Avatar and the Environment, Movie Review Example

The movie Avatar was first conceptualized with current real life environmental issues, per Avatar Director, James Cameron.  (Sacks, 1)  One of the main ideas in the movie that relates to environmental issues occurs when the main character, Jake Sully, disguises himself as one of the native people in the world Pandora, where the movie takes place.  As he becomes familiar with the culture, he becomes to understand and respect not only the native people, but the forest and the species residing in it.  This corresponds with today’s environmental issues because the environment is continuously exploited without care; however, the more people who are educated about the environment, the better response in protecting the environment.   In the movie, a few of the main characters begin to understand how valuable the environment is in Pandora and therefore, begin to fight against destroying it.

In addition, the movie compares to fossil fuel resource depletion in our environment.  In the movie the focus is obtaining a mineral called Unobtainium and the military is willing to do anything to extract the mineral from Pandora.  The need for this valuable mineral is more important than the destruction of the environment and all species living in it.  We can therefore also correlate this to our current environmental situation with tropical rain forests.  The cutting of the rainforests for lumbar has detrimental effects on the entire world.  Habitat destruction not only kills living organisms that inhabit those areas, it affects photosynthesis and the production of oxygen, which living things need to survive.  Again, the movie illustrates how important it is to understand the environment and respect it.  The native people in the movie are shown to respect Mother Nature as the provider for what they have, which is an important message to current environmental issues in today’s society.

Works Cited

Sacks, E.  James Cameron uses Earth Day release of ‘Avatar’ DVD to promote environmental crusade.  Daily News.  http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/james-cameron-earth-day-release-avatar-dvd-promote-environmental-crusade-article-1.165964