Avatar Non-Spoiler Summary in 25 Words Or Less

[camrogers]

"Only a White Guy can save us now! Teach our ignorant dirt-worshipping arses the ways of taking it to the limit! Save us, White Guy!"



3D was good though.

Did you know a team of scientists spent 10 years working out the physics for the female lead's boobs? One eighth of their lives. Take childhood and old age out of the equation and that's probably 20% of their actual lives.

If you've seen Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas or Fern Tree Gully you've kinda sorta seen this.

Alternatively, if they 'reimagine' the Smurfs with all the gravitas of Lord of the Rings, it'll probably be like this.

It's worth seeing for what it is. It's by the numbers, and James Cameron does by-the-numbers with greater deftness than most, but Jesus Christ... we as a race aren't entitled to tell stories about ourselves like this. Not yet. We don't deserve it.

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Avatar: Aliens in Ferntree Gully.

(OTOH, the whole white guilt for colonialism beat-up is hold. It's about the mysterious insider who arrives to point out the freaking obvious. Also: Cameron needs to do Aliens again. Or Battletech).

[bell-man.livejournal.com]

It was, indeed, the 'St Crispins Day' moment that had me cringing most.

"They're comin' here to whup our asses! So you know what I say? I say we saddle up and whup THEIR asses!"

[cue alien cheering etc]

[cue BELL_MAN *headdesk* as he remembers that they're doing this all for something called 'unobtanium']

[cue undignified squawk as BELL_MAN realises that there is no desk in the cinema, and momentum carries him under his own seat]

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nightflower_/]

Hey, you left out Apocalypse Now: "I love the smell of freshly-oiled robot destroyers in the morning" :pp

[fengshuiguy.livejournal.com]

My biggest gripe, given that you've already addressed the rehash of plots we've seen before: Pandora is billed as a goddamned crucible for the marines: Sergeant Hardass or whatever the CO's name was tells us that the jungle is death, and we see evidence in his face that there's a serious threat there.

The first time the hero goes out into the forest, they display all manner of guerrilla cunning, but at the crucial juncture that skill goes out the window, and as you've said, they need Magic Whitey to remind them how to fight. Oh, and that's a standup battle by the way, charging headlong at the enemy, because of course that makes sense.

I was really disappointed by that bait and switch, because having the Na'vi killing human marines to survive before the big fight would have made it more difficult for the hero to sympathise, rather than them being magical wonderful fuzzy wuzzies.

[stabarinde.livejournal.com]

Don't forget Dune. Or The Mission.

I don't think it's about how wonderful humanity is - I think it's a film about how crap humanity is in general, and how as individuals we shouldn't let that stand. I found it to have very little to do with the future, and a lot to do with the past and present - like most good sci-fi, it's allegorical for us, not some speculative descendants a century from now.

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Look. We´re all sick of badly rendered CGI boobs. But 10 years? That´s just....such a waste of time.

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

The 3D gave me a headache, along with most of our party.

The "forced focus" meant, in some scenes, your eyes were roaming the scene looking for something in-focus to look at. Ouch.
There was also a perceptable difference in the overall 3D effect between the real and generated scenes, damaging suspension of disbelief.

The characters were so 2D that they gave me a headache too.

It was a tolerable film. I give it big marks for NOT being yet anoher re-hash of a pre- existing "franshise". Sadly, the message is pedestrian and was not well executed. I was bored. Frequently.

I'm also so sick of seeing "primitive" cultures also represented as "dumb fuck natives". They got us where we are - we are them. A little fucking respect for their cognitive abilities would not go astray.
Having them stand in a massive crowd, in the open, shooting arrows at obviously armoured targets (after having earlier established pre-existence of armoured native wildlife) was insulting to MY intelligence, let alone theirs.

Also, no real evidence that the Na'vi are in any way "very hard to kill".

"Aliens" is still his best work, IMHO.