Avatar, James Cameron’s first movie since 1997’s $1.8 billion-grossing
“Titanic,” has become the second highest grossing film ever, according to
The Hollywood Reporter — giving the director the two top spots on the list.
The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional alien world
populated by an alien species called the Na’vi. Pandora is rich in a
valuable mineral called unobtanium. The film essentially revolves around a
paraplegic former marine named Jake Sully who controls a human-Na’vi hybrid
called an avatar. Sully works for the RDA corporation, which is on the
planet engaged in mining the valuable mineral reserves. RDA created the
avatar program to attempt to improve relations with the natives.
MOVIE SPOILER ALERT
As the RDA corporation continues its mining operation, Sully is placed in
the predicament of having to choose between alerting the Na’vi of the
corporation’s plans to displace them of their home, which happens to lie
over the largest unobtanium reserves on the planet, or staying faithful to
RDA -as part of his contract.
The question Sully faces is a classical dilemma of choosing between what
feels “right,” or following orders to simply fulfill previous agreements.
This is akin to the moral and legal worlds discussed in class. Sully may
decide to make the right moral decision but he will suffer the legal
consequences of it. The destruction of the Na’vi’s home, a rare large tree
connected to a network of trees on the planet, is also dependent on the
choice Sully makes.
Ultimately, Avatar being a mainstream-blockbuster American movie, the ending
is a happy one. Sully decides to save the Na’vi from destruction and the
audience walks out of the movie with a satisfying taste of revenge against
the evil RDA corporation, which has shamelessly killed innocent Na’vi
throughout the film in the pursuit of corporate profits. The choice made
feels like the correct decision. Sully saved innocent lives at the expense
of corporate profits.
Cameron is very careful not to paint Sully as a human traitor, which he
certainly is, but rather a hero of the Na’vi. It is difficult to hide this
face of Sully though. One of the core principles taught to marines
throughout their basic training is engulfed by two words — Semper Fi. Any
marine will tell you that to go against the Marine Corps, against any type
of direct order even, is a cardinal sin in the military world. Sully not
only went against direct orders by his commanding officer but he attacked
his own marines and the organization that hired him under the pretense that
he would fight for them.
One could make the argument that the pursuit of corporate profits can simply
never outweigh the value of life (human or Na’vi). This is true but couldn’t
the harvesting of this ultra-rare mineral also have saved lives due to the
possible uses that it may have in the human world back home? Taken in this
context it is possible that Sully actually ended up destroying more human
lives than the Na’vi lives that he saved.
Avatar is a great movie and I would highly recommend seeing it (especially
in 3D). I hope that when you walk out of the movie theater though, you don’t
fall prey to the mob consensus that Sully was in the right for having
betrayed his own people. Cameron wants us to think that the pursuit of
corporate profits is a power hungry monster that needs to be kept on a tight
leash but in reality the movie experience is really masking Sully for what
he really is, a complex character with great strengths and deep flaws.
