Avatar: a dash of Tarzan and a pinch of anime!

This is a review of James Cameron's 2009 science fiction film 'Avatar'.

The Tarzan theme in Avatar has not been really talked about much. Let's keep it real; the Na'vi are Africans and Jake Sully is the White savior. What got me is that he 1st learns how to ride the Banshee and in doing so becomes the best Banshee Rider. Next, he tames the 'Last Shadow,' the biggest of all winged predators and becomes Toruk Makto. That thing hadn't been ridden for thousands of years and this dude just got there and in a month goes from learning to ride a little Banshee to mastering the biggest and baddest bird of prey. Then,  he becomes a 'mated pair' with Netyri. What about Tsu Tey? He gets kicked completely to the curb! Finally, Jake 'Sooly' leads all of the clans against the White invaders and succeeds in forcing them off the planet. I'm not saying that this is the only message in this movie but it is, as they say, the proverbial 'elephant in the room.' Overall, though, Avatar is a solid piece of entertainment and for what it set out to do, did so better than any of its peers. Effects-wise, Avatar did go 'beyond the beyond' as Cameron often boasts. But this Tarzan theme in the movie somehow got lost in all of the 3D hype. 

Another thing I want to point out about Avatar are the elements it borrowed from Japanese animation. Yes, that's right, this film borrowed heavily from anime, you just have to know which ones. Back in the mid 90's, there was an anime series called 'Visions of Escaflowne' about a planet called Gaea that had the same 'floating mountains' that are in Avatar. The exo-suits in Avatar also look exactly like the 'labors' in the anime Patlabor, exactly the same! The Na'vi which are piloted by humans are the same, in theory, as the organic life-forms called Evas in 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' that are also piloted or driven by humans. In pointing out these similarities, I don't want to give the impression that Avatar is completely derivative, but I think that the animes that informed it should be recognized.