Avatar - My Experience !

I watched Avatar yesterday and boy O boy, I am yet to recover from the hangover ! I would have loved the movie even if I had watched it in 2D instead of 3D. I am not going to ramble here about the story because I know that most of you would have watched it. I am just gonna list things I loved about the movie
- I loved the fact that our protagonist continues to enjoy his life despite his disability.
- I loved the moment when he can feel his legs again in the body of the Navi man and shows us how thrilled he feels about it.
- We see a clear contrast of 3 personalities – the scientist Dr Grace who wants to understand the people and Pandora. It is her quest of knowledge that motivates her to stay. We see the mission director who is there for the valuable mineral “unobtanium” that would fetch him money back on earth. We see the Colonel Miles who wants to destroy the Navi people to avenge the scars on his face ! We see three clear contrasting human emotions, all well etched out and well portrayed.
- The scene when Neytiri, our “heroine” shoots an animal for food, releases its pain by killing quickly and then thanking the animal its flesh and life is sufficient to tell us about how the Navis treat the nature around them.
- The concept of a mental/emotional connection between the Navi people and the animals and birds that they ride on is clichéd. Reminded me of the several dragon movies in which the dragon rider has to have a connection with the dragon. Nonetheless the visual graphics made up for this and gave us a visual treat.
- Continuing with the visual effects – the Navi people , the hanging mountains , the machines used by the humans , Pandora’s animals and scenery are all breathtaking and would blow the viewers away.
- The fact that the protagonist seeks “divine” intervention and help to succeed and their eventual success thanks to help and guidance from their mother goddess “Eywa” makes us think about our belief in God.

I don’t enjoy movies that shout out a message to me. The directors of Avatar don’t want to teach us anything. The might want us to think. There is a scene when the Colonel shouts out to his soldiers “Lets defeat Terror” when referring to fighing the Navi people. Everyone would surely be reminded of a certain “War on Terrorism” when they hear that ! Like in any other movie, there are always good people even amongst the bad guys. Here we have a security force pilot who is pained when she sees the destruction of the Navis home tree and eventually abandons her duty to help our protagonist. This makes us think that we can do a good deed even if we live amongst criminals.
I loved the movie and would certainly watch it again to relive the “avatar experience”. Yup. It’s an experience , not a mere movie.
Movies can certainly be classified as being in 2 eras- “Before Avatar” and “After Avatar”