Plot: Humans come to the planet Pandora for a rare mineral, and need to displace the native forest people, the Na'vi. Grace (Sigorney Weaver) genetically engineers native bodies that humans can animate like The Matrix or maybe a predator drone. A paraplegic, Jake Sculley (Sam Worthington), becomes a native, and is accepted by the natives and falls in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saltana) a pretty native princess. Initially Jake feeds intelligence to the humans, but later his loyalty becomes divided.
Review: Great movie entertainment that is simply spectacular with action, emotion, and movie-house morality. I really liked the realistic way the animated Na'vi moved so gracefully though the trees, and later through the air. The movie characters were evocative and emotional -- unlike most motion capture characters, and even better than Lord of the Ring's Gollum -- far better than Disney's A Christmas Carol.
A fast moving story rapidly sets up the conflict between the humans and the Na'vi. Jake and the audience spends a long time with the Na'vi, and the wonderful visual world they inhabit. The audience is won over by the time the bulldozers arrive.
Although the story is predictable, that is because it is archetypal. The story is like the European migration into North America and the displacement of the native Americans. Visually it is more like Europeans coming to tropical Africa -- perhaps like displacement of natives in Nigeria for petroleum. There is the more elemental conflict between the spiritual, grounded and connected natives with the mechanized and money-grubbing humans.
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saltana, Sigorney Weaver, Steven Lang
Crew: written and directed by James Cameron
Rating: 4.0 flasks
More: I want to see it again.
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