More Thoughts on Avatar: To Sum It Up

Hi Everyone,

Well, in case you were wondering, I did finish watching Avatar. So I will sum up, in full, what I thought of it. Again, don't automatically accept my judgements of it; watch it and make your own. After all, watching it is an amazing experience. Also, I will distinguish between the aesthetics of it, how it was made, and the content, what I thought of its subject matter. So how did the rest of the movie strike me?

The rest of Avatar did not do much to change the view of it I laid out a few weeks ago. In the second half of the movie, the mining company and its military security force begin moving in. It turns out the Na'vis' holy sanctuary rests on a huge deposit of unobtanium, the valuable material that the company is prospecting for. The force begins to launch an assault on the site, and many Na'vi are lost in the skirmish.

Then comes decision time for Jake. The Na'vis feel betrayed by him, since he was working for the people who visited this disaster on their land. So Jake, who has fallen in love with the female who took him in to the tribe, decides to stay with them and fight the miners. By this point, the miners have thrown him under the bus anyway, along with his companions in the avatar experiment.

I said before I expected there would be a hollywood-type ending. I was not disappointed by that. I will say this for the ending, though; I was surprised how well Cameron was able to make a formulaic style of ending engaging and watchable. For the type of conclusion so typical of big blockbuster films like Avatar, Cameron somehow managed to make it work. So the movie was definitely engaging.

So here's what I liked and didn't like about Avatar. First, like I said, the visual effects were unbelievable. Just seeing the movie would be amazing to anybody's eye. The movie was engaging on so many levels. It never became dull or went on and on, though there was some preaching about a network of life, but that was small.

That brings me to my next point. It was wonderful to see a movie like that getting the message out there. However, I said before that the message seemed to come second to the visual splendor, which was considerable, and the action. There is a practically endless amount of movies dedicated to the supremacy of the culture of dominance, the importance of suspicion, and the virtue of warfare. It was nice to see some counterbalance to that.

Now, what did I not like about Avatar? Well, it fell back on the same well-worn Hollywood themes and devices so common in these movies. It relied on a climactic battle royale scene in which there is a clearly defined good guy and bad guy. The only difference here is that the actors have been switched to different sides than usual. What would have made it truly captivating was if they had moved away from that theme in some way. I don't know how someone would do such a thing, but then again, I'm not a screenwriter in Hollywood.

Anyway, to wrap up the review of Avatar, I thought it was good, but in my view, it had some flaws that dragged it down. Still, I enjoyed the film immensely, and I would recommend it to anyone. Anyway, I apologize for the lateness of this post. I have spent the last few days working on my Aunt's farm, and I have been unable to get on the internet for the last few days. I am now going to be back on my regular weekly post cycle. See ya soon!

This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.

Thoughts on Avatar: Close, But Still a Swing and a Miss

Hi Everyone,

Well, today I will talk about movies again. This time, Avatar is the subject. Avatar, you may remember, was released last December with much pomp and fanfare. Much was made of its visual appeal. The film cost $250 million to make, and took four years to make (planning and development began as early as 1994). When it was released, it broke several records at the box office and was a gigantic commercial success.

I didn't necessarily want to see it in theaters, since anything which is so widely hyped tends to draw my skepticism. However, I have been eager to see it for quite some time. I heard that it promoted the sanctity of native cultures, the importance of a connection to the natural environment, and the transcendant connection of all forms of life. I also enjoy movies that involve travel to distant planets. So the prospect of a sci-fi space movie that expressed a "new age-y" message of harmony seemed like it would be right up my alley.

I got to start watching it yesterday night, friday night, on netflix. The movie is 2 hours and 42 minutes long, so my family and I watched half of it last night, and will watch the other half tonight. So here I will talk about my impression so far.

The film follows Jake Sully, a marine who is hired by a private security force working for a large mining company. The company has hired him to protect a plant they operate on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri system, much like Earth. Jake lacks the knowledge most scientists on Pandora, but possesses an iron will to overcome his troubles moving. The film implies that the Earth has been ridden with wars in the time between now and the film's future setting; since it is set in the year 2154.

Anyway, Jake is put in an avatar, the body of a na'vi, a creature who lives on Pandora. Jake controls the body of his avatar with his mind somehow. Anyway, he wanders deep into the Pandoran forest, tangles with various forms of wildlife, and meets a female of the na'vi tribe. She resents him at first, but takes him to her village. They decide, again, with considerable reluctance, to take Jake in. This is about where we left off, when Jake is learning the ways of the na'vi. In one scene on the floating mountains, the Hallelujah Mountains, they are, quite literally, showing Jake the ropes.

So far, my feelings about the movie are about what I thought they would be. I like it overall, but I do have some issues with it. First off, I find this much more believeable and identifiable than

Star Wars was. Again, this one touched on concerns much more important to me. This energy industry embodies the current corporate model of the profit above all. As the head of the industry says "The one thing the bosses hate more than bad press is a bad bottom line." I think it is a good thing that this is being brought up in a movie with as much critical and commercial success as Avatar.

That leads to my next point. It seemed that this had at least as much to do with special effects as its perceived message. There were several scenes where the na'vi talked about the connections to all life forms and the world of nature itself. The way this was presented, though, is often second behind the visual graphics and effects, which are amazing. Knowing that this is also James Cameron's creation, who also did Terminator and Titanic, it isn't a surprise that the visual appeal would be a top priority for him. However, I feel disappointed in that the film seems to be sacrificing an opportunity to reexamine life, in order to wow everyone with uber-cool special effects and rake in a fortune at the box office.

I have only seen half the film so far, though. I have heard that the end of the film consists of a grand battle between the na'vi and the humans. Again, this smacks of a concession to the formula of Hollywood. Rather than trying something different, the film seems to be reconstructing a well-worn equation with the newest graphics. That is their decision, but this is my decision to weigh in on this. But again, I have only seen part of this. I will report back here when I have seen the whole thing. See ya then!

This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.