In 2010, James Cameron presented his epic film Avatar. Many cinema critics waited for the opening night. Manohla Dargis in The New York Times wrote a fantastic article dedicated to the film. She indicated that “several decades in the dreaming and more than four years in the actual making, the movie is a song to the natural world that was largely produced with software, an Emersonian exploration of the invisible world” (Manohla, ‘A New Eden, both Cosmic and Cinematic’). And she was right. The film covers the eternal questions of love and relations, friendship and faith. I guess, that the main purpose of the film was to show as a new world that James Cameron created in his head. Avatar in a good way illustrates what can happen to a man stranded on the border between fantasy and reality.
The plot is a great testing ground for amusement. Each episode contains many fantastical elements that “grab you at once with one eye-popping detail after another and on occasion almost losing you with some of the comically broad dialogue” (Manohla, ‘A New Eden, both Cosmic and Cinematic’). Jake Sully is a former marine, confined to a wheelchair. Despite his disability, Jake in the soul is still a warrior. He gets a job to make a trip to the planet Pandora, where the corporations get a rare mineral of a great importance for the Earth. The mission of Jake's avatar on Pandora is to enter in the credibility to one of natives Navi, whose settlements are on the rich deposit of valuable mineral. Officially, Jake was charged to find a way to persuade aborigines to resettle, but according to the military order, he also should collect information on the case of the military solution. The beautiful daughter of a chief saves Jake's life, and then things change. The tribe accepts Jake. He learns to be a Navi, which includes performing a variety of tasks and tests. This amazing story Cameron has been invented in his head for twelve years. In a world where fairy tales come true, there is a great attention to the details. Every bush, twig, leaf are made so carefully and neatly that the viewer begins to believe in the existence of avatars.
In Avatar, director introduces the main hero through his voice. James Cameron succeeded in the creation of a great illusion. In his book dedicated to the film, Kevin Patrick Mahoney wrote that nevertheless simple dialogue and plot, there are many interesting topics raised by the director (Mahoney 4). Cameron, following the canons of the drama of the 19th century, created the characters strongly negative or strictly positive. In Avatar the world is divided into good and bad, white and black. For example, the main hero does not have any spot. He is kind, fearless, open-minded and gets easy with Navi, as in the episode he found himself on the Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system (Avatar). The main hero is the central character in the film. Viewers see his development during the whole screen. We see him compassionate and bright personality with a great desire to learn Navi. In the end, Jake became a strong leader and showed all his courage.
Avatar in many ways is like Star Wars of Lucas. Both films were a breakthrough in the field of cinema because of the skillful use of the most advanced technologies. Both films showed a different and completely unknown world, stuffed with its extremely simple but interesting life philosophy. Of course, there are many differences between the two films. The special effects in Star Wars were mainly cardboard, so that the viewer had to imagine and build a fantastic world mostly himself. James Cameron showed the reality better and in a more realistic way. In the film Avatar there is absolutely no place for the viewer’s fantasy. He hardly has time to think about episodes. The film represents a fantasy of a screenwriter, as well as people, who worked on the creation of the film and special effects.
In general, the film is a perfect peace of art. It raises many important questions and entertain viewers due to perfect graphics and special effects.
Works Cited
Avatar. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2010. Film.
Mahoney, Kevin Patrick, and Alex Carmine. The Ultimate Fan's Guide to Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Movie. London: Punked, 2010. Print.
Manohla, Dargis. "A New Eden, both Cosmic and Cinematic." The New York Times (2009). Web.<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/movies/18avatar.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>
