Avatar - More Great Themes and Messages

Breaking almost every box office record every week, you could say Avatar is slowly becoming a phenomenon. The director behind the last highest grossing film ever made, Titanic, James Cameron has outdone himself once again. But, all of the money is the world can't explain the true power of this sci-fi adventure film.

Like he did with Titanic, Cameron conveys a boat-load of messages in subtle and not-so-subtle ways with Avatar. Before all of his fame and fortune, Cameron had previously wrote and directed The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Aliens. So, you could say that James Cameron has given us some of the best, coolest and most exciting science-fiction films ever made. And, surely, Avatar is no exception.

Since The Terminator, one of Cameron's biggest themes in his films is man vs. technology. He demonstrated the horrors of A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) taking over the world in his two Terminator films. He showed us the dangers of having blind faith in technology in Titanic. In Aliens, James Cameron scared audiences by demonstrating the failure of future technology against the deadliest creatures in the universe. Finally, with Avatar, Cameron almost reaches the peak of this theme by showing how mankind could possibly lose themselves and their values completely in technology.

Avatar has some really cool and really dangerous technology. You've got the Samsom and Scorpion helicopters, two double-rotor vehicles that have two very different purposes. The Samsom helicopter is a personel carrier. The Scorpion is an attack chopper that is armed to the teeth, so to speak. The monster of a human being known as Colonel Miles Quaritch, played brilliantly by Stephen Lang flies high over the jungles of Pandora in his warship, the Dragon. This giant, flying aircraft carrier has four rotors and enough weapons to flatten an island. Finally, there is the AMP suit, a machine that moves just like the person in the driver's seat, literally becoming a robotic extension of their body.

With all of these toys, it's not hard to imagine how humans of the future feel about technology. You might say, technology is all that we are in 2154. In Avatar, on Pandora, it's clear that humanity is cold and distant and merciless when approaching something they don't understand. Is our reason for being so cruel to the indigenous Na'vi out of fear like it might have been many years ago? Or, has the human race detached itself so much from right or wrong in the future that we have no qualms about commiting Nazi-like atrocities on other cultures? Could this be a power trip brought on by the complete convenience and dependency of technology?

These are some of the questions Avatar brings up in the subtle and not-so-subtle ways I mentioned before. It is a theme that we are currently dealing with in our daily lives. As cell phones and other technologies progress, could we inevitably look like Colonel Quaritch and his soulless band of mercenaries? Yes, it's an uncomfortable thought. It's an idea that you might fight with every impulse in your body. You'll say, "Wait a minute, how could the use of my cell phone take my soul and make me evil?" Well, what Avatar is basically asking you to do is put away that technology for a moment, and open your eyes to the world we actually live in. And, to appreciate the beauty of our mother Earth before we've destroyed it with technology and expansion.

Another great theme in Avatar is rebirth and reincarnation. If you look up the word, "avatar" on Google, you'll find several meanings. One meaning of the term that sticks out in my mind due to the film, Avatar is the Sanskrit term, "Avatara". It refers to the descent of the Hindu god, Vishna from heaven to earth or the incarnation of a God in a human body.

In the Wikipedia description of the word, you'll notice paintings and drawings of Indian-like people with blue copies of themselves. This goes back to the clone of Jake Sully in Avatar. The indigenous people on Pandora, the Na'vi are blue, 10-feet tall and cat-like. They couldn't be more different than Jake and every other human in appearance and physique. They have four fingers, instead of five. They have big, glowing, lion eyes. Their skin appears smooth and slick. None of this matters as much as the incarnation of souls.

Jake's clone or avatar was grown from the DNA of the Na'vi and the DNA of Jake's dead twin brother, Tom. Because Jake shares similar genetics as his brother, he can "drive" or should I say, become one with Tom's avatar. When Jake opens his eyes in his avatar, it looks a little bit like him. But, what really stands out is the appearance of Jake's soul inside this giant, alien body. The eyes are the pathway to the soul as they say. This idealology couldn't be better expressed in Avatar.

The term, avatara is derived from the term, "cross over." This could be another way to describe the meaning and purpose of an avatar in the film. But, these terms mostly apply to the Hindu deity of Vishnu. So, is Avatar, the film questioning whether we are all Gods inhabiting these primitive vessels? According to the Na'vi belief, we're simply borrowing energy. When we die, we're giving that energy back to the earth. Also, when we die on Pandora, our souls are basically becoming one with the Na'vi deity, Eywa (A-o-wa).

Avatar touches on a lot of issues, from the destruction of the rainforest to the misuse of military like Blackwater. It deals with the idea that corporations are becoming more powerful than countries. When businesses can declare war on an indigenous race of people, something is definitely wrong. Then, if you look at how we've been treating our mother Earth, you'll understand why Avatar is so powerful.

This evil mining corporating in Avatar, RDA is trying to get a hold of a mineral called, "Unobtainium." They plow over these unique and beautiful trees in order to mine for this ore. According to the Na'vi belief system, these are the "Tree of Voices," allowing everyone with antennas in their ponytails to link up with their ancestors. Sounds incredible, right? But, this is science-fiction. When they destroy these trees, they break the hearts of many Na'vi people, including the leading lady, Neytiri.

How does Avatar choose to deal with these issues? The film makes Jake Sully, the leading man as played by Sam Worthington a paraplegic. Visually, the sight of Jake rolling around in an old wheelchair is the equivalent of seeing ourselves, sitting on our asses today, watching the news or reading the current news on the net or in the paper while having breakfast. It's basically saying that Jake is no different than you or me. If the government asked you to do something, and they convinced you it was for the greater good, even though that action was essentially wrong, what would you do? Well, Jake, like some people in the world just goes along with the orders given to him. He knows something awful might happen, but he doesn't think twice about it. So, obviously, Jake Sully is not the greatest hero in film history, but he is more real than most heroes in the last decade.

So, essentially, Avatar is asking people to wake up, open their eyes to the problems that are actually going on in this world and stand up for what they believe in.

Another theme in most Cameron films is choice. In his two Terminator films, Cameron essentially gives his characters the opportunity or lack of to save the future of the human race or not. "There's no fate but what we make for ourselves," as one character in Terminator 2 says so perfectly. In Titanic, Jack chooses to die so that Rose can live. In Aliens, Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley is given the option of choosing whether or not to relive a nightmare. Each of these characters' choices are kind of rewarded in the end.

Jake Sully doesn't feel like he has a choice. All of a sudden, the weight of Pandora and the fate of the Na'vi people are resting on his shoulders. He still can't decide for himself. Not until a traumatic, personal tragedy forces him to open his eyes. Then, Jake organizes a worldwide war against the evil, tyrannical corporation.

From a psychology point of view, Avatar may be exactly what we need right now.

I recently talked to my dad, an aspiring psychologist about people, and their attitudes toward life and choices. We talked about what I called, "Tunnel vision."

We talked about the possibiity that everyone is raised with tunnel vision. A child can't do this or that or else, they're gonna get hurt. We can't see what's outside of this tunnel. We can barely see what's in front of it.

As we get older, the world starts to destroy this tunnel that our parents created for our protection. Life isn't perfect and it isn't safe. We have to re-build the tunnel ourselves. We find logic in other things, besides what our parents taught us to help build a brand new and safe tunnel in which to live.

Some people turn to religion. Some people use science as a religion. It's all what I call "comfort zones." These theories of life help create the materials necessary to produce a strong tunnel.

Sometimes, we are so scared of the world outside of that tunnel, we make them as narrow as possible. That doesn't change the fact that the materials used to make the tunnel could still be breakable.

Anyway, what Cameron was able to show with Avatar is that on Pandora, people don't need tunnel vision. If say... our tunnel was broken completely, we'd all be afraid of falling. The black pit under our tunnel is death say. So, what Cameron suggests with Avatar is that Jake Sully doesn't need tunnel vision. He can get on his ikran and fly freely without narrow minded thinking of any kind, hence... audiences growing love for the film and its visuals.

Quaritch is a perfect example of narrow tunnel vision. Look at all of the obvious tunnel references.

I'm not suggesting Cameron went so deep with Avatar as to express theories of psychology. But, for Titanic, Cameron did research the psychology of 17 year old girls. Maybe he is more clever than some people give him credit for. I'm just giving you an example of why I think there's more art and more intelligence in Avatar than meets the eye.

The representation of motherhood in Avatar goes a long way with the themes of rebirth and re-incarnation. Grace Augustine and Colonel Quaritch could be seen as Jake's mother and father. But, then, by the end, you might say, Jake's "mate," Neytiri and the Colonel are also fighting for his soul.

That brings me to one of the sweetest, most obvious themes in Avatar. The term, "I see you" is thrown around like a greeting by the Na'vi people. They use it to express, "I see into you." What this means exactly is left up to the viewer to figure out. But, when Jake and Neytiri meet, she basically sees who he is as opposed to what he is or what he looks like. She says, "You have a strong heart - no fear" as if she were looking into his soul.

The scene that best describes the meaning of "I see you" in Avatar is one of the last scenes with Jake and Neytiri. She finally meets Jake in his human form. Against her 9 foot tall frame, Jake looks a lot like a child in her arms. Not only that, but Jake appears as white as a ghost next to her neon blue skin. So, Avatar is trying to express a love of humanity, no matter what the size or the skin color of than human being might be.

There are a lot of great themes and messages in Avatar that aren't so close to the surface if people are just willing to look deeper. And, these themes and messages are exactly why I have said and will continue to say that Avatar is the most entertaining and most important film of the 2000s.