Charles Q. Choi in his article entitled The Real Science of ‘Avatar’ in SPACE.com states that “the movie is set on the fictional Pandora, one of the many moons of a fictional Saturn-sized gas giant, Polyphemus, which is located in the real Alpha Centauri system, which at nearly 4.4 light-years away is the closest star system to Earth. While astronomers have yet to discover moons beyond our solar system, they expect to. And the Alpha Centauri system could be a place worth looking. The larger of the two real, sunlike stars that make up this alien system, Alpha Centauri A, is the fictional Pandora’s sun. In reality, scientists might soon be able to detect habitable moons with the James Webb Space Telescope and also study their atmospheres for key life-related gases such as oxygen, and water vapor.”

In reference to the characters of the avatars in the movie or those artificial bodies that are wirelessly operated by brain thoughts, Choi says, “scientists in real life are making advance after advance when it comes to brain-computer interfaces to control robot arms and type and speak through machines.”

There is some degree of scientific plausibility in Avatar. Directed by James Cameron who has helmed other sci-fi epics such as “Aliens, “The Abyss” and the first two “Terminator” films, Avatar is science fiction that aims to get the science right (Cameron was ‘a physics major in college and has an engineer brother who has designed underwater robots.’).

While some of the elements in the movie could be scientifically real (in the far-off future), the movie’s plot is trite. It is also replete with clichés. The film, however, is an epic experience, packaged as a visual wonder that showcases the latest of Hollywood sorcery: digital modeling, motion capture, IMAX, and 3-D (what can be more cutting-edge than that?).

But one should not expect less than state-of-the-art computer-generated image wizardry. The film, after all, reportedly cost $300 million to make. That’s $1.85 million per minute of movie. The production is as superlative as those 10-footer blue creatures.

Though it has a rather feeble call to action, Avatar has a clear and powerful environmental message against fuel-hungry humans, illegal mining, the subjugation of indigenous people, excessive consumption, the doom of industrialized societies, as well as the planetary life force found in the ecosystem.

Coinciding with the current hot buttons on Afghanistan and Copenhagen, Avatar may also be joining the fray in sending some political arguments– in 3-D. The movie has a roster of political statements. The political messages in broad strokes include infiltration as prelude to possible invasion (what can stop desperate humans?), terror vs. terror, imperialism, corporate warlordism, private mercenary armies, and weapons of mass
annihilation. Peter Z. Scheer in his truthdig film review Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Awes the Skeptics describes it as “Think American Indian with a dash of Taliban.”

But since you get more than your fair share of these issues from the evening news, just go see Avatar for its stunning visuals. It is a movie, after all. It is commercial Hollywood at its best (there’s a pun there, somewhere) that boasts of unrivaled technical sophistication. It is both a dazzling delight and a spectacular thrill (and these two occurrences are not necessarily the same).

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox