Jim Cameron's AVATAR
by: Bert Ehrmann

I just got through reading the scriptment that appeared on the net for the upcoming proposed movie AVATAR. The scriptment follows Josh Sully, a wheelchair bound war veteran living in the far flung future who is given the opportunity to walk again through the use of AVATAR technology. This technology allows you to control other bodies though the use of a mental link. The only problem with this "miracle technology" is that Josh has to travel 5 light years to Alpha Centauri to use it, and he has to be inside an aliens body.

   When Josh arrives on the planet, he soon discovers that this planet is a lush as

Earth once was. The forests aren't burned to the ground and most of the animal species aren't extinct. Unfortunately for the planet, and it's inhabitants, an Earth corporation want's to strip mine it for the rare and valuable minerals contained within the planet. The corporation wants to use the natives as a cheep slave labor force to do the mining. They needs Josh, in alien form, to befriend the natives and convince them that helping the corporation to strip mine the planet is an all around good idea.

   Most of the scriptment is Josh wandering around this incredibly dangerous planet, where every species is a venomous, dangerous "thing" that wants to eat Josh. Throughout this "danger" session, Josh begins to befriend the natives. Soon, Josh discovers that he prefers to live with the natives in this harsh environment rather than with the humans on their dead one. When the corporation decides to force the natives to become miners by whatever means necessary, Josh leads the fight to eliminate this technologically superior threat from his adopted planet.

   While reading the scriptment, I got the feeling that Jim Cameron was trying to remake the war between the U.S. Government and the Indians around the turn of the century, 1900. This is extremely apparent in that the natives use of bows and arrows in their everyday lives. It's really standard stuff, there's nothing really special here: even though the human's have everything from gunships firing missiles to Powersuits capable of crushing a Buick, the less savvy natives are able to destroy the enemy via their "natural" technology (Think the Ewoks Vs . the At-At's in Return of the Jedi).

   In fact, while reading the script, I got the sense of several movie plots going on here. Think DANCES WITH WOLVES (the man going "native") mix in a bit of STARSHIP TROOPERS (the Powersuits and military hardware) and then add a dash of the MATRIX. Walah, you've got AVATAR. Bon Appetite.

Comment about this review