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[gusl]

Highly recommended. Very gripping. Worth every penny. It's been a long time since I sat through a movie this long (161 minutes + trailers + ads) without complaining.


* I found the plot predictable in many places
* bizarre parts in which ugly technology is pitted against beautiful mystical forces in a very explicit way: tanks vs flying dragons!
* at one point, I wished that all those epic battle scenes were reduced to a Cliff's Notes version of themselves
* the avatars looked fully native to me, not partly human. At first, I was a bit surprised that they weren't afraid to be recognized as "Sky People", but it makes sense that their foreign behavior would make them noticeably different to any intelligent species.
* did they have wireless coverage over that whole planet, with enough bandwidth to transmit senses and perceptions without a noticeable lag?
* the Avatar program lived a strange existence. Why was Grace charged with treason, if only Jake was seen damaging the tank?
* when Jake wakes up in the avatar, it was out-of-character for him to disobey orders to do the tests, and very odd for him to not be severely reprimanded.
* why didn't they simply ask the Na'vi where to get unobtanium? because it was their very source of life, floating mountains and general magic?
* the idea that they didn't want anything humans could offer seems hard to believe. Like, uh, science? (I guess it is possible that they were too "primitive" to appreciate science)
* the gravity and the atmosphere seem remarkably similar to Earth's
* the Na'vi music reminded me of South African choirs, Indian chants; and their values reminded me of Pocahontas.
* interesting philosophical questions about control/agency: the exoskeleton machine is just a homunculus. The avatar idea isn't so strange if you consider how people can see with their other senses and how easily people can acquire new senses if they are given the input. Of course, the neural control-feedback "dream machine" is still pretty awesome. "Avatar" seems to have a different metaphysics than the Matrix: the avatar's death presumably wouldn't cause the human's death. (What about "Strange Days"?)


P.S. I was disappointed at the number of rude people chatting, laughing in the cinema. Someone even answered a cell phone!

Comments

Wireless coverage?

[(Anonymous)]

The whole story happens in 22nd century and they're cloning avatars, so why not?

Re: Wireless coverage?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

ok then. But the signal had to be strong enough to survive obstacles, and a lead helmet in the avatar would probably kill the signal.

btw, who is this?

Re: Wireless coverage?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

At some point, they say their signals are too weak to reach more remote parts of Pandora.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Noble Savage™: it's a given in a certain kind of white-people narrative that, if you meet primitive people and have absolute power over them, they will be morally better than you and have many things to teach you, while your culture's knowledge and achievements would only corrupt them, which they instinctively know and reject.

I loved many things about this movie, but that particular trope was pretty grating. And hey, TVTropes has everything, except the Noble Savage article is kind of short; Wikipedia is more thorough, as you'd expect.

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

This!

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Sounds like something derived from Christian morality: "blessed are the meek".

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

The plot was a little lame. It often occurs to me how easily many plots could be improved without any significant expense in filming. Low incentives for logical plots?
'they didn't want anything humans could offer' - by definition a species surviving on an isolated planet cannot need anything humans have. Otherwise they would already be dying out. Finding something they want can be difficult. The notorious examples of whiskey to Amerindians and opium to Chinese show how few things are easily tradable even to humans, aliens would be even more difficult.
The ruling elite of any organised society can often foresee that their relative position cannot improve by trade and may easily deteriorate. They may act to block or disparage trade to protect their interests even when lower classes are eager to trade. The isolation of Japan was entirely the desire of the elite, not because no Japanese wanted European goods.

[shaktool.livejournal.com]

the avatars looked fully native to me, not partly human.

The indigenous Na'vi:
-did not have eyebrows
-hands had thumb + three fingers
-modelled on human minority actors (African, Native America, Hispanic)

The hybrid Na'vi:
-did have eyebrows
-hands had thumb + four fingers
-modelled on human caucasian actors

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Thanks.