Dances with Wolves… in Space.

I admit to going into the theatre with very low expectations, fully expecting to be disappointed. I enjoy special effects as much as the next person, but that alone cannot sustain my interest. But, once I got used to those silly 3D glasses, Cameron proved me wrong and I walked away completely blown away by his latest cinematic achievement. I can’t ever recall seeing a movie that so effortlessly transported me to another world and kept me mesmerized for the better part of 2.5 hours.

Despite the 3D effects, there’s no denying that the storyline is, at best, two-dimensional and pretty simplistic. Cameron isn’t breaking any new ground with his predictable story of star-crossed lovers from different worlds (Pocahontas and John Smith anyone?) and what amounts to basically “Dances with Wolves… in Space.”

But what I was unprepared for and what completely caught me by surprise is that the visuals are so real and so stunning that they become the tool with which he masterfully conveys to us what really matters. I had to go all the way to Pandora to be reminded of my own stunning planet that I call home. Cameron himself has admitted to “Avatar” being “an old-fashioned jungle adventure with an environmental conscience”, which he hoped would make us think a little bit about the way we interact with nature and our fellow man.

By sheer coincidence I spent the entire weekend outdoors – first cross-country skiing near Montreal and the next day in New York State hiking/snowshoeing Giant Mountain. The snow glistened like diamonds in the early morning sun and my friends and I reveled in the winter beauty of the Adirondacks. Crisp air, tiny animal tracks in the snow, the Zen-like whisperings of the forest allowing us to escape the constant cacophony of our urban lives; pure magic.

As I watched Jake Scully and Neytiri run on screen through Pandora’s forest at night, the ground beneath them lighting up in brilliant hues of fluorescent blues and pinks, I was mesmerized by this non-existent planet’s beauty. I later found out that Pandora’s Floating Mountains were inspired by images of China’s Huang Shan mountains. Cameron has undoubtedly taken his cues from our beloved –and endangered- earth.

While Avatar may be a not-so-subtle criticism of the colonisation of the Americas and the destruction of its native population up to the bulldozing of the Amazon rainforests, it’s so much more than that. It’s also a reminder that this earth that we take for granted is right here – above us and below. But we’re often so busy leaving the biggest trail of carbon footsteps to even notice how we’re affecting its –and ultimately, our- survival. Well-known environmentalist John Muir once said: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Like Pandora’s Tree of Souls, we’re all interconnected and all dependent on one another, whether we want to believe it or not.