An Eco-Spiritual Dilemma of a Materialistic Age

The new 3D sci-fi movie Avatar by James Cameron is not only a heavenly visual treat, created with cutting edge technology, but also an eco-spiritual epic that carries a very important green theme and portrays the struggle between technology and spirituality.

The plot is set in 2154 on the planet Pandora, where the non-spiritual but technologically advanced humans have discovered a rare mineral. The Navi, the planet’s blue bodied humanoid natives, who are spiritually mature and in tune with nature have no interest in trading the natural resource. The humans, who want to be politically correct, don’t want to destroy the inhabitants. And to find a way to get the mineral, the humans need to understand the Navi and therefore send in an Avatar (Jake) , a human being in a cloned Navi body, who can live with the Navi, study them and report back to the humans and help them to figure out what to do about the mineral. Jake enters the Navi world and taps into the connectedness with the spiritual realm. As he becomes more and more attuned, and he goes back and forth between the two worlds, one where he is the earthling and the other where he is the Avatar, he soon begins to wonder which of the two worlds is the real one. The technology driven non-spiritual one? Or the one in which beings live in harmony between the material and the spiritual.

The movie offers a creative mix between The Matrix, Dances with Wolves and a good dose of the latest computer animation technology. But movie references aside, the film reveals great messages and material to ponder and reflect upon, hinting at a clash of worldviews, and the techno-crazed generation that is subconsciously and unavoidably yearning for the spiritual.

Avatar starrs Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. The movie was released in traditional 2D and 3D formats, as well as an IMAX 3D version.