Immerse Yourself in the World of Avatar

Years ago, a movie came out on the big screen which was about a robot that comes from the future to avoid a  nuclear war. I remember being excited about the movie, primarily because it had  an Austrian immigrant with bulging muscles. Years later while watching the movie on TV,  realization dawned upon me that the movie is timeless. Even after 20 years, the effects do  not look campy and Indian movies still have another 10 years to go before achieving  technical excellence shown in the Terminator series.

Avatar is another movie in the same league that many will term as a ‘game changer’. A movie  that comes along once every decade and changes the perception people have about what cinema  can achieve. Avatar is a movie that we will be seeing 20 years hence and nodding in  agreement that moviemaking jumped a few notches after this movie.

On the face of it, Avatar is the eternally simple story about good Vs evil and the victory of right over wrong. Avatar is the story of a underdog finding his true calling, defeating the bad guy, saving the world and getting the dame. But then, it is not about the story. Avatar the movie, has one objective, to take you on a tour of a world  so stunning that it would literally blow your socks off.

Avatar is based in Pandora, a dream world which looks more like pre-historic earth. The  place is full of creatures that resemble T-Rex, Pterodactyls and other dinosaur lookalikes. Pandora is also the source of a precious metal called Unobtanium which obviously is very very expensive. The only road block between  man and unlimited supply of riches are the Na’vi- blue skinned natives of the planet Pandora. Ex-Marine Jake Scully has been chosen to infiltrate the Na’vis and gain the trust of the tribe from the inside. The humans plan to do this using the Avatar program, that essentially is a robot that is made by mixing the human and the Na’vi genes. The movie then goes into overdrive as we learn the ways of the Na’vi and we see Jake Scully transform from a Ex-marine into one of them.

Like I said before, it’s not about what the story is but how it is presented. Right from the  word go, we are asked to embark upon a journey in the wonderful world of Pandora. James Cameron has used this technology to provide depth to  the wide screen and added another dimension to the way we feel and consume the environment. Most of the times it’s whats in the background that catches your attention; one twig of a tree becoming fluorescent, flower-like creatures falling all around, etc. Pandora is, ladies and  gentlemen, magical. The technicians behind the movie have painstakingly taken each and every frame in the movie and perfected it. James Cameron has taken the cinema canvas and made it larger, much larger than it has ever been. Pathbreaking or not, game changing or not, this is definitely entertaining.

My only regret was the poor uni-dimensional characters and surprisingly weak story line. 15  years in the making, I hoped for a better, stronger tale to tell. The characters conveniently change their behavior and character building is atrociously neglected. No  matter how good a story teller you are, you need to have a good story to tell, right?

Nevertheless, the movie keeps you engaged. More than wondering about what is going to happen next, you find yourself wondering what other fantastic visuals are you going to witness. The visuals and the technicalities are far too over powering and more than overshadow the week points of the movie.

Pathbreaking VFX. Don’t miss it

Contributed by Rajesh Bysani