Avatar review revised

Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words?

“I see you.” That was one of the only phrases remembered from the film “Avatar”. Filled with special effects, explosions, and complicated love story “Avatar” lacked great dialogue. When Jake Sully, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, in the year 2154, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race, the dialogue gets more interesting. Perhaps the fact that the Na’vi dialect is a made up one is what brought more excitement to the dialogue of the film.

While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel Quaritch moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics so he can mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland, forcing the soldier to take a stand and fight back in an epic battle between the humans and the Na’vi for the fate of Pandora.

“Avatar” whether seen in 2D or 3D was filled with the right amount of romance and comedy that wouldn’t overshadow all of the action, although there were some aspects of the film that have people talking, good and bad. The Na’vi people resemble a number of African tribes, which some people see as a racial issue. With the arranged marriages, mating, using the nature around them but not destroying it, “Avatar” might as well have been titled “Africa”. Africans aren’t the only Natives the Avatar have been said to resemble. Native American culture is depicted in the way they dress, barely wearing clothes, the way they honor and feel about nature and the life around them. To someone familiar with African dialect they might say the Na’vi language sounded to like some type of African language. And coincidentally minorities played the actors and actresses who played the Na’vi: African American, Native American and Hispanic actors.

The fast movements of the camera be it in 2D or 3D may have brought viewers motion sickness, perhaps that is something the director should think of before shooting the movie. If people are getting sick while watching your movie, they won’t be able to enjoy it. The suspense music played at multiple times may have sounded repetitive to those familiar with the music of another film, “Troy”. Turns out both movies had the same music director, James Horner. Using the same music from a previous film makes this score unoriginal and less appealing.

The story of the Na’vi vs. the Army, and the love story between Marine Jake Sully and Neytiri parallel the story of Pocahontas. An outsider gets close to the natives, John Smith/Jack Sully. That outsider builds the natives trust and falls in love with the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas/Neytiri. The outsiders greedy leader wants to take over the natives land to get some thing they found is very valuable, Governor Ratcliff/Parker Selfridge. Need I go on?

Is this a film that will change someone’s life? Will lines such as “I see you” become a line used for generations like “Say hello to my little friend”? Only time will tell. But to capture an audience is to capture them with words, not just special effects and the amount of money spent on the production. This film lacked an original plot & strong dialogue, it may have some racial disputes coming its way, and it’s using the “sloppy-seconds” of an earlier films from the plot to the musical score. But if you’re one who enjoys a film with the familiar plot of war and star-crossed lovers, then this is a film you may enjoy.