Avatar
Yes, I know this is a bit late to be a proper review, but I’ve only just found time to see it. So this is not a review, but three observations. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT.
Firstly, it is visually arresting. I saw it in 3D, but I suspect that it would be an equally gorgeous visual experience in 2D. I find 3D a bit gimmicky usually, but it worked well for Avatar. Cameron’s world of Pandora is indeed exquisitely depicted. It is worth seeing the movie simply for the scenery. Which is just as well since there’s not a lot else.
Which brings me to my second observation. I found it very derivative. The battle machines of the marines looked like they had been taken out of mothballs from the Matrix Reloaded set. The dog creatures were from Resident Evil and the largest flying creature was a coloured version of the monsters from Pitch Black. The N’avi all apparently lived in the big tree in Ferngully and there was one particular moment in the final battle scenes where I was convinced that Ewoks were going to jump out from behind trees and start throwing rocks. Much of Pandora’s geography bore a suspicious resemblance to those terrific Roger Dean LP covers from several of the earlier Yes albums. Lots of floating rocks and long drops. Very Close to the Edge stuff (sorry, only Yes fans will recognise this reference but here are some examples of Roger Dean’s artwork).
And the plot? Pocahontas in outer space. I expected the N’avi princess, Neytiri, to break into “Colours of the Wind” at any moment. Oh, and a touch of Ferngully again at one point when giant tractors start tearing down trees and the hero, Jake, takes them on single handedly.
Okay, I know I’m cynical but there seriously wasn’t a lot to engage one besides the visual spectacle. Danyl at the Dim Post found the movie subversive because marines were the bad guys. I simply thought it was just the usual Hollywood plot - Evil “civilised” people beat up on harmless natives until one evil person develops a conscience and joins natives and saves the day by getting medieval with his former buddies. Any questions? No, of course not.
Actually there was one interesting thing in the movie. I was intrigued by how the inevitable Gaia-theme that developed was explained away in extremely rational terms by the character played by Sigourney Weaver. The planet’s trees were depicted as brain cells with multiple networked connections between all the trees, making a giant supercomputer. “Souls” were stored in the soul tree by some sort of organic fibre optics storing brain patterns. I am always fascinated by attempts to depict spiritual beliefs as having roots explained in hard science. The occult, almost subliminal, message, of course, is that spiritual beliefs are simply superstition and that one day, when we have more elaborate technology, we will be able to explain it away rationally. The Stupid/Superstitious/Religious verses Smart/Superior/Rational meme is one of Hollywood’s favorites. So much so that it pervades almost everything that comes out of America. Yes, even this is thoroughly unoriginal.
If you haven’t already seen the movie, go and see it. Just don’t expect anything that makes you think. Even for a second.
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Jan 14 10 8:07 am
I thought the humans should have just taken off and nuked the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Wrong aliens, Brian..
Jan 14 10 10:12 am
Firstly, I am pretty sure they weren’t marines. They were ex-marines; so more like Blackwater than the USMC. Typical of the Dimpost dimwits to just assume that all armed americans are marines and therefore bad. Makes you wonder if all those marines going to Haiti are just an invasion spearhead.
And because they aren’t GI military they don’t have nukes. Notice their bomb was an IED.
But this review sums up what I felt about the movie. I went for the effects (in 3D) not the storyline. I attention didn’t start to wane until 2 hours had gone by and then they started the final battle scene that got in some more effects and lifted my attention. Yes, I did flinch when they fired the gas canisters and one seemed to be coming out of the screen. But that struck me as the only time they had tried that old 3D ploy.
Jan 14 10 10:39 am
Adam has never seen Titanic and never will, despite being a fan of Kate Winslet.
He has no intention of seeing Avatar, technology and gimmicks do not a film make.
Adam despairs at the fact that a film such as Avatar with it’s simplistic Green is Good, US/capitalism is bad can be be bought into by so many and thus enrich Cameron and the evil capitalist studios and cinema owners, when many great filsm go un-remarked or ignored.
Ah well, nobody ever lost money by assuming the general populace was dumb and getting dumber.
.-= adamsmith1922´s last blog ..Enough is enough =-.
Jan 14 10 11:11 am
I saw it last week in 2D, I thought the effects would have been more impressive in 3D, even a world apart!
Rather than the ‘tree good, capitalism bad’ theme, to me it was simply a re-enactment of the conquest of the West, the Pandoran’s were simply off-world native Americans who turned the tables on the invading colonists, so yes, that plot line has been waay overdone in other movies.
The biggest irritant for me though (besides “unobtanium”) was those floating mountains, how the hell is that supposed to work? I could rationalise most of the rest of Pandora, though Pandora is supposedly a moon orbiting a gas giant planet of one of the Alpha Centauri suns, and it’s almost certain no such gas giant exists.
My recollection is that they were Marines, not a private army, and I’d assume they were forced to build their own IED, and adapt what was primarily a transport shuttle to carry it because the authorities on Earth hadn’t intended for them to be equipped for attacking, as opposed to defensive, warfare.
Jan 14 10 11:45 am
In the movie, the soldiers are all ex-marines in the employ of the mining company.
Andrew W:
Like most fantasy movies, it is vital you don’t start thinking about physics or biology while you are watching! Though the floating mountains may be a physical impossibility, the direct neurological link between species as radically dissimilar as the N’avi and their trees is far more improbable. As for settling up a near-instantaneous link by jumping on the back of a creature and “plugging in”, you would have to have millions of neurological connections made in an instant in order to get the kind of control you are shown in the movie.
Still, it is no more far-fetched than the matrix, I suppose.
Jan 15 10 12:52 am
Fantastic! I haven’t seen it yet but still have my yes albums (vinyl) which I drag out occasionally. I love those topographic oceans. I’ll look forward to it for at least that!
Jan 15 10 1:21 am
Tim:
Look out for the giant stone arcs – pure Dean.