Was Jake Sully The Man For The Part

Paraplegic war veteran Jake Sully signs up for a tour of duty on the planet of Pandora, home to the peace-loving Na’vi. This magical

world cannot support human life, but it conceals vast deposits of an ore that sells for 20 million dollars per kilo, so humans intend to

mine the planet for vast profit. A pioneering scientist (Sigourney Weaver, Aliens) has developed a method of fusing the minds of humans

with Na’vi avatars. Jake is a successful recipient of this experiment, but as his avatar alter ego, he falls in love with an

avatar and together they must defeat the heavily armed human troops intending to mine the ore. Cameron promised us a visually stunning adventure like

nothing we’ve seen before and he delivers. This film has been percolating in Cameron’s head for the last fourteen years, and is so ambitious that

he had to build the technology to make it happen. But Avatar isn’t just about stupendous action and spectacle, it’s also a love story

- this shouldn’t surprise us, this is the man who made Titanic, after all. And the coupling, here, is realized more fully with the

astonishing digital effects. Our hero Jake and his warrior princess Neytiri’s burgeoning love are expressed in the detail of their eyes

– a flicker of longing here, a widening of pupils or a rolling tear there. This is truly next-generation technology. In fact, the Na’vi

all have clearly distinct features – no small feat for a clan of several hundred creatures – and there is no ‘dead eye’ problem of

previous flat videogame-style effects. However, even as technology defines Avatar, and there is the ‘star-crossed lovers’ storyline, this movie is

fundamentally about the glory of Mother Nature and our sense of humanity. Much like George Lucas’ The Force, Pandora is a place of connected energy and

emotional synapses. The Na’vi are free spirits who are connected to the world around them, while the humans are greedy planet-killers

(it’s apparent that Cameron perceives the Na’vi to be the more ‘human’ creatures). While this well-meaning message is compelling,

it’s also the movies biggest flaw because the ideas often come across in New Age-y, hippie-dippy language that’s cringe-worthy.

But it’s difficult to imagine even the most cynical audience members having any issues with the last half hour of the movie, in which

Cameron uncorks the action and shows the Bays and the Emmerich’s how it’s done, with a war between the humans and the Na’vi for the

mineral ore versus the moon itself, that’s on a staggering scale in terms of setting, imagination, and emotion.

Avatar is a dazzling spectacle of a film in which technology is employed to impressive effect and is an astonishing feat for the

eyes and ears – this is a must-see on the big screen (even better in 3D, where you actually feel as though you are on the Pandora moon!)

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