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Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron 's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his " Titanic " was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely.

"Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such visual detailing that it would reward repeating viewings. It invents a new language, Na'vi, as "Lord of the Rings" did, although mercifully I doubt this one can be spoken by humans, even teenage humans. It creates new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation.

The story, set in the year 2154, involves a mission by U. S. Armed Forces to an earth-sized moon in orbit around a massive star. This new world, Pandora, is a rich source of a mineral Earth desperately needs. Pandora represents not even a remote threat to Earth, but we nevertheless send in ex-military mercenaries to attack and conquer them. Gung-ho warriors employ machine guns and pilot armored hover ships on bombing runs. You are free to find this an allegory about contemporary politics. Cameron obviously does.

Pandora harbors a planetary forest inhabited peacefully by the Na'vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed race of slender giants, each one perhaps 12 feet tall. The atmosphere is not breathable by humans, and the landscape makes us pygmies. To venture out of our landing craft, we use avatars--Na'vi lookalikes grown organically and mind-controlled by humans who remain wired up in a trance-like state on the ship. While acting as avatars, they see, fear, taste and feel like Na'vi, and have all the same physical adeptness.

This last quality is liberating for the hero, Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), who is a paraplegic. He's been recruited because he's a genetic match for a dead identical twin, who an expensive avatar was created for. In avatar state he can walk again, and as his payment for this duty he will be given a very expensive operation to restore movement to his legs. In theory he's in no danger, because if his avatar is destroyed, his human form remains untouched. In theory.

On Pandora, Jake begins as a good soldier and then goes native after his life is saved by the lithe and brave Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ). He finds it is indeed true, as the aggressive Col. Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) briefed them, that nearly every species of life here wants him for lunch. (Avatars are not be made of Na'vi flesh, but try explaining that to a charging 30-ton rhino with a snout like a hammerhead shark).

The Na'vi survive on this planet by knowing it well, living in harmony with nature, and being wise about the creatures they share with. In this and countless other ways they resemble Native Americans. Like them, they tame another species to carry them around--not horses, but graceful flying dragon-like creatures. The scene involving Jake capturing and taming one of these great beasts is one of the film's greats sequences.

Like "Star Wars" and "LOTR," "Avatar" employs a new generation of special effects. Cameron said it would, and many doubted him. It does. Pandora is very largely CGI. The Na'vi are embodied through motion capture techniques, convincingly. They look like specific, persuasive individuals, yet sidestep the eerie Uncanny Valley effect. And Cameron and his artists succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue-skinned giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet--I'll be damned. Sexy.

At 163 minutes, the film doesn't feel too long. It contains so much. The human stories. The Na'vi stories, for the Na'vi are also developed as individuals. The complexity of the planet, which harbors a global secret. The ultimate warfare, with Jake joining the resistance against his former comrades. Small graceful details like a floating creature that looks like a cross between a blowing dandelion seed and a drifting jellyfish, and embodies goodness. Or astonishing floating cloud-islands.

I've complained that many recent films abandon story telling in their third acts and go for wall-to-wall action. Cameron essentially does that here, but has invested well in establishing his characters so that it matters what they do in battle and how they do it. There are issues at stake greater than simply which side wins.

Cameron promised he'd unveil the next generation of 3-D in "Avatar." I'm a notorious skeptic about this process, a needless distraction from the perfect realism of movies in 2-D. Cameron's iteration is the best I've seen -- and more importantly, one of the most carefully-employed. The film never uses 3-D simply because it has it, and doesn't promiscuously violate the fourth wall. He also seems quite aware of 3-D's weakness for dimming the picture, and even with a film set largely in interiors and a rain forest, there's sufficient light. I saw the film in 3-D on a good screen at the AMC River East and was impressed. I might be awesome in True IMAX. Good luck in getting a ticket before February.

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Avatar (2009)

Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking

162 minutes

Stephen Lang as Col. Miles Quaritch

Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman

Wes Studi as Eytukan

CCH Pounder as Moat

Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel

Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully

Zoe Saldana as Neytiri

Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon

Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey

Sigourney Weaver as Grace

Matt Gerald as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet

Written and directed by

• James Cameron

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Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron Essay (Movie Review)

The film called “Avatar” created by James Cameron and released at the end of 2009 has quickly won the favor of millions of viewers all around the world. Today, this movie is named one of the most legendary works that made a significant impact on the film making industry and changed it forever.

The film is famous for the advanced and unusual special effects and techniques. Besides, the themes explored in the movie are very important for the contemporary world and especially for the people of the United States, because they are connected to this country’s social and cultural past.

The film by James Cameron features the events of crucial meaning. Humans come to the planet called Pandora searching for resources. At the same time, the researchers do not care much about the indigenous people inhabiting the planet, the nation called Na’vi, which consists of innocent creatures that are closely connected to the world they live in. These creatures are in harmony with nature, they can communicate with animals and plants of their forests.

Their world is deep and contains precious wisdom, while the newcomers see them mainly as an obstacle on the way towards resources bringing wealth and influence. Humans view Na’vi creatures as wild and uncivilized beings. This story was written by James Cameron in order to emphasize the American past and the tragic historical events that happened due to the European Imperialism.

White people arrived at the coasts of America thinking that they came to the shores of India. They met the indigenous people and, ignorantly, called them Indians. After that, they discovered multiple resources possessed by the indigenous people of America and took over their lands. As a result, the ancient cultures of Native Americans were erased together with their carriers.

The film “Avatar” portrays the standard sequence of events that happens when a more powerful and technologically equipped nation encounters people originated from a more peaceful culture unable to protect itself. The territories and resources of the latter always end up taken away resulting in multiple deaths and sufferings from the side of the weaker nation. This story was told beautifully by the team of James Cameron. “Avatar” is truly fantastic work.

The special effects and techniques used in it are designed to make the audience admire the purity and innocence of Na’vi, their naturally good hearts. The director makes the viewers fall in love with the indigenous people and the planet Pandora so that the audience feels genuinely hurt and shocked when the destruction and war come to the peaceful lands.

This is done to remind the viewers about the consequences of imperialism, which mainly is the basis of their culture. To me, “Avatar” carries the message of respect for life and its divine nature.

The special and new technologies used in “Avatar” promise to change cinema forever. 3D camera technology is named to be the most progressive happening of the modern cinematography. Today, all the films that are hoped to become highly popular are made in 3D.

The computer-generated imagery of “Avatar” is another new invention that allows wider use of special effects and the creation of more realistic fictional characters. The modern experts say that the creators of “Avatar” actually re-invented the art of cinematography and presented the other filmmakers with a wide range of new techniques and opportunities for the new beautiful works.

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IvyPanda. (2020, March 21). Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-studies-avatar-by-james-cameron/

"Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron." IvyPanda , 21 Mar. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/film-studies-avatar-by-james-cameron/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron'. 21 March.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron." March 21, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-studies-avatar-by-james-cameron/.

1. IvyPanda . "Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron." March 21, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-studies-avatar-by-james-cameron/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Film Studies: “Avatar” by James Cameron." March 21, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-studies-avatar-by-james-cameron/.

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Review by Brian Eggert December 18, 2009

James Cameron’s strength as a director has always been spectacle more than story. While his characterizations are solid—if rooted in heavy clichés—for him, they’re secondary to a skillful exhibition teeming with groundbreaking special effects. In the past, Cameron’s primary objective hasn’t been about making you think passed the end credits or involving you on a resonant emotional level, at least not as much as wanting to blow your socks off with new technological breakthroughs displayed in nonstop action sequences. He concerns himself with what will impact his audience at this moment in cinema, admirably moving toward The New, his focus obsessively concentrated on visual bravado. Accordingly, because he’s driven toward the latest thing in moviemaking, centering all of his concentration on that one goal, the impact of his movies fades over time.

For example, The Terminator may seem corny and old-fashioned today, but at the time of its release, Stan Winston’s animatronics were revolutionary, the action eye-popping. Cameron’s Aliens dumbed down the spare, frightening universe created by Ridley Scott, but it’s a helluva entertaining action movie, one that changed our perspective on the scope of puppetry. For Terminator 2: Judgment Day , Cameron developed CGI that today looks phony, so the weak story doesn’t hold up. And as for Titanic , was the romance ever meant to overshadow the bravura sequence where the ship takes a nosedive into the sea? Probably not, but what a sequence. In each case, except perhaps Cameron’s masterpiece, The Abyss , the director limits his narrative to supply the presentation with audacity aplenty, his story and the effects therein unbalanced, the scale completely tipped to the latter.

It’s with these thoughts in mind that one should approach Avatar , Cameron’s latest foray into the realm of blockbuster moviemaking. Realizing how often Cameron fails to balance spectacle and story will help one appreciate what a wonderful motion picture he’s made here. The story is a familiar one, reminiscent of a number of science-fiction stories and a few notable films ( Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai being the most apparent), but it’s told with such passion and visual bravado that any carping about the yarn being typical is canceled out. He compiles familiar themes from his previous work, mainly The Abyss , places them in a new setting, and tells a tale so unbelievably rich and escapist that the best way to convince you is just to say, with unbridled enthusiasm, See This Film!

Set in the year 2154, the story begins on Pandora, a fertile moon orbiting a massive gas planet in a solar system far, far away. Human scientists seek to mine a valuable mineral embedded in the terrain; however, the humanoid race of indigenous people, called Na’vi, stands in their way. An analogous situation to when Europeans first began to explore the Americas, the locals are treated as animalistic savages, while corrupt and callous, the humans plan to infiltrate and transfer them somewhere not on top of the moon’s most concentrated deposit of the mineral. But the Na’vi have a biological connection to the very Nature around them, worshiping it like a deity, and through this connection, they produce a balanced and striking biosphere. However, humanity has a way of disregarding the beliefs of other people and completely ignoring what it takes for Nature to maintain stability.

Sympathetic jarhead Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic, joins the “avatar” program to try and connect with the Na’vi and find a diplomatic solution to the humans’ proposed forced relocation. Under the tutelage of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the scientist who pioneered the program, Jake enters a genetically engineered Na’vi body remotely, existing as one of them to find a balance between cultures. While embedded in the lush Na’vi forests, he meets local Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and through her, he learns the ways of the natives and ultimately feels more at home in his versatile avatar than his broken human body. But his greedy-minded superiors—company man Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and battle-hungry Colonel Miles Quaritch (the fantastic Stephen Lang)—want their mineral and they want it now. What ensues is a rousing battle where the stakes are entrenched into the characters, so the fighting we see actually has a purpose.

Of course, Cameron’s assessment of his own genius knows no bounds; he’s so (rightfully) confident that the world he’s created is enough to occupy our minds that he doesn’t even bother formulating an actual McGuffin (the name for the moviemaker’s device to propel the plot). On Pandora, the invaluable material the humans seek is called Unobtainium, though not a word of Cameron’s creation. “Unobtainium” in reality is a tech term actually used by scientists to describe an impossible natural resource, such as a limitless, renewable source of energy or precious mineral. The script goes into little detail about what exactly Unobtainium is, just that it’s the last bastion of hope for humanity and our diminished planet. That it’s not called “pandorium” or something more specific is passive on Cameron’s part; he might as well have called it “McGuffin,” since he’s making it clear he doesn’t want to waste time on pithy details.

Most impressive is the tangible rendering of the Na’vi and the fascinating way in which the avatars resemble their hosts (most apparent with Weaver’s avatar) without ever being eerie or awkward. Though presented theatrically in 3D, even in 2D screenings the Na’vi appear three-dimensional. It takes two or three minutes for the viewer to acclimate themselves to the appearance of the Na’vi, their blue elongated forms, and their massive size in comparison to humans. But once that initial adjustment has passed, there isn’t a moment where we doubt what we’re seeing. Cameron was right. Hollywood wasn’t ready for this. These are faces that we can reach out and touch, without ever entering the Uncanny Valley where creepy motion-capture films like Beowulf , A Christmas Carol , and The Polar Express reside. Cameron doesn’t try to replicate physical creatures in this world; he breathes life into them. And if this is where motion capture is going, the advertisements are right—movies won’t be the same, at least not ones using this device. Let’s just hope the directors using this technology in the future have the patience that Cameron displayed through the last ten years of pre-production.

If showmanship was the only criteria by which Avatar was to be judged, then this would still be a raving review. Cameron has mastered the art of stringing together breathlessly entertaining action sequences, making his frequent long runtimes ( Avatar clocks in at 162 minutes) breeze by. But there’s also an admirable social commentary at work, sporting hearty themes of environmentalism and anti-militarism. Cameron often writes his villains as close-minded bureaucrats and war-mongers, probably because their single-mindedness is so easily shown as wrong in a humanist circumstance such as this, which, of course, is a historical parallel for events of both the distant past and our contemporary setting. Here, those Cameron tropes are alive and well in their most obvious but potent scenery, taking the film to unexpected levels of deep emotional involvement. By the end, when we’re cheering for those rotten humans to get their comeuppance, Cameron has made us feel guilty about the forceful, inhuman nature of our species. That such a feeling is brought to life in a sci-fi blockbuster is a glorious accomplishment.

Along with The Abyss , it’s certain that Avatar will prove to be one of Cameron’s most revisited and least dated entertainments. The film has none of the pop-culture lingo that has made some of the director’s other works unwatchable today. It has an allegorical edge that makes it a significant narrative, while also putting to use every last penny of its astronomical budget. And it has a brisk pace and epic scope to simply awe its audience into submission. Skeptics will be turned, probably easier than they were expecting. Cameron has once again proven himself a landmark director whose forward-thinking inspires changes in industry standards and whose ability to connect to his audience remains thoroughly intact. To be sure, this is an engaging experience in every sense, from the dramatic to the visual to the visceral. This is how blockbusters should be.

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: Big Blue Marvel

James Cameron returns to Pandora, and to the ecological themes and visual bedazzlements of his 2009 blockbuster.

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By A.O. Scott

Way back in 2009, “Avatar” arrived on screens as a plausible and exciting vision of the movie future. Thirteen years later, “Avatar: The Way of Water” — the first of several long-awaited sequels directed by James Cameron — brings with it a ripple of nostalgia.

The throwback sensation may hit you even before the picture starts, as you unfold your 3-D glasses. When was the last time you put on a pair of those? Even the anticipation of seeing something genuinely new at the multiplex feels like an artifact of an earlier time, before streaming and the Marvel Universe took over.

The first “Avatar” fused Cameron’s faith in technological progress with his commitments to the primal pleasures of old-fashioned storytelling and the visceral delights of big-screen action. The 3-D effects and intricately rendered digital landscapes — the trees and flowers of the moon Pandora and the way creatures and machines swooped and barreled through them — felt like the beginning of something, the opening of a fresh horizon of imaginative possibility.

At the same time, the visual novelty was built on a sturdy foundation of familiar themes and genre tropes. “Avatar” was set on a fantastical world populated by soulful blue bipeds, but it wasn’t exactly (or only) science fiction. It was a revisionist western, an ecological fable, a post-Vietnam political allegory — a tale of romance, valor and revenge with traces of Homer, James Fenimore Cooper and “Star Trek” in its DNA.

All of that is also true of “The Way of Water,” which picks up the story and carries it from Pandora’s forests to its reefs and wetlands — an environment that inspires some new and dazzling effects. Where “Avatar” found inspiration in lizard-birds, airborne spores and jungle flowers, the sequel revels in aquatic wonders, above all a kind of armored whale called the tulkun.

Before we meet those beings — in a sequence that has the quiet awe of a nature documentary — we are brought up-to-date with the characters from the first movie, whom we may have forgotten about. Jake Sully, the conflicted U.S. Marine played by Sam Worthington who was the hero of “Avatar,” has remade his life among the Na’vi. Like them, he is now tall, slender and blue, with a mane of dark hair and a braid that connects him to members of other species. He’s fluent in Na’vi (though most of the dialogue is rendered in English).

Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are raising a brood of biological and adopted children, whose squabbles and adventures bring a youthful energy to the sometimes heavy, myth-laden narrative. There are four Na’vi kids, a pair each of brothers and sisters. Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), the older son, walks dutifully in Jake’s brave shadow, while his younger brother, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), is a rebel and a hothead, looking for trouble and often finding it.

Their sisters are the adorable Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and the teenage Kiri, whose birth mother was the noble human scientist Grace Augustine. One of the film’s genuinely uncanny effects is that Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Augustine in the first film, plays Kiri in this one, her unmistakable face digitally de-aged and tinted blue. Like her mother, the girl has a mystical, Lorax-like connection to the trees and flowers of Pandora.

Jake and Neytiri’s sitcom-worthy household is completed by Spider (Jack Champion), a scampish human boy left behind by Quaritch (Stephen Lang), Jake’s former Marine commander and one of the villains of the original “Avatar.” Quaritch returns to Pandora with a new mandate to colonize it, and a squad of Na’vi-ized fighters to carry out the mission. He has a long-simmering vendetta against Jake, and much of “The Way of Water” is concerned less with large-scale imperial ambitions than with personal dramas of loyalty and betrayal.

With a running time of more than three hours — about 10 minutes shorter than “Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” by recent acclamation the greatest movie of all time — “The Way of Water” is overloaded with character and incident. The final stretch, which feels somehow longer than the rest of it, runs aground in action movie bombast, and suggests that even a pop auteur as inventive and resourceful as Cameron may have run out of ideas when it comes to climactic fight sequences. There are a lot of those, in the air and underwater, fistic and fiery, sad and rousing, nearly every one of which will remind you of stuff you’ve seen a dozen times before.

That’s too bad, because much of the middle of “The Way of Water” restores the latent promise of newness — no small accomplishment in an era of wearying franchise overkill. Afraid that Quaritch and his men will bring slaughter to the forest, Jake and Neytiri seek the protection of Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), chieftains of a reef-dwelling Na’vi clan.

The differences among the Na’vi — physical as well as cultural — add an interesting new dimension to the anthropology of Pandora, and to the film’s aesthetic palette. The viewer discovers this variety in the company of the younger characters, especially Kiri and Lo’ak. Their adaptation to new surroundings — being teased for their skinny tails and clumsy arms, getting in fights and making new friends — gives the movie the buoyant, high-spirited sincerity of young-adult fiction.

Cameron’s embrace of the idealism of adolescence, of the capacity for moral outrage as well as wonder, is the emotional heart of the movie. You feel it in a horrifying scene of tulkun slaughter that aspires to the awful, stirring sublimity of the last chapters of “Moby-Dick,” and also in the restlessness of Lo’ak, Spider and Kiri as they try to figure out their roles. The next sequels, I suspect, will give them more time for that, but may also encumber them with more baggage.

I’m curious, and inclined — as I was in 2009 — to give this grand, muddled project the benefit of the doubt. Cameron’s ambitions are as sincere as they are self-contradictory. He wants to conquer the world in the name of the underdog, to celebrate nature by means of the most extravagant artifice, and to make everything new feel old again.

Avatar: The Way of Water Rated PG-13. Almost blue. Running time: 3 hours 12 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Take the plunge: Avatar's underwater scenes are immersive and extraordinary

Justin Chang

Filmmaker James Cameron returns to the world of the Na'vi people in Avatar: The Way of Water. 20th Century Films hide caption

Filmmaker James Cameron returns to the world of the Na'vi people in Avatar: The Way of Water.

I wouldn't call Avatar: The Way of Water one of the year's best movies, but it's undoubtedly one of the best movie-going experiences I've had in a while. I had more or less the same reaction to James Cameron's first Avatar in 2009.

It told a thin but trippy Dances with Wolves -ian story about the colonizers v. the colonized, but the world building was spectacular: It was thrilling to visit the faraway moon called Pandora, with its immersive, digitally created jungle landscapes. It was thrilling, too, to root for the towering blue-skinned Na'vi people, brought to life through Cameron's pioneering use of performance-capture technology, which translates actors' movements and facial expressions into computer-generated imagery.

And so it's great to return to Pandora, although since many years have passed since the events of the first movie, there is some clunky exposition to get through. Sam Worthington again plays Jake Sully, a former human now reborn as a Na'vi man, and Zoe Saldaña returns as the fierce warrior princess Neytiri. They have four Na'vi children, including an adopted teenage daughter, Kiri. She's played, through the magic of performance capture, by the decidedly not-teenage Sigourney Weaver . And Weaver, as you might recall, played a human scientist who was killed in the first Avatar .

How the older and younger Weaver characters are connected is one of the new movie's mysteries, but it's clear that Kiri is a child of unique gifts. In one scene, she tells Jake that she feels acutely in tune with Eywa, the powerful deity who maintains balance among all living things on Pandora, saying, "I hear her heartbeat. She's so close. She's just ... there. Like a word about to be spoken."

For some viewers, a little of this Mother Earth stuff will go a long way, though I've always found Cameron's cornball sincerity hard to resist. He may push the technological envelope, but he's an earnest, old-fashioned storyteller at heart. For all its visual sophistication and its three-hour-plus running time, Avatar: The Way of Water tells a simple, straightforward story about a family in danger.

The villain here is once again Jake's archenemy, Col. Miles Quaritch, played by a ferocious Stephen Lang. You might recall that he died in the first Avatar , but Cameron's science-fiction conceit is elastic enough to get over that hurdle. And this time, Quaritch himself has been resurrected as a Na'vi, making him even more fearsome and powerful. He has a score to settle, and so Jake and Neytiri take their kids and flee to the sea, where they hide out among a group of Na'vi beach dwellers.

The movie's second act is basically a charming riff on Swiss Family Robinson , as Jake and Neytiri receive a wary welcome from the community leaders, one of them played by a glaring Kate Winslet . The family is forced to adapt to an entirely new way of life. That means becoming much better swimmers and learning to communicate with the local wildlife, including a giant talking whale-like creature called a Tulkun.

It may sound silly, but this is where the movie soars to life. Cameron knows a thing or two about underwater peril, as his movies Titanic and The Abyss bear out. He's also an accomplished diver, and here, he plunges you into the watery depths and surrounds you with the most surreal-looking alien fish specimens you've ever seen.

In these moments, I didn't feel like I was watching a movie so much as floating in one. In addition to the 3D, which I do recommend, Cameron has tried to heighten the level of detail by shooting at an unusually fast 48 frames per second. It looks a little too smooth at times, especially on dry land, but the effect is stunning underwater. I almost wished the movie would never leave the ocean floor, that it could just sustain this Jacques-Cousteau-on-mushrooms vibe for three hours.

'Avatar': Big-Picture Visions, Stirringly Realized

But that's not the Cameron way. He sometimes breaks his own spell by cutting away to Quaritch, which often feels jarring and not that interesting. And as superb as Cameron's eye is, his dialogue remains as tin-eared as ever. But everything does come together in the movie's action-heavy final act, which features extraordinarily well-orchestrated set-pieces both above and below water.

Quaritch is joined by some deadly human fighters too, and Avatar: The Way of Water encourages us — successfully — to root against humanity for all the destruction it's unleashed on the world. We've seen that before, including in the first Avatar , but it speaks to Cameron's real achievement, which is to bring us into total identification with these computer-generated Na'vi characters. I don't know if that will be enough to sustain the Avatar series over three upcoming sequels, but I'm already looking forward to another trip to this alien moon. Until then, Pandora, so long, and thanks for all the fish.

Global Health and Education

Avatar Movie Review Essay: Hero’s Journey in Avatar by James Cameron

Avatar movie review essay:, jake sully in avatar: hero’s journey analysis.

Throughout one’s life, one continuously enters and completes the Hero’s Journey, a universal pattern of experience, by facing and conquering numerous challenges in one’s lives. This pattern is reflected everywhere, including books and movies. One of the abundance of movies that portrays the Hero’s Journey is the hit movie Avatar by James Cameron. The movie’s hero, Jake Sully , is invited into the Avatar program on moon Pandora. Quickly, his curiosity brews him trouble, and he must gain trust of the moon’s native people, the Na’vi to find a way to get their earth’s unobtainium, a mineral. However, confused, he soon sees humans in a different light, questions their actions, and must make an essential decision to which group he will support.

Thesis in Avatar Movie Review Essay

II. Thesis: The movie Avatar parallels and illustrates the Hero’s Journey on a futuristic, alien moon, initiating and placing hero, Jake Sully, through a winded course of challenges as he struggles internally with the conflict of whether to be loyal to the human race or the Na’vi.

The Separation in the Hero’s Journey: Avatar Movie

A. The Separation: Through the Call, Jake Sully, a former Marine, is sent to Pandora to replace his deceased brother, and is guided in the beginning of his journey by mentors and helpers as he enters the unknown world of Pandora.

1. The Call : Avatar Hero’s Journey

a. Jake Sully is Invited to replace twin brother in Pandora .

• 1) Has identical genes
• b. Incentive, bribed
• 1) Job pays lots of money
• 2) Offered surgery to restore his legs, parapelgic
• c. Job, go out into Na’vi territory to study natives
• 1) Faces unknown territory of Pandora

2. The Threshold : Avatar Hero’s Journey

• a. Enters Avatar body, go to Pandora forest (picture of Jake first time in Avatar body, in hospital-like room)
• 1) Leaves known world of Earth
• 2) Faces unknown
• 3) Pandora forest full of dangerous creatures (picture of creatures in forest)
• b. Is taught about the Na’vi
• 1) Humanoid blue creatures 
• 2) Blue symbolizes strength, freedom, loyalty (picture of Na’vi blue face, loyally grouping around Jake’s side)
• c. Grace, guide him, Threshold guardian, Helper 
• 1) Teaches him culture, Pandora life
• 2) Does not approve of spying, but needs him to learn about the Na’vi (picture of Grace teaching Jake about Pandora on computer)
• 3) Gives him advice and training to be stronger
• 4) Prepares him for journey
•                                  d. Neytiri, Helper 
• 1) Tells about culture
• 2) Helps strengthen his Avatar body
• 3) Teaches him Na’vi ways (picture of Neytiri teaching Jake how to use the bow)
• 4) Assists in battle against humans
• e. Colonel Miles Quaritch, Threshold Guardian
• 1) Prepares him, reminds him of his allegiance to humans
• 2) Gives him instructions to spy (picture of Quaritch discussing about plans with Jake)
• 3) Tells him to gain the Na’vi’s trust, learn their secrets
•                                     f. Mentors give him strength and motivation
• 1) Give him strength and hope
• 2) Backs him up, assists during challenges, prevents entering if not ready
• 3) Takes him into the trees of Pandora
• g. Divine helper, Ewya, Mentor 
• 1) Stops Neytiri from shooting him
• 2) Causes the Na’vi to trust him
• 3) Gives hope, backup during war
• i. Renews their strength

B. Initiation and Transformation: Avatar Hero’s Journey

Jake encounters many challenges as he is initiated into the Na’vi world, and while overcoming those adversities, he is characterized more and more as a hero undergoing a journey.

1. Challenges : Avatar Hero’s Journey

• a. First time in Pandora forest, near death escape
• b. Curious, courageous, reckless
• 1) Leads him to trouble, meets Neytiri
• 2) Is allowed to enter Na’vi territory, learns more
• c. Must gain Na’vi’s trust
• 1) Disliked for being human
• 2) Learn their customs, undergo harsh training, strengthen body
• 3) Tames/rides banshee, accepted
• d. Act as a spy for the humans
• 1) Giving them information about the Na’vi society
• 2) Informs them of the structure of Hometree (picture of them talking about their plans of destroying Hometree)
• 3) Reveals cunning skills, stealth improves as agent
• e. Changes: begins to love the Na’vi culture, confused whether support humans
• 1)  Values nature, culture of Na’vi, does not want to destroy Hometree
• 2) Makes decision to support Na’vi side
• 3) Face fear of betraying own race, faces the challenge and jumps off into the abyss

2. Abyss : Avatar Hero’s Journey

• a. Humans vs Na’vi war
• 1) Outcasted by Na’vi for being a spy
• 2) Low point = out-casted by both races
• 3) Greatest fear, which side to choose
• b. Goes against humans, must regain trust of friends/Na’vi
• 1) Tames the beast Toruk, legendary banshee
• 2) Toruk = symbol of strength and hope
• 3) Regains the trust of the Na’vi, due to conquer of Toruk (picture of Toruk and Jake riding down to the People) 
• 4) Becomes a leader, unites clans to fight together
• c. Allegory, relates to Native Americans forced off their land
• 1) Settlers invade Native territory
• 2) Humans against Na’vi, parallels settlers against natives
• e. Na’vi and the humans battle
• 1) Humans sending explosives to destroy the Tree of Souls 2) Fearless when fighting (picture of Jake riding  on Toruk, fighting human flying ships)
• 3) Does not hesitate to bravely charge into battle against his own race, shows courage
• 4) Na’vi being to lose, Eywa helps (picture of creatures attacking humans)
• f. Na’vi win the battle
• 1) Jake, still human, almost died, saved by Neytiri
• g. Great leader, heroic characteristics
•                                                  1) Unites other tribes, the People to fight, inspires hope, strength
•  2) Creates plan to defeat humans, leads Na’vi to victory
•     3.  The Transformation
• a. Supports the Na’vi instead of the humans
• b. Becomes one of the people, the Na’vi
• 1) Transformed into his Avatar body (picture of the ritual, Jake transferring soul to Avatar body)
•     4.  The Revelation
• a. Jake, thinking like a Na’vi
• 1) Respects flow of nature and Ewya
• 2) Realizes Na’vi deserve to be treated fairly and with respect
• 3) Values freedom and their customs
• b. Appreciate nature, theme
•              1) Realizes true beauty of the tree
•              2) The Na’vis’ lives, dependent on nature
• c. Realizes how destructive greed is, social commentary, theme
• 1) People, becoming corrupted from greed
• 2) Unobtainium, worth lost of money
• 3) Turns people into savages, do anything to get what want
• 4) Humans,  destroy Hometree, no care for dying Na’vi (picture of humans burning Hometree, Na’vi escaping and dying from fire)
• 5. The Atonement
• a. Makes a fresh start
• 1) Accepted into the Na’vi tribe, physically one of them
• 2) Accepts their customs and beliefs,
• 3) Dramatic change, distaste for humans, be one with nature
• b. Becomes a leader
• 1)  Proves capability with Toruk
• 2) Sign of peace, Toruk symbol flying away (picture of Toruk flying away)

C.  Return: Avatar Hero’s Journey

After Jake Sully’s initiation and transformation from successfully conquering the war against the humans, his Abyss, he returns, renews, and contributes to his society by bringing peace in his new homeland, Pandora. 

• 1. Renews Pandora community
• a. Drives humans back home to Earth (picture of lined up humans going home)
• b. Stays, starts new life with Na’vi and Neytiri
•               1) New leader, giving the People new strength
• 2) Leads, to reconstruct home
• 2. Contribution to society
• a. Creates peace among humans, clans, and homeland
• b. No more wars or devastation

Conclusion of Hero’s Journey in Avatar the Movie by James Cameron

IV. Conclusion :   Jake Sully embarks onto the Hero’s Journey when he is invited into the Avatar Program and is detached from the human world and into the land of Pandora, where he must earn the native people’s trust. Throughout his journey, with guidance from Grace, Neytiri, Ewya, and Colonel Quaritch, he learns to communicate with the native people and understand their customs but encounters a myriad of challenges along the way. Jake’s confidence, audaciousness, and leadership is revealed as he overcomes each adversity, including his greatest fear of betraying his own race by deciding to take sides with the Na’vi and their ideals of nature at his journey’s Abyss, the war against humans. His journey significantly changes him and causes him to become more respectful of nature and the Na’vi’s culture and return to society with the contribution of peace. By watching Avatar and its plot paralleling the Hero’s Journey, the audience can then better recognize the Journey’s stages and  essentially respect their lives’ experiences. They will also begin to appreciate these opportunities to grow and discover after understanding Avatar’s portrayal of the Hero’s Journey. Lastly, the audience will gain a deep appreciation of this wonderful movie’s insight about protecting our environment, embracing community, and new cultures and languages of our diverse world.

Did you enjoy Avatar the Movie, and our Essay Review? Leave your thoughts below! 😀

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Categories: Creative Writing , education , humanities , Literature

Tagged as: adventure , avatar , Avatar by James Cameron , college , director , education , essay , film , film analysis , hero , high school , Hollywood , humanities , James Cameron , journey , learn , Literature , movie , movie review , school , thesis , university

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8 replies »

What a hero! I love your article!! Avatar is among my favorite movies.

Like Liked by 2 people

Avatar’s a great movie! Loved it. I heard a sequel is coming soon too!

Yes!!! I can’t wait for the sequel! 😀

extremely well written and in-depth analysis of the hero’s journey in Avatar!

Like Liked by 1 person

Excellent! Is there a sequel for Avatar?

Avatar is an awesome movie! Excellent movie review by the way!

Having read this I thought it was rather informative. I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this short article together. I once again find myself personally spending a significant amount of time both reading and leaving comments. But so what, it was still worth it!

Thank you Donnie! Glad you enjoyed our informative article. 🙂 Looking forward to Avatar 2!

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by James Cameron

• Avatar Summary

In the near future, humanity is faced with a global energy crisis. Man has managed to exhaust Earth’s natural resources, and the RDA (Resources Development Administration) sees a solution to this catastrophe in the form of unobtanium, an energy-rich element that exists on the moon Pandora, a jungle planet orbiting a gas giant in the distant Alpha Centauri galaxy. Mining unobtanium is a difficult and costly endeavor, not only because of Pandora's distance from the Earth, but also because the planet itself is dangerous to humans: Pandora’s atmosphere is toxic to humans and the Na’vi, a blue-hued race of beings, already inhabit it and protect its environment vigilantly.

Human scientists have managed to create avatars, half-human, half-Na’vi hybrid clones that can freely move around and operate in Pandora’s poisonous atmosphere. Human operators have their consciousness “uploaded” into these surrogate bodies. A paraplegic marine named Jake Sully is given a second chance at life when he replaces his identical twin brother as an avatar operator. He is shipped to Pandora to serve as a bodyguard for Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar program, and xenobiologist Dr. Norm Spellman as they study the native flora and fauna of the planet. An ex-marine, Jake is not a natural fit for the job, but the military wing of the RDA hopes that by making nice with the scientists and integrating with Na'vi life, he can learn more about how to extract the unobtanium they so desire, either by encouraging the Na'vi to leave their "Hometree," or through force, if necessary.

A large alien animal attacks Jake while he is on duty protecting the two scientists, and he runs into the jungle to escape it. There, a female Na’vi named Neytiri rescues him and takes him to her tribe after witnessing an omen that seems to suggest that Jake is an asset to the tribe. Neytiri’s mother and spiritual leader, Mo’at, orders her to induct Jake into their clan. When Jake returns to headquarters and human life, Colonel Quaritch, Security Head for RDA, promises to give Jake back his ability to walk if he agrees to spy on the Na’vi and collect information about their customs and secrets.

Upon discovering this arrangement, Dr. Augustine, the head of the Avatar program moves her team to a remote station to better study the natives' customs and to keep Jake away from the manipulative colonel. Jake soon becomes supportive of the Na'vi's plight as he gains a better understanding of their ways, and he proves himself to be a worthy Na'vi warrior. He is eventually integrated into the tribe and Neytiri chooses him as a mate. With his alliances changed, Jake sabotages a bulldozer that was tasked with destroying a sacred site, an act that prompts the RDA to order the complete destruction of Hometree. Dr. Augustine argues that the destruction of Hometree would also affect all life on the planet, so Parker Selfridge, RDA Head Administrator, gives her and Jake one hour to plead their case with the Na’vi to evacuate their homes.

Back with the Na'vi, Jake acknowledges that he initially worked as a spy, which makes him a disgrace in the community. Colonel Quaritch has Jake, Dr. Augustine, and Norm unlinked from their avatars and thrown in a prison cell, but they are able to escape with the help of a sympathetic pilot named Trudy. During their escape, Dr. Augustine is fatally injured.

Wishing to win back favor with the Na'vi, Jake sets into motion a daring plan to connect his mind to a toruk, an immense dragon-like creature both revered and feared by the Navi, in order to redeem himself with the tribe. When he successfully binds with the toruk and becomes its rider, he wins the respect of the Na’vi once more. He manages to locate the survivors of the Hometree destruction at the Tree of Souls and begs Mo’at to heal Dr. Augustine. They attempt to “upload” her consciousness into her avatar body with the aid of the Tree of Souls, but her human body dies before the process is completed.

Jake, supported by the new tribal chieftain Tsu’tey, gathers and unites the remaining tribes to fight the RDA. Quaritch mounts a pre-emptive strike anticipating the retaliation. He targets the Tree of Souls, thinking that its destruction will dishearten the Na’vi. Despite having successfully rallied the surviving tribes, Jake is uncertain of their chances of victory and prays to Eywa, the patron goddess of the Na’vi.

The RDA’s superior technology and weaponry overwhelm the Na'vi, but the animals of Pandora join in the fight, and change the course of the battle. Neytiri takes this to mean that Eywa has heard Jake’s prayer and has responded by sending assistance.

Jake and Quaritch face off and Jake manages to destroy the bomber craft before it can incinerate the Tree of Souls. Quaritch escapes and severs the avatar link unit that houses Jake's human body, subjecting him to Pandoran atmospheric toxins. Neytiri arrives just in time, however, killing Quaritch and saving Jake. All humans, save for Jake and a select few, are commanded to leave Pandora and return to Earth. Jake's consciousness is then permanently transferred into his avatar.

Avatar Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Avatar is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Jake Sully is a paraplegic. Once a Marine, he enlists as a part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed.

Is there a soliloquy in this movie?

Do you mean the first Avatar or second? I don't recall a soliloquy-like speech in the first one.

Why did Neytiri tell Jake he was ready?

Chapter please/

Study Guide for Avatar

Avatar study guide contains a biography of James Cameron, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Avatar
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Avatar

Avatar essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Avatar by James Cameron.

• Interstellar: Visual Splendor Eclipsing Storytelling & The Assertion of Film Values

Wikipedia Entries for Avatar

• Introduction
• Themes and inspirations

Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / Movie Summary / The Avatar Movie Summary and Review

The Avatar Movie Summary and Review

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