Why Avatar speaks to me

Why Avatar speaks to me

If you liked Avatar and have not seen the sequel's trailer yet, here it is .

In this post, I attempt to share why Avatar remains my greatest cinematic experience to date. To me, Avatar is more than an entertaining , jaw dropping, visually grand movie. The beating heart of Avatar, is the lens  James Cameron uses to show the Na'vi way of life - indirectly reminding  us how humans originally lived in alignment with nature, before drifting apart.  It is also a story of freedom, its varying interpretations and the resultant conflict. 

Here is a refresher , if you have forgotten Avatar's story line. 

Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-marine finds himself travelling from Earth to Pandora, a planet  being mined for  a precious element called Unobtanium , found deep beneath its surface . Earth has been stripped of all its resources, thanks to centuries of abuse, so humans are on an intergalactic hunt for sources of energy and elements.  A six month space flight away, is Pandora - a stunningly beautiful planet, reminiscent of Earth before humans came into being. 

Pandora has an indigenous population of humanoids , the Na'vi, also called the Omaticaya people. They are blue skinned beings with tails and elf like ears, living in harmony with their vibrant jungle and go around carrying  arrows dipped in neurotoxins.  Humans have figured a way to create an Avatar - or a life size Na'vi body grown from Na'vi and human DNA. The Avatar's nervous network can be connected to a human's through a linking vestibule. The Avatars can then move around Pandora and try to network with the native Na'vi.  Jake is in Pandora on a 6 year assignment in return for cash , to fit into the Avatar of his late twin brother and contribute to the research team.    

For Jake, staying on Pandora entails  Avatar training to be able to converse with the natives.   The Avatar program is headed by a cigarette wielding hothead scientist,  Grace Augustine (played by a brilliant Sigourney Weaver)  who knows the Omaticaya way of life, the people, their forests and the botany.  Grace and team are trying to find a diplomatic solution between the human corporate system trying to mine Pandora and the natives.

Pandora: 

Jim Cameron's  world building and attention to detail bring the fictional planet alive. Pandoran flora and fauna are breathtaking -  giant flowers , iridescent plants, glowing trees and insects, rivers that light up in the dark with radiant aquatic life, weird birds and colourful animals reminiscent of prehistoric dinosaurs.  Creatures with multiple eyes and arms and legs, menacing teeth and set to kill .  

I remember watching it all on 3D and wondering which direction to point my eyes to soak it all in.  It is in the thick of the Pandoran woods that Jake first meets Neytiri, the daughter of the Omaticaya chief.  Neytiri is the audience's induction to the Na'vi  way of life.  The Na'vi believe that all life is connected and there is a constant flow of energy between beings and their spirits. The trees are all interconnected, like a large neural network. Data of their history is stored in this vast network and put to use for the larger natural world.  Jim Cameron uses Pandora as a metaphor to Earth. There are studies that link the interconnectedness of our own trees and natural world, much like in the movie. The Na'vi take cues from nature, believe in signs and signals,  tap into the wisdom of life around them. Much like we used to.

In Avatar, I loved the idea of  Sahaylu , or the Bond, which the Omaticaya share with their six legged horses and the Pterodactyl like flight creatures - the Ikran. The rider shares a bond with the animal and feels its heart. They communicate with each other mentally. The scene that leads up to Jake getting his own Ikran, climbing the hanging Hallelujah mountains, finding his Ikran and taking his first sky ride, is marvellous. (It took me back to " a whole new world" from Alladin and much later, Jon riding Rhaegal the dragon with Danny in Game of Thrones) 

The art of the kill:

In the first scene between Jake and Neytiri, she rescues him from some wild dog type things, taking them on with her arrows. Jake watches as she goes to the half dead ones, whispers something in their ear before finishing the kill with a clean swipe of her knife.  She scowls at Jake for putting her in a situation where she has to kill unnecessarily. Jake learns the art of the kill as Neytiri later inducts him into Na'vi ways. 

A kill is always made only for a specific need - food, clothing or during imminent danger. The kill has to be swift, with minimal impact time, so as to not let the animal suffer. If my understanding is right, this is one of the core principles behind Halal and Kosher food practices.  Every kill is made with respect to the animal giving its life to turn into food.  The Na'vi utter this prayer in front of the slain animal - " I see you, brother; thank you for the sacrifice of your life . Your spirit goes to Eywa while your body becomes part of the people " 

 The Na'vi believe in a network of energy flowing to through all living beings. Energy is only borrowed and one day, has to be given back to the network.    Eywa, their principal deity, is made of all living beings. Us humans as a race , were respectful of our produce and resources too, to start with.  Halal, Kosher and other ancient diet guidelines in their essence, embodied a deeper appreciation for the source of the food, respect for all life forms, to take only what is needed, to maintain a balance. Us Indians have a rich history of such guidelines too - across races, religions, tribes.   (Digression - those who watched RRR, will recall the scene where NTR Jr , who plays a tribal warrior, sedates a tiger to escape and later apologises to it while it is in stupor). Jim Cameron reflects these values through the Na'vi, in the hope we would see it too, when presented as a story on celluloid happening in a fictional world.  To plan this in a screenplay, sounds unreal, let alone execute it in 80% visual effects, keep the heart of the story intact and succeed in translating it on screen 

The central conflict:

How does one define success and a good life?  To us, a mainstream education, a career in a large city, wide roads, urban landmasses and  glass walled buildings are painted as goals in life.  Anyone content with anything less or attempting to not confine to the broader definition of success, is seen as an outlier, possibly lesser than ourselves. Humans land on Pandora, call the Omaticaya savage, uncivilised blue monkeys, mine their land without permission and claim to improve the lives of the natives with roads, education and medicine. They are baffled why the Omaticaya are happy in their mud roads and life in the forest. Jake records a video log where he says of the natives " There is nothing that we have that they want ", which sums up any invasion in the name of betterment of another people, when they are perfectly content, leading much better lifestyles.  

Us as a race have been doing this for centuries - colonising, invading , capturing. It is no surprise creatures with intelligence are ambitious and want more.  One can argue a lot of benefit came out of it - globalization, trade, movement of people and culture , exchange of languages and so on. But does that justify the act of oppression? Who are we if we do not fight for our own freedom of thought and the power to exercise our rights?  I once heard someone in power say " There are plans to convert some of the Andaman islands into palm plantations so they turn productive" .  Is it not stupidity to think replacing  a forest with other trees is the same?  What is an oil plantation in front of a complex ecosystem that has evolved over centuries, supporting life and the soil beneath it?  Intellectual arrogance is insensitive, perhaps dangerous, in more ways than one. It brings in a certain sense of entitlement, that appears fruitful in the short run, but eventually ends in slow death. 

Back to Avatar , the Na'vi are powerless against the machine gun wielding human corporate system and end up losing places of deep significance to their lives -  the Tree of Souls  and their Mother Tree. The new trailer for Avatar - The way of water,   shows different regions of Pandora. I look forward to seeing if the  destroyed parts of Pandora healed themselves with time. 

The leap of faith: 

Jake's character arc in the movie - from paraplegic marine turned Avatar who finds love amidst adversity, to fully transitioned Na'vi, takes a relatable, tumultuous ride. We feel his conflict - having to choose between his reality - just finishing his assignment  or following his gut, the untrodden path to what he feels is the right thing to do.  In the ceremonial right of passage when he gets anointed as Na'vi, Jake says this:

"  The Na'vi say, every person is born twice;  the second time when you earn a place among the people " 

I interpret this as the choice life always leaves open - to follow one's own gut and search for a place in the world , through action. 

Good movies, like other works of art, are an investment that stand the test of time. Made in 2009, Avatar still feels fresh and more relevant than before. The visuals have aged so well, unlike many other graphic led movies of the time. Avatar does not feel like old technology. A true visual spectacle and a movie with a large heart, Avatar beckons us to hold on to a higher moral ground. 

The Way of Water releases December 2022.

This  is the broad line up of the 4 sequels to Avatar , as per Cameron and Disney. 

Avatar: The Way of Water, Dec 2022

Avatar: The Seed Bearer,  Dec 2024

Avatar: The Tulkun Rider,  Dec 2026

 Avatar: The Quest for Eywa, Dec 2028 

I hope they all get done in our lifetime.  If they release Avatar ahead of the sequel again in the theatres, yours truly will watch again for sure on screen. Just to relive the memories.