Avatar
(2009, 162 minutes, Rated PG-13)

Carrot and stick — but there’s no carrot actually!
Set more than a hundred and fifty years in the future, a human company called RDA is conducting an exploration in planet Pandora for a very high-valued substance, the Unobtonium that costs $20M per kilo. The RDA has its own group of security headed by Colonel Quaritch, and a research team of scientists headed by Dr. Grace Augustine.

Pandora is inhabited by creatures called the Na’vi, blue-colored humanoids living in communities, which in many ways are similar to that of humans on Earth. But one very significant difference is the Na’vi peoples’ high regard for nature, believing in a network of energy that flows between all living things.

Eywa, the great deity of the Na’vi people, is well revered as exhibited in their respect for every creature of the forest. Thanks to science, Dr. Grace was able to fuse human DNA with that of the Na’vi in the bodies of avatars. Her team, including herself, drives the bodies of these avatars to explore Pandora as native inhabitants do.

Jake Sully, a former US Marine disabled from a battle in Venezuela, took over his identical twin’s job when he was killed before his flight to Pandora to join Dr. Grace’s team. Jake took the job with the promise of good pay and his real legs back in good shape.

With no training, Jake was deployed to work using his avatar to explore the forest. Jake’s curiosity and ignorance almost cost him his life after a chase with very aggressive creatures. That’s when he met Neytiri, an heiress of the Omaticaya clan of Na’vi. Neytiri was about to exterminate the alien

when the Seed of the Sacred Tree landed on her arrow, a sign that made her opt to spare Jake’s life. The “sign” became Jake’s ticket for entry into the community of the natives to learn their ways.

This golden ticket served its purpose both for Col. Quaritch and Dr. Grace, and ultimately to the company. The paramilitary needs on-the-ground intelligence work, while science needs samples from organisms out of reach for outsiders. Just the same, they’re all under the same mission: finding a “diplomatic” way to drive the Omaticayas out of their Home Tree and get them to evacuate, as emphasized by Parker Selfridge, the overall boss on-site. Underneath the Home Tree lays a very rich unobtonium deposit.

Jake learned well, providing information to the Colonel while enabling Dr. Grace to once again enter the community. The more Jake immerses himself into the life of the natives, the clearer the revelation is: “There’s nothing we have that they’d want.” In their scheme of carrot and stick, there’s no carrot actually.

What you feed the mind drives the heart [and the body follows]
We have a common notion that all actions are motive-driven. Some people may have skills to hide ulterior motives while others act innocently or in good faith, but are nevertheless influenced by either culture or some set of norms, standards or rules. To start off, Dr. Grace is engrossed in discovering from her science anything that they can offer the Na’vi and bring them to the negotiating table.

Parker Selfridge, the corporate boss, is highly focused on the interest of the company. That is profit. His depiction of the natives is the typical psyche of the ontological other. He sees the Na’vi as blue monkeys, savages whose lives are nasty, brutish and short. For him, the Omiticayas living in the Home Tree are rubbishes that should be swept away so he can get into the gold mine beneath. Showing no value for life, Parker is willing to use all sticks if diplomacy is not possible.

One would wonder for a while why Col. Quaritch was so fired up, very anxious to pull the trigger and roll the bombs. When he was talking to Jake about his task, the Colonel mentioned that he’s been to Nigeria thrice without a scratch. On his first day in Pandora, he got three great cuts on his head; he could have turned home but opted to stay. And those stitches remind him every day of what’s out there. [But was that enough to pump the adrenalin and annihilate an entire race?!] The powerful [and familiar] lines delivered by the Colonel to his death squad bring to mind the widely and wildly proclaimed war on terror:

“Everyone on this base is fighting for survival, and that’s a fact. There’s an aboriginal horde out there, massing for an attack. These hostiles grow in numbers… Our only security lies in pre-emptive attack. We will fight terror with terror.
…and when we destroy [the Tree of Souls], we will blast craters in their racial memory so deep that they won’t come within a thousand clicks of this place ever again.”

Most of the security group are former members of the state army, just as the protagonist Jake Sully. They have become mercenaries for the Company. But not all of them are ruthless, stone-hearted killers or mere blind followers. Many played as obedient employees given the [mis]education and followed the command as they ought to. This reminds us that “the chain is only as good as its weakest link.” Trudy Chacon proved to be a pivotal weak link and played an important role in breaking the chain of worthless violence. The turn of heart is an affirmation that her loyalty to the chain of command ends when her respect for life prevails.

Faced with the ultimate dilemma, Jake Sully embodied the many conflicts of class struggle, self interest, and finding liberty. For a while, who has the gold ruled over Jake, following every order of Selfridge and Quaritch. But after a long time of being impaired, he was once again able to walk through his avatar. A certain sense of completeness made him see in a different light, feel his surroundings with more energy and vigor. The ways of the Na’vi revealed to him a new appreciation for life, and made him see the evils caused by human greed.

Greed and arrogance gave humans a false sense of control over life and the resources to sustain it.
Profit-driven invaders of Pandora thought that the superiority of their machines could not be matched. That it would be impossible for the Na’vi people to prevent them from getting what they want. Jake said, “When people sit on the shit that you want, they’re your enemy,” when he was dismissed from the mission by the Colonel. Parker Selfridge even said that there are other trees wherein the tribe can move, without understanding that all organisms are connected with each other – a network of life like the synapses to the neurons but with more connections than the human brain.

This kind of plunder to nature and mankind is happening at a rate much faster than we can restore our depleted resources, and at a vast global expanse. We’re now living on a planet threatened by environmental and climate crisis. Jake lamented to Neytiri, “They have killed their mother and they’re going to do the same here.” Neytiri told Jake that “Our great mother [Eywa] does not take sides… she protects only the balance of life.” This may be a reminder to us that man is just one part of nature, not detached from it and not the ruler of it.

The Na’vi peoples’ victory was won at a high cost. Many lives were lost, just as all the wars we’ve seen in the history of man. It is said that history is written by the victors, and this is the undertone of many critiques. Jake is the white man, renegade agent of the devil turned super-Na’vi that lead the battle to victory. This is among the reason why the story of Avatar is said to be a remake of Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves and Tom Cruise’s Last Samurai, and that the battle scenes remind us of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. But let us just collectively remember and pay respect to all brave men and women, regardless of race and origin, who lost their life in battles against their colonizers and the neo-colonial plunderers of present day.

James Sully is an agent sent to Pandora to do intelligence work, learn from the natives and later dominate them, conflicted by his commitment to deliver the mission and his sense of oneness with the people of Na’vi. In the end, he chose to defend the people’s right to life. But amidst the characters, the flow of the story, not to mention the superb technology of visual effects, the critical eye should see beyond and realize that this movie should not feed a fantasy of an enlightened-oppressor-turned-savior to come and release people from their bonds.

Earth is now turning its wrath on its inhabitants, and its impacts are worse among the marginalized than those among who have exploited. Yet, the imperialist plunderers are still not satisfied; wars have been launched in the guise of anti-terrorism. But the smoke has cleared and the intent is already revealed. Greed for profit massacred millions of lives. We must realize that it is from the oppressed that true leaders would rise. And victory will be won, not by a single man, but through collective struggle to end oppression to its last shadow.

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Lilian Laurezo is a Program Assistant with IBON International.