It was almost two years ago that I first heard about Avatar, James Cameron’s in production 3D creation that was supposed to take the world by storm upon its release, and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since.
Finally it was released on the 18th of December last year (happens to be my birthday), but unfortunately due to a series of unexpected events, it took me forever to actually watch it. Today just a few hours ago I finally made it, determined to see it on the big screen, after being pushed by Oprah’s encouraging words about the movie, (she was psyched over it!), and walked in on the last day of its showing here in Cyprus.
It started and I felt impressed immediately, it was probably the anticipation that fueled me with excitement, and gave me a tickling feeling in the stomach, it was finally on it had started.
The 3D hits us, and we are introduced to our main character Jake Sully, an ex marine who is asked to fill his deceased brother’s shoes on a mission, in Pandora. It’s an alien planet, where creatures called Avatars live, and we get to meet them for the very first time (they are Cameron’s imagination), and get introduced to them through human eyes.
At first the message is sent that these creatures are not our friends, and our main aim is to take their place, the scientists, business men and army men all have different agendas and stand on different sides as to how they should proceed in order to get what they need from the planet.
As the movie moves and unveils we realize how we the human beings are the monsters in the story. Jake’s mission is to become an Avatar, a body created by humans and looks identical to the bodies of the inhabitants of the planets. His job is to start mingling among them learning their habits and gaining their trust in order to convince them to leave their home and peacefully make way for us.

Through him we discover a beautiful sometimes scary but always magical world, due to the imagination of James Cameron, where every single creature is not something we have ever seen before nor could our minds ever conceive them, everything is beyond words.
Slowly we get to meet the people, the Avatars. We get to meet them through the leading character of the Neytiri, who becomes a teacher and a companion to Jake.
James Cameron creates a beauty of nature, though more magical it reminds us of the way our world was intended to be, and we see the physical connections that lie behind every single plant, and creature, it really goes beyond words.
It reignites our faith in things long lost, like someone watching over us, and souls that can become our angels and watchers, and real human connections. ‘I see you’ when said in Na’vi, the language of the Avatars, means seeing through someone, seeing who they truly are.
It makes us wonder if maybe these true solid connections might just exist here, but we choose to ignore them.
The people of Pandora live in a very basic form, hunters who are split into tree climbing clans, with the most basic of survival needs. Still Jake finds a home in them much stronger than the one in the real world, and feels disoriented over his real identity.
I don’t want to give away all the details (even though I’d love to write about them), and I don’t want to give away the ending ( I promise there will never be any spoilers in my articles) I just have to tell everyone that this is a movie they MUST watch. If you missed it buy the DVD as soon as it’s available.
It’s magical and realistic at the same time, but more than anything it is humane in all the meaning of the word, and carries a message stronger than any other drama could possibly pass on to us.
When we look at humans through the eyes of outsiders it’s the only way we can see that we have become the vicious predators, and no longer the prey.

The acting was phenomenal, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver all embody the avatar’s expressive tendencies beautifully. All the actors display the Avatar’s love, passion, fear and sadness amazingly.
Towards the end I couldn’t help but sob, as we watch Pandora suffer great loss.
One might say the movie has a somewhat typical flow of events but the amazing story telling great visuals, and an outstanding plot you ignore anything that could be typical and it instantly becomes atypical, and unique and new.
Again I want to tell everyone that Avatar is not just a movie, it’s an experience that each and every one of you MUST have.
James Cameron tried to redefine what ‘I see you’ means and using his definition of the phrase I tell him ‘we see you’ James.