Avatar

The Movie Avatar is a movie full of explosions of new colorful world, as well as sound effects, and technology that will make one great movie experience. Jake was a marine who lost his legs and after the death of his brother was offered the chance of going into one of the most hostile environments of the planet Pandora. The setting begins with a narration of his character and how he got where he is now, which was headed to the planet of Pandora. This movie provides a native like musical score, sounds that depict fantasy animals, machinery as well as thoughts, and color like never before.

As the movie starts with self narration of the character, it is often brought back throughout the film as the main character, Jake Sulley, thinks to himself. It is later revealed in the film that this narration is really Jake giving his video diaries for observation, however the visual effect is not always there so you are often left with just the sound of his voice along with his thoughts and feelings of what is going on. Often times there will be transition sounds often depicted with fast pace drumming. This sound is often heard when the character is thinking to himself in silence about something another character has said. An example of one of these moments would be when he is asked to take over the place of his brother in the research. Other sounds include that of the forest. There is so much background noise of clicking, whistling, brushing, and such that you feel as if you are really in a forest/jungle of types except these sounds are not of human/earthly type nature. The sounds of the animals are like no animal on earth, but are very believable. These sounds would be considered mechanical sounds.
Often times while viewing a scene in the Pandora jungle you will hear the musical score of some type of native flute playing. The music in the movie often reflects the mood. Like when they are talking about his dead brother softer music plays. When they are at war against the humans, intense and loud music plays in the background. The book The Art of Film Watching would describe this as building dramatic tension. When Jake is running in the Pandora Jungle from the animals when he first goes in there is very fast pace, loud intense music. As he runs the music begins to match his steps and actions. This would be considered mickey mousing, as described in the book as “the rhythm of the music precisely matches the natural rhythms of the objects moving on the screen”. (pg. 294) When Jake is safe from the animals the music ceases which allows a type of sigh of relief. This is described in the book to be called a dead track.

The color of the movie is absolute candy. When you are at the “human” camp on Pandora you think the planet to be just like that of earth; however, during dark the fluorescent colors of Pandora shine through in light pinks, lavenders, bright blues and light greens. An example of these colors is during the scene when the natives all gather around the tree in their ritual to Eywa the tree to try and save Grace. The roots of the tree and everything around it is a bright fluorescent color. Also the scene Natiri and Jake go to the tree and are in love. The flight colors and beautifulness along with the music add a mood of a magical love and romance. All of these colors give you a magical fantasy feeling of a wonderful place. However Pandora at night is not always a safe place and during these scenes you see the dark, eeriness of Pandora like when Jake is running from the dog like creatures. During the day it seems like Pandora is mostly like the colors of earth, however the greens are not as deep and green but brighter and the colors, designs, and shapes are eccentric, bold, and bright. The books states that often times color will be altered to signal a different world as worded “color also provides a transition between two separate worlds.” (pg. 233) that is exactly what you feel when you go from seeing the site of where the “humans” have set up camp to the wildlife of Pandora. The movie also showcases montage and discussed in the book. It does this when Jake makes the link into his avatar body. The screen shows an array of colors, similar to traveling down a tunnel that changes colors.

In my opinion I found this movie to be fascinating, stimulating, and genius. I really enjoyed the connection they talked about throughout the movie between all living things on Pandora. The energy that flowed between everything represented life, and truly made me think. One irony I found was between this energy that was discussed throughout and the beads on the Avatar bodies. Being a future heath professional I have studied somewhat the nature of the India chakras. I found it interesting that the avatar bodies had these light up beads of light on their body that were especially noticed during the night time. These lines of dots subsequently outline the chakra, and energy flow believed by the India, and natural healers. The script I felt was very thought out, the technology enhanced it very well and overall I felt it had a very strong powerful theme and message. I was so enthralled and captured by this movie I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.


Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2008). The Art of watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.