Avatar: A Tale of Two Soldiers

[Jedi Master Spock]

(I'm also going to post a more technical thread in Other analysis, since - judging by SB.com - there's some interest in the technical aspects of the Avatarverse.)

I've been reading carefully what others have had to say. I have seen Avatar for myself as well, and I'll fall on the gushing side in my review. I was impressed. The movie is stunningly and vibrantly alive and the SFX - which is to say most of the movie, since the action takes place largely in CG territory - can be called gorgeous. They certainly paid enough to have first rate special effects.

The Navi are beautiful noble savages, both literally and metaphorically. Literally, they all have elongated, trim, model-esque bodies and move like dancers. Metaphorically, they are in tune with their planet and living a "perfect" life - and their religion is real. Their god is real. Their afterlife is real. It is the most beautiful portrait of the archetype I have seen in some time, because on Pandora, these things aren't just some hokey religion.

The creatures of Pandora are impressive and terrible. Pandora is both a convincing deathworld and a convincing gardenworld at the same time.

The plot rotates around two former Marines - one the hero, one the villain. I'd call them the good ex-Marine and the bad ex-Marine, but in a fandom where some people persist in claiming Palpatine and the Empire were "good," I'll settle for saying one aligns himself with scientists and the other aligns himself with businessmen. And I like scientists, so...

Both of them have perfectly acceptable excuses for retirement - Colonel Quaritch, corporate aligned, looks old enough to have "naturally" retired, while Jake Sully, science aligned, looks like he's out on disability after having been paralyzed from the waist down. It's curable in this future age, but the VA hospitals won't cover something that expensive.

Other than being ex-Marines - and serious badasses, as they demonstrate in the fights - the two have little in common.

Sully is conflicted and has difficulty finding his true allegiance. His twin brother is dead and he's out of the USMC, which leaves him empty - no family, no flag. Where does his allegiance belong? Is it with the mercenaries - mostly former marines? Is it with the scientists? To his paymasters? Eventually, he decides it is with the native Navi themselves.

Quaritch knows where his allegiance is: The almighty dollar. Mercenary life is fine with him. He is in that sense a very petty villain - but also a competent one, for the most part. You don't get many villains this badass.

The play between Sully's boss scientist and Quaritch's boss executive is a sideshow compared to the drama that plays out between their servants. Even though Sully and Quaritch are nominally subordinates, they are the true drivers of the action. The bosses can't even seem to communicate successfully with each other; the most the scientist can do is avoid the executive.

It's a love story, a war story, and a story of personal growth and transformation. It's also a moralistic tale about short-sighted corporate greed and environmental destruction; the planet Pandora itself fights back with a vengeance against its exploiters. It's an escapist fantasy playing on common psychology. And I think it might just be the best movie released in 2009.