Avatar Essay -- Film Review

Myths are supernatural or religious tales with cultural and historical backgrounds, often containing moral lessons that are valued by the culture they originated from. The movie Avatar is a modern myth, its popularity stemming from the inspiration it draws from familiar and widespread themes found in classical myths. Avatar reuses and refreshes these themes for current audiences. Ancient stories such as those of Icarus, Prometheus, Gilgamesh, and Hercules, as well as contemporary issues, represent many of the same themes that are revealed in Avatar. Avatar is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine that is sent to the world Pandora to take the place of his dead-brother's job as a Na’vi avatar pilot. The humans on Pandora use these avatars to communicate with the Na’vi and try to convince them to leave the Hometree, which is the pillar of life for the Na’vi; the humans want this so they can mine the element â€Å"unobtanium† the majority of which is located under Hometree. Jake initially pilots the avatar to achieve the military objectives that he is given, but over the course of the movie becomes initiated into the Na’vi culture through Neytiri and begins to disregard his orders. When the military commander finds out of Jake’s treason he gives the order to destroy Hometree and Jake is forced to reveal to the Na'vi his true intentions for piloting the avatar. This results in Jake being cast out of both the Na’vi and human societies. The humans then destroy the Hometree and man y of the Na’vi, Jake realizes that it is up to him to save the rest of the Na’vi and leads the resistance. To regain the trust of the Na’vi, Jake tames a Toruk, the most feared predator on Pandora. Through Jake’s leadership the Na’vi push back the humans and... ...is often seen as an invasion since many cities and innocent lives have been destroyed through this process. The outcome of this war is still being determined but based on the patterns of politics portrayed classical myths and Avatar it is clear that both sides will be greatly affected by the conflict. Avatar has been mocked as being highly derivative of other films and stories, but that merely shows how deep these same themes run in human psyche. Even in ancient times, the legends and tales contained similar issues and their heroes went through similar trials, showing just how important these things are to us as a race. The anxiety of doing too much and becoming too powerful is as widespread today as it was thousands of years ago. No matter the consequences we may face, humans will always try to reach just a little higher, and try to gain just a little more power.