Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) are the main characters of the movie.
Recently, during Reading Week, I had the opportunity to go to Vancouver Island to visit some family I hadn’t seen in a few years. During that time, I had the opportunity to see a movie that I’d never seen before, Avatar.
Released in 2009 and directed by James Cameron, the film is the highest-grossing film of all time, only briefly surpassed by Avengers: Endgame for a few months. The film’s cinematography cemented the film as cutting-edge and taking cinema to the next level.
I remember saying to my cousin after leaving the theatre, “you could have told me that movie came out yesterday and I would have believed you.”
Being a science fiction lover, I knew I was in for a treat. Avatar was a movie that I had been longing to see for years and getting the opportunity to see it in the theatre was even more amazing. I felt like I was back in the year 2009 again! I jokingly asked my cousin if she had heard the latest hit from the Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”.
The beginning of the movie was fairly standard in my opinion, nothing extraordinary, nothing tame. The storyline seemed fairly basic at first, the whole “Earth is forever ruined so now humans have to find a new home to adapt and thrive” idea for a science fiction movie, but once the movie shifted to being on the surface of the planet Pandora, the new planet that the human species has colonized, the movie just leaves you in awe. The colors, the creatures, and the setting were all beautifully made. Pandora was a sci-fi world that anyone would want to explore.
The story of the Na’vi tribe on Pandora resonates with the world we live in today. A foreign people coming to a land of fierce natives and try to kick them off their own land for their economic gain. I don’t know about you but that sounds quite familiar. The struggle of trying to protect themselves from foreign invaders defending what is theirs (Hometree) really struck a chord in me, being that it was something that I know many Indigenous peoples have struggled with.
The relationship between Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) is one of highs and lows, like all relationships. Neytiri is initially annoyed about having to initiate Jake into their society, but the two eventually bond as expected until the Na’vi find out Jake is a spy and Neytiri’s father gets killed when Hometree is destroyed, where she then becomes hostile to Jake.
The humans now seek to destroy another sacred place of the Na’vi, the Tree of Souls and the ensuing battle is intense and heavy-hitting. Jake and Neytiri reconcile…again and just as Sully is about to be killed by Quaritch, Neytiri kills Quaritch by shooting two arrows in his face. The ending is truly satisfying.
While I am no Roger Ebert, I thought Avatar was a great movie. The movie illustrates why James Cameron is one of the best directors of his time, after all, how else would he have made two of the top three highest-grossing films of all time? I have always been a science-fiction fan and I am excited to see what the sequel will be like in December. I would highly recommend watching Avatar if you haven’t already. Overall, the movie gets a solid 8/10 from me.
The re-release of Avatar comes weeks before the release of the long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, in mid-December.
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