Movie review for gardeners: Avatar

I'm not a big movie person. I don't even have a functioning television, and my trips to movie theaters are few and far between. But I went to see Avatar. Not only saw it, but went back to the theater and saw it AGAIN – something I've never done before in my life.

You've heard about Avatar – super big-budget film by James Cameron of Titanic fame (this is how much of a not-a-movie person I am: I've never seen Titanic) about blue cat people. You may have heard that the visuals are a technological breakthrough, or that it is a heavy-handed commentary on race -- but what you probably haven't heard is that this is a perfect movie for gardeners.

Don't believe me? Well, let's just say that the first time you meet one of the main characters, you are told that “she likes plants more than people.” Sound familiar? And once the movie arrives on the planet Pandora, you are immersed in an incredibly lovely, lush, digitally generated jungle packed with plants you will wish you could grow. Sadly, the chances of finding anything biolumenescent in your local garden center are pretty slim, but still: some of the scenes are startlingly beautiful, and have got my brain churning with garden design ideas.
Sure, the movie is a sci-fi action thriller with lots of big explosions and exciting fight scenes – but even those are built around things a gardener can understand: They are battles to save beautiful trees. Lovely trees around which the religions and emotional lives of the alien Na'vi are built.

So go see Avatar. Ignore the sci-fi action, explosions, and racial subtexts: Go see it for the plants!