Avatar review

I just saw James Cameron's Avatar.

It was an immersive experience in the fullest sense of the phrase. I felt transported to another world.

The CGI and other special effects were seamless, smoothly integrated, not at all clunky. Moreover, the CGI didn't seem exploitive in the slightest. It wasn't mere eye candy, mainly present to draw attention to the director's technical wizardry. Rather, the CGI and other special effects serviced the story (well, not that I thought too highly of the story). And I saw the regular version, not the 3D version which I hear from some corners is even more visually stunning.

However, that's about all the movie had going for it. The plot was threadbare. And it was predictable. Perhaps because it's derivative. How many times have we seen the same story play out? Outsider enters into a community. Community welcomes him with tremendous suspicion if not outright hostility. After some time and thru a series of trials he wins their trust. He even wins the heart of a native girl. The outsider originally had a hidden, malicious agenda in entering the community, but he comes clean after he comes to grok the community and their ways. He becomes one of them. He fights for them. And he's willing to die for them. As others have pointed out, it's like Dances with Wolves. Or The Last Samurai. But on another planet and in the future. The hero in a thousand places.

Most of the actors were bland. They improved when they became CGIs but not by much (for those that became CGIs). The actor who played the colonel made a good villain though.

The movie is simple-minded. The planet may be teeming with life but not so the story. Humans are evil, except for the enlightened scientists. The natives, the Na'vi, are good. Corporations are selfish and greedy. The natives are selfless and altruistic. They're at one with nature. It was a pretty black and white movie. Not a whole lot of subtlety or nuance.

Again, among the humans it's only the enlightened scientists who want to truly understand the Na'vi on their own terms. The scientists have no sinister ulterior motives. They just want to do a little science and a little cultural anthropology. Dennis Nedry is nowhere to be found. Nor Hwang Woo-Suk. Not in this Cameron 'verse.

The corporation is only there for a valuable mineral worth millions of dollars per gram or ounce or whatever. They don't care about the natives let alone the planet or its environment. They're greedy, plain and simple. But in reality, i.e. back on planet earth c. 2009, there are some corporations which care about profits as well as taking care of workers, local communities, the environment, etc. Not all corporations are the spawn of Satan.

Technology doesn't fare too well. It's largely portrayed negatively. It's either associated with environmental abuse or the military - and anything which so much as smacks of the military is implicitly negative. Of course, it's actually technology that allowed the scientists to grow avatars in their labs and the paraplegic protagonist to inhabit his avatar and become a Na'vi. But otherwise technology is placed in negative contrast to nature or the environment.

What's portrayed positively is being at one with nature. The entire planet is a neural network of life. The Na'vi commune with the creatures on the planet - literally, via their ponytails. The Na'vi commune with their goddess Eywa which is the planet itself (we might instead name her Gaia). Moreover, when a creature dies, it becomes part of the planet. And the planet has some sort of sentience as seen when it "hears" the main character's "prayer" and fights back.

I think Cameron must've come of age in the '60s and '70s, and so taken his cue from this period. As if John Lennon's "Imagine" became a futuristic scifi movie. Whether or not this is the case, the movie plays like an idealized liberal romance. It's the story of a simple, peace-loving people in perfect communion with nature fighting against those who would destroy all that they hold dear. It's the story of the oppressed poor fighting against their bourgeoise oppressors a la the Socialists or Communists. It's the story of noble savages fighting against a technologically advanced, powerful, yet morally corrupt civilization. Perhaps like the jihadi "freedom fighers" fighting against the evil American empire. Noam Chomsky and Edward Said would be proud.

The movie is meant to be symbolic, allegorical. After all, the movie is titled Avatar. The chief scientist responsible for the avatar project is named Dr. Grace Augustine. The planet is named Pandora. It houses a precious mineral called "unobtanium."

An avatar is a manifestation ("incarnation") of a deity into human form. It's as if the gods descended onto earth in human form - or, rather, in Na'vi form. The protagonist, Jake Sully, fulfills several prophecies among the Na'vi people (perhaps not unlike Paul Atreides in Frank Herbert's Dune) and gains their hearts. He's their messiah, their savior. But from what? From the evil military industrial complex of course! On the surface, titling the film Avatar sounds clever, but the allegorical symbol is only as good as its moral or lesson.

That said, there is a grain of truth in the movie. It would be wonderful to have a world at peace and people genuinely loving and taking care of the earth and all its creatures. It would be wonderful for people to recognize and worship the one, true, living God, the God of the Bible - not Gaia or other false deities or no deities. It would be wonderful if people recognized and bowed their hearts to the truth.

Many liberals seem to think the problem is that some humans refuse to get with the program and cooperate and so are causing the rest of humanity its problems. The few are keeping the many - the rest of humanity - from utopia. But the problem isn't merely some humans (e.g. conservatives). The problem is all humans. The problem is sin - our sin. We live in a fallen world. We ourselves are fallen. We're sinners. We have rebelled against God himself. That's the problem. Or as G.K. Chesterton once responded to the question of what's wrong with the world: "I am."

If we were united together as one, we wouldn't take care of earth and all its creatures. We wouldn't commune with God. Instead, we'd build a tower to the heavens to make war against God.

Since our hearts harbor rebellion against God, and since we have rebelled against God, he must punish our sin and rebellion if justice is to be maintained.

Yet, the Bible teaches that those who repent of their sin and rebellion against God and trust in Jesus Christ, God has promised to forgive and in fact welcome back with open arms. Jesus Christ came to save his people from their sins. He died in their place so that they could have peace with God. Christ is the propitiation for our sins.

Socialism, liberalism, conservatism, environmentalism, capitalism, or any other ism can't save us. There are no other deities or avatars or saviors who can save us - not Gaia or Eywa or Jake Sully or Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Savior, and it is only through him that we can be saved. "Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray. . . . For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect" (Mark 13:6, 22). "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:6).

He's the only way to commune with God, to be one with him, his creatures, and his creation. And then to await the new heavens and the new earth, when God restores Eden.