Movie Review: Avatar
Watched Avatar last year before I left for my Vietnam trip but I just didn't have the time to do my review on it. I decided that I shall churn out this review first before I start posting my day-by-day account of my trip!
I didn't watch this movie in 3D, though I was really tempted to because I've heard that it's amazing in 3D. But oh well, I was tight on budget then and my friends and I didn't wish to spend that extra $3 for it, so yup. No 3D.
I first got to know Avatar through the McDonalds advertisement and frankly speaking, I had no wish to watch it at all when I saw those bluish overgrown elf-lookalike aliens. After catching the trailer in cinemas while watching Ninja Assassin, , I decided that I shall watch it as I was attracted by all the actions packed into that 1 minute trailer. Yes, I'm a sucker for actions/war/fighting.
Avatar is actually set in the future, I reckon, where the human race is able to travel to the neighbouring planets and interact (and possibly, exploit) the natives residing there. The planet Avatar talks about is Pandora, which has an abundance of this rare mineral rock, which sells for US$1 million per kg, hidden under this big tree which housed the native of Pandora, called Na'vi. The Na'vi are blue, have yellow eyes, pointy elf ears, and are exceptionally tall and atheletic. In addition to the Na'vi, Pandora is also home to many weird glowing plants, dinosaurish birds, and overgrown fierce animals. This particular corporation, backed up by military powers, wishes to tap on those mineral rocks and hence started this two-pronged approach to get the substance.
1. Waging war with the hostile natives using their military power
2. A more diplomatic approach through the use of Avatars by the research department.
Avatars are developed using DNA from human and Na'vi, which allow humans to manipulate the resultant creature by linking their minds together with the use of a chamber. This is where Jake Sully, an ex-marine who lost the use of his legs, came in. Jake is the twin brother of one of the scientist under this Avatar programme, who has died. Hence, due to their identical DNA, Jake got the chance of entering this programme without any form of training, much to this department head, Dr. Grace's displeasure. However, he eventually won her over with his talent of manipulating Avatar and was awarded the chance of a mission trip into the Pandora forest, whereby he was threatened by this hude black tiger-like beast and forced to spend the night in the alien forest all alone. There, he met Na'vi princess, Neytiri, who decided not to kill him due to the intervention of the seeds of the spiritual tree, which greatly resembles tiny jellyfish. Due to the seeds, the Na'vi believes that Jake is a man of something special and hence Neytiri took him under her wings and taught him the ways of a Na'vi.
And of course, as you've expected, love blooms between the two.
And again, of course, you know something gotta come in between them and that's the military war waged by the coporation because they believe that Dr. Grace's diplomatic approach is not going to work, and Grace eventually lost her life over saving the Na'vi.
And of course, you know Jake is going to become the ultimate hero and save the Na'vi's day, simply because the jellyfish-lookalike seeds already hinted so.
Ah, but perhaps you won't know that Jake's gonna give up his life on planet earth and turn himself into a Na'vi to be with Neytiri, right? Major spoiler here, yes I know.
So overall, I feel that this movie is really a good watch. The idea of those tentacles growing out of the Na'vi's hair, which allows them to connect their minds with any other form of living things on Pandora was a good one for me. In my opinion, the scene whereby Jake begged the spiritual tree to look into Grace's memory and do something to help them win the war was something the director/scriptwriter wishes to bring across to the audiences.
"Look at where we came from. There's no trees. They've killed their own mother..."
Green Peace again, everyone? Haha, it's no longer world peace but GREEN PEACE!