neytiri as if she was truly one with the character, using breaks and pauses in her voice, strengthening and softening her eyes at the perfect times, and her body language all allowed her to bring this mentally strong and emotional character to life.
These were only some of the amazing performances of Avatar, this movie truly struck every cord, world building, characters, visuals, plot, and a meaningful message, it earned its spot as the highest grossing movie of all time. Even now the franchise continues to release quality projects with “Avatar: Way of Water,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
I truly suggest this movie for people searching for an in depth sci-fi world they can immersive themselves into, you can see this movie on Disney+, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and even YouTube. “Avatar” was truly a movie for the ages.
