Avatar Meets the Internet
I just had to repost this comment some guy posted at TrekBBS. If you haven’t yet seen Avatar, don’t read the rest of this until you do, or it’ll spoil the ending:
GotNoRice says:
I watched the movie and enjoyed it but did not really care much for the plot. I don’t like how easily the main characters just turned on their entire race and then toward the end of the movie Humans were getting killed left and right with little regard like they were no different than any other generic “bad guys”. I ended up sympathizing with the humans and wishing that the main character was going to get killed lolHonestly who cares about a bunch of random primitive aliens? If the main character had just stuck to the original plan and kept providing intelligence, a lot of human lives could have been saved. It sounds like they already made a lot of effort trying to educate the aliens in schools, etc but were snubbed.
The funny part is that they are assuming that their offensive toward the humans toward the end means they will leave and won’t come back. More likely the humans will be back but with bigger guns next time, possibly nukes.
I’d imagine the aliens life could have been enhanced quite a bit by earth technology if the aliens weren’t closed minded religious fundamentalists.
Interesting. Instead of heading back to Earth, Parker Selfridge decided to head to TrekBBS.
Anyway, I went in expecting great FX, a crap story and wooden dialogue, because I’d spent too much time on the Internet. But I’d forgotten that the Internet is a big, jaded hipster whose favorite hobby is complaining to whoever’ll listen that almost nothing is sophisticated enough for him.
What I found was an adult, sci fi version of Disney’s “Pocahontas” (or Dances with Wolves, or Fern Gully, or any number of films about an invader who grows a conscience when he discovers the natives aren’t “savages”) with a Pocahontas who’s every bit as badass as any male warrior. It has probably the strongest female character I’ve ever seen in sci fi. I loved the story, the dialogue, the acting, and the FX. I’ll be seeing it again. I hope you all go see it. It deserves every last one of its billion dollars.
Did ANYONE else but me notice the remarkable way the coloring was done? The color red did not show up until the first battle. I also loved the animation, Wouldn't it be nice if everyone who died really could live again if caught in time?
Thanks for this post, Mr. Bell! One of the more thoughtful reads on the movie I've read online. Still not sure if I'll go see it, but at least I'm more prepared now.
I would have said the strongest female character I've seen in science fiction was Dagny Taggart, but I have a warped sense of humor.
Avatar will win best picture as well as a host of other awards. Yes, the plot is sophomoric, yes, some of the acting is wooden, yes, some of the dialogue is worth a chuckle but on the whole, combined with the amazing 3D (so much much better than Coraline for instance), it is a worthier effort than "Return of the King" or "Crash" or "Slumdog Millionaire".
Yes, it is a "Dances With Wolves". I left that movie saying it would win and I left Avatar saying it would win. The $3 billion it will have grossed by the time the awards are given out won't hurt either.
I just saw Avatar tonight and loved it. It was nice to see the indigenous people win for once and send the arrogant invaders home. Wonderful effects, likable heroes/heroines (wasn't Sigourney Weaver a strong female in Alien too?) and a story that drew you in.
I can't believe that GotNoRice was serious?
I saw Ferngully way too many times in college (Robin Williams at his animated best) and have not thought about it in YEARS until I was 20 min into Avatar.
I believe that if you sat down and read the script you would be tempted to pull out your own eyeballs by the tentacle thingy in your ponytail… I got it… save nature… cutting down trees bad… save nature… mining bad… got it!!!
That said… the whole experience was amazing and super cool to see( I did see the 3-d version)
As for the plot… WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF… It's o.k. to change sides if you realize that the other side has more to offer. Why stay loyal to the "wrong" side (And you know that the humans are coming back to get their precious mineral in Avatar 2: The green battle)
I love it… and would see it again!
"I believe that if you sat down and read the script you would be tempted to pull out your own eyeballs by the tentacle thingy in your ponytail."
That's how I felt when I read the scripts for Little Miss Sunshine and The Big Lebowski, but those are two of my favorite movies. It's cloying if you view it as a message film instead of as a fish out of water story or a romance. The message was simple, but then so was the message of 1984 (Totalitarianism bad!).
I'm gonna see it again too.