Avatar by James Cameron As the Concept of Capitalism

Avatar, James Cameron’s 3D epic, is the world’s highest-grossing movie of all time. Everything about it is extravagant: computer generated images to vivid graphics. Many people have seen it, but have they ever thought of what the film is truly about? Avatar offers us a certain image of the society in which we live.

The movie’s story is simple. On a moon named Pandora, a powerful corporation called the Resource Development Administration (RDA) has discovered a rare and precious mineral called unobtainium that costs roughly ten million dollars a pound. Private investors want the unobtainium to gain profit, so they decide to use the RDA. The only problem, is the largest deposit of this is under the sacred home tree inhabited by the Na’vi, blue-skinned, three meters high, and have no intention of being kicked out without fighting back. Thus, the RDA is accompanied by money-hungry soldiers. The company has a research team, allowing them to create Na’vi bodies - “avatars” which is a hybrid of a human and Na’vi. One of these avatars is Jake Sully, an ex-marine whose body is stuck in a wheelchair. He falls in love with Neytiri, the Na’vi princess and joins her people to fight against the invaders, which is the RDA and soldiers.

This film is symbolic to the idea of capitalism. Private investors invest money into an idea or resource hoping to gain future profits. There are three major rules investors must look out to gain a large sum of money: inexpensive resources, inexpensive labor, and a large market audience. In James Cameron’s Avatar, the Na’vi people were victims of capitalistic ideologies because corporations were taking the unobtainium, which is located under the home tree of the Na’vi and used money-hungry soldiers to do so.

To begin with, the film makes a connection to inexpensive resources by organizations stealing the unobtainium that is situated under the tree of the Na’vi. James Cameron emphasizes that the private institutions want the unobtainium to gain profit. In this matter, they utilize the RDA. The motion picture takes place in 2154, when Earth is dead and there are no assets left. This is the reason why they go to Pandora to discover unobtainium and pitch it for the cheapest cost to get the most profit. First, shareholders must invest capital into a resource or company. In this movie, the resource would be the RDA. The RDA is required to yield a profit. The unobtainium is represented as a cheap resource in the process of capitalism. Hence, the RDA has to pay back the shareholders for profit. Additionally, the film makes an association with cheap labor by using the soldiers as an example. James Cameron claims that the soldiers are escorted by the RDA. These naive troopers are only doing this for cash, careless of Pandora. An example is Jake Sully, who wants his legs to be fixed. Soldiers in their twenties and thirties are willing to collect the unobtainium and wiping out the Na’vi, the indigenous peoples of Pandora at the same time. The Na’vi does not live in the jungle, but rather with the jungle and honors nature and the resources it provides for them. The RDA has to get unobtainium by force, and by doing that, they ethnically cleanse the Na’vi. This results in genocide. The Na’vi culture, history, and tradition are destroyed. Both sides are at war not fighting the people, but a capitalistic idea that the private investors impacted. The private shareholders are the reason of the war. In the end, the RDA did not get their unobtainium and both sides fought because of pride and ego. In brief, the core message of James Cameron’s Avatar is the concept of capitalism because corporations are taking Pandora’s resources and using young money-hungry soldiers to do such. I thought the film was extravagant. I appreciate the time and effort the graphic designers put on designing Pandora, especially the animals and plants.

Overall, the plot of the movie was average. I would not watch it again because it is not the type of movie I prefer. I believe the director James Cameron did have other intentions with the film. It has a wide variety of political and social themes, such as imperialism and civilization. The humans colonize and invade the indigenous people of the Pandora. Not only the film was entertaining, but it shows a glimpse of capitalism could result in.