James Cameron's Avatar
Dec. 25th, 2009 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caraigMmm. I liked it, I found it to not be as 'preachy' as some critics have made it out to be, and I didn't really find it to be 'white man's guilt' as some reviewers had called it. It was not a deep film. But to make a long monologue short... there were ways it could have been better, not from a technical or a writing standpoint but from conceptual points.
I can understand from a storytelling point of view why the main character needed to be human, but he didn't need to be male. In fact, if Sully was the titular 'Avatar' of the world-goddess/Nirvana then it would make more sense to have his 'Na'vi' body be female. There are some fascinating aspects of the Journey of the Hero in there... and with a female lead it could have become a fascinating Journey of the Heroine with some minor but significant re-writing
The love story between Sully and... argh, forgot her name... was also somewhat unsatisfying. It felt forced, like Cameron HAD to have it in there to make Sully's interest in the Na'vi more 'personal.' The thing is, he didn't NEED that, by the time the three months had passed he was already very close to and embracing the Na'vi way of life.
It was a little obvious at the last minute that Cameron re-wrote the military forces on Pandora as mercenaries/Private Military Contractors. The Colonel's active military status made that part complicated.
There are also some serious biological questions here. The Na'vi are bipedal and binocular.... but all the land-based wildlife was hexapedal, and quadrocular. The avians were quadrupedal, but were also quadrocular. In addition, both avian and land wildlife had 'nostrils' in their throats. The Na'vi couldn't have developed so human-like from them. So where did they come from? A lot of fascinating bioscience questions, and there are some interesting science theories that come into play to address them, such as Gaia theory and panspermia.
Finally, even though it wasn't as 'Captain America Complex' as it could have been, it was still there. As the titular Avatar, Sully would need to be a significant player, but I don't think they DE-emphasized his role in the war between the Na'vi and Humans enough.
In a way this was accomplished: Five others had ridden the Big Orange Murder-Machine-With-Wings, so him doing it was unusual but not something a Na'vi couldn't do. What he provided was insight into what the Human military forces could and would do in action. And in the end, really, *he* didn't do anything specifically that a Na'vi couldn't do. But the montage of the messages of war going out to the clans overemphasized HIS role.
Maybe I'm under-analyzing or over-analyzing just what his role was; I saw it as an advisor bringing information to an otherwise capable, mature, fierce people, but the editing and the dialogue overemphasized his role. Or maybe I'm reading his role differently than was shown and how Cameron intended.
Oh, and yes, Finally Part Two: No idea what happens five years from the end of the film when Earth sends off a fleet of Capital Star-class starships loaded for bear. No indication that RDA is probably going to spin this like an interstellar Mogadisu. And unfortunately no hint that there might be an understanding between Humans and Na'vi.
Ah, Finally Part Three! I found it extremely significant that Sully said 'There is no green where they came from, they killed their Mother."
All that being said... I liked the film, it was visually gorgeous, the starship was as awesome as I thought it would be, the mechanical designs rocked SO hard, the CGI was seamless, the motion work and body language for the Na'vi was amazing, and while the story was not deep, the conceptual choices just needed some minor -- but again significant -- changes to make it that much better. Even without those changes, however, it was a gorgeous film that I really enjoyed. =)
I can understand from a storytelling point of view why the main character needed to be human, but he didn't need to be male. In fact, if Sully was the titular 'Avatar' of the world-goddess/Nirvana then it would make more sense to have his 'Na'vi' body be female. There are some fascinating aspects of the Journey of the Hero in there... and with a female lead it could have become a fascinating Journey of the Heroine with some minor but significant re-writing
The love story between Sully and... argh, forgot her name... was also somewhat unsatisfying. It felt forced, like Cameron HAD to have it in there to make Sully's interest in the Na'vi more 'personal.' The thing is, he didn't NEED that, by the time the three months had passed he was already very close to and embracing the Na'vi way of life.
It was a little obvious at the last minute that Cameron re-wrote the military forces on Pandora as mercenaries/Private Military Contractors. The Colonel's active military status made that part complicated.
There are also some serious biological questions here. The Na'vi are bipedal and binocular.... but all the land-based wildlife was hexapedal, and quadrocular. The avians were quadrupedal, but were also quadrocular. In addition, both avian and land wildlife had 'nostrils' in their throats. The Na'vi couldn't have developed so human-like from them. So where did they come from? A lot of fascinating bioscience questions, and there are some interesting science theories that come into play to address them, such as Gaia theory and panspermia.
Finally, even though it wasn't as 'Captain America Complex' as it could have been, it was still there. As the titular Avatar, Sully would need to be a significant player, but I don't think they DE-emphasized his role in the war between the Na'vi and Humans enough.
In a way this was accomplished: Five others had ridden the Big Orange Murder-Machine-With-Wings, so him doing it was unusual but not something a Na'vi couldn't do. What he provided was insight into what the Human military forces could and would do in action. And in the end, really, *he* didn't do anything specifically that a Na'vi couldn't do. But the montage of the messages of war going out to the clans overemphasized HIS role.
Maybe I'm under-analyzing or over-analyzing just what his role was; I saw it as an advisor bringing information to an otherwise capable, mature, fierce people, but the editing and the dialogue overemphasized his role. Or maybe I'm reading his role differently than was shown and how Cameron intended.
Oh, and yes, Finally Part Two: No idea what happens five years from the end of the film when Earth sends off a fleet of Capital Star-class starships loaded for bear. No indication that RDA is probably going to spin this like an interstellar Mogadisu. And unfortunately no hint that there might be an understanding between Humans and Na'vi.
Ah, Finally Part Three! I found it extremely significant that Sully said 'There is no green where they came from, they killed their Mother."
All that being said... I liked the film, it was visually gorgeous, the starship was as awesome as I thought it would be, the mechanical designs rocked SO hard, the CGI was seamless, the motion work and body language for the Na'vi was amazing, and while the story was not deep, the conceptual choices just needed some minor -- but again significant -- changes to make it that much better. Even without those changes, however, it was a gorgeous film that I really enjoyed. =)
