Movie Review: Avatar

First the synopsis. People have discovered an expensive & energy producing element in the planet Pandora tht's inhabited by the Na'vi. The Na'vi has similar characteristics as the humans except tht its skin is blue & they are much larger in size. Planet Pandora's air is toxic to the humans & hence people can't survive on the planet without oxygen masks.

To better able to communicate with the Na'vi to ease the tension when humans set up mines around their planet for the precious ore (to the corporate miners) & the chance to study this new being in the interest of Botany / science; humans have developed a hybrid of Na'vi + human using the DNA combination of both species. The hybrid would be controlled via some brain wave connected to the hybrids - called Avatars.

Before the "hero" of the show appears on Pandora, there's a group of scientists who have set up a "school" where the scientist in their Avatars teaches the children of the Na'vi to communicate in English. However this school was shut down when the Na'vis lost their trust on the human race. They are nature loving creatures & can't bear to see the mines destructing their planet.

The hero's Avatar somehow stumbled into the Na'vis settlement under their great & sacred tree & through miracle / mother nature's guidance, he was accepted in the settlement to learn their way of life. At first his intention was to learn as much as possible to find ways to persuade the Na'vi in leaving their sacred tree because right under tht tree is a large deposit of the precious ore tht the corporation wanted. However as he learnt more abt the Na'vi, he began to love the nature loving race & the lines between reality vs. life through his Avatar blurred. He began to feel more like a Na'vi than human.

Driven by impatience to rid the Na'vi, force was used instead of the originally planned method of diplomacy. The Na'vi began to shun the hero lika a plaque for he has caused the distruction of their sacred grounds. However, he fought hard beside the Na'vis & in the end they triumphed.

In summary, I felt tht there are some moral msgs behind Avatar. It's a reflection of how we're destroying our own planet for corporate gains vs. the struggles of the few who protects Mother Nature fiercely. The cinematography is beautiful; but some may complain tht some of the scenes are too cartoony (especially when the trees lighted on its own... it looked a bit like Nemo scene with the jellyfish). I liked it... Hubby didn't.... So mixed reaction there.

p/s: I saw a movie review over some entertainment programme (can't recall the name) & they raised an interesting question - the movie is not showing the right demography... It consists of only "whites". What happened to the "blacks"? When this question was posed to the director, he said "In my movies they're 'Blue'...." :-p