A love story grows under impossible odds, good guys, greedy exploiters, and genocidal bad guys, battle. Filled with archetypes and beautiful to look at, I recommend you see the film — Avatar. And see it in the 3D or Imax 3D if it comes to your city. It’s a technical wonder and deepens your immersion in this wondrous world.
James Cameron writer and director of Aliens, Terminator, Terminator 2, The Abyss, and Titanic gives us his best film ever.
First, here are the three definitions of avatar.
- an incarnation of a Hindu deity in human or animal form, especially one of the incarnations of Vishnu such as Rama and Krishna
- a character or persona of a player with a graphical representation
- an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user (as in a computer game).
I grew up knowing the first one, but most of the movie going audience is only aware of the latter two… and I am only vaguely familiar with those. You can bet Cameron is aware of all three and chose the title accordingly.
Keep the first definition in mind when you watch Avatar.
You can watch the trailer here —
=>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
Note: Minor spoilers below.
Archetypal Stories
When you watch the film, you will be deeply engaged in several archetypal stories, much like the StarWars films.
The romance is Romeo and Juliet. This ends better.
My favorite archetypal story is the young marine who goes native. He falls in love with the planet and it’s people he is tasked to exploit. And specifically, he falls in love with the princess.
Like all fairy tales and archetypes, this sound trivial in the mere naming, but I assure you in the story, it touches your soul.
It also puts me in mind of the 1990 film Dances with Wolves, which has a warrior, the Civil War hero, played by Costner, going native. Avatar ends on a more hopeful note than Dances with Wolves. I recommend you see it again.
The Gaia theory, the notion of viewing the Earth as a single conscious organism, is never stated by Cameron, but lovingly illustrated, is at the core of the film. (Gaia theory is named after the Greek goddess of Earth.)
Avatar comes at a crucial time for us humans as we race towards an uncertain future with global climate change. The film may help us to wake up and act with love for our relationship to Earth.
If the gung-ho marine can turn native, then surely we can to.
As a side light, it will make you want to be fit. And did I tell you about the dragons that they ride? The movie is fun. And inspiring. And at 178 minutes way too short.
Blessings,
William
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