I just got back from adding to the total, by seeing Avatar in 3D IMAX, my 3rd viewing (1st in Real 3D and 2nd in 2D). It held up and was even more emotional and exhilarating, though again the middle portion of exploring Pandora seemed way too short. Come on Cameron, tack another hour of exploring Pandora onto a Director’s Cut and re-release it in a few months!
The Thursday afternoon show wasn’t sold out, but it was about 95% full. I was in the front row (center!) and only two other people were in the front row with me. The rest of the place was full though. The audience applauded at the end. There was a long long line for the next showing, so it probably did sell out.
You were right, I was wrong. It’s used where I said in my post above, and then it’s used again when Ribisi notes that there’s a deposit under Hometree. I agree that it’s not used sarcastically as I stated before, it’s said as if it were the name of the mineral. Ribisi is the only one who uses the name though.
I made a mental note this time that the font used for the subtitles was Papyrus because of this thread, but it made no difference to me. I liked the look of it and thought it fit the movie very well.
I heartily agree. Come on, not every movie has to be Mulholland Drive (which I love, but thank goodness not every movie is as intricate as that one).
Another part of the film that impressed more more on repeat viewing was the first fifteen minutes which sets up Sully’s situation and several important themes. Sully is an outsider in two ways: among the scientists because he is a soldier and among the soldiers because he is a cripple. This drives a lot of the subsequent story. The early part also sets up another important theme the limits of self-interest in obtaining loyalty. Sully talks about how the soldiers used to be marines fighting for freedom but are now just hired guns. He is himself treated as a hired gun and the colonel tries to buy his loyalty by promising to get his legs back but it doesn’t ultimately work.
Another theme is the limits of science in understanding the Na’vi; the scientists are unable to penetrate the essence of the Na’vi which Sully as another warrior is able to do. This theme isn’t handled in a ham-handed way with the cliche of arrogant experts shown up by an inspired amateur ; the scientists are portrayed as capable and decent people whose attitude towards Sully evolves in a believable way.
I liked it better the second time. I had kind of let my mind wander during the intro the first time but this time I caught it and was impressed. And also the second time I got over my over analyzation and let myself just enjoy it.
Both times, I got serious vertigo during the climbing up the floating mountains and flying scenes. So much so that my eyes watered first from fear and then from exhilaration.
Definitely there were some flaws, but I wonder if some of the resistance to this film is just, well, resistance. Is there any film that is cynic proof? Perhaps only pure documentaries. With empathy, I was eventually swept away both by the visuals and parts of the story (death of hometree, conflict of interest and apparent betrayal…). Without empathy, does even real life have enough gravitas to produce resonance of emotion?
But not this. This sounds like you’re making excuses. The plot was serviceable at best. And I find it hard to believe that a plot a bit less heavy on the cliches and a bit more compelling would’ve improved the movie a lot.
So we take away the “noble savage” image of the Na’vi and make them a complex race with tons of downsides and lots of cultural ugliness. Are we as sympathetic towards Jake’s journey of going native? Do the actions of the humans have the same emotional impact if we’re thinking “maybe those savages deserve to get wiped out”?
They could’ve made the Na’vi less eye-rolling native american mystic savage types, definitely, but going as far as adding a “realistic” amount of ambiguity or shades of gray to the situation (so that the movie was more on par with complex character studies) would easily go too far to break the immersiveness/empathy it seeks to achieve with the audience.
Edit: To be clear, I’m fine with giving the Na’vi more personality than “10 foot blue stereotypical Native Americans” - I just don’t think it would’ve served the movie to add the level of negative characteristics that would make most of the people expecting something deeper happy.
-how do the aircraft IC engines run? Plus shipping aviation gasoline 6 lightyears from earth-muy expensive!
I bet that unobtanium is pretty hot stuff-seriously, this is why the analogy of space travel with the “Age of Discovery” breaks down: shipping stuff from lightyears away would make interstellar commerce far too expensive to be worthwhile.
As I recall, yes. However,* Dances with Wolves* was even more simplistic than Avatar. Lt. Dunbar, Kevin Costner’s character, was essentially the only sympathetic white figure; all other whites were evil or at best morons. In Avatar, Grace, the other scientists, and Trudy are all sympathetic.
Dunbar was already pretty nature-loving when he arrived at his outpost; it didn’t take much at all for him to flip to the side of the Indians. Jake on the other hand is much more complex; he initially identifies much more strongly with the military and is entirely ready to betray the Na’vi.
While Dances with Wolves doesn’t portray all Indians as being good and noble, its presentation of them is also simplistic. The Sioux, the tribe Dunbar meets, are all good; the Pawnee, the Sioux’s enemies, are presented as evil. This is one of the things I disliked most about that movie. It not only stereotyped whites, it also stereotyped the two different Indian groups. The only group in the movie who were good were the Sioux.
IMO, Dances with Wolves make Avatar look like Hamlet.
The partial pressure of O2 in the Pandoran atmosphere is the same as on Earth. Assuming the engines use gasoline, there’s no reason there might not be petroleum deposits on Pandora that could be tapped and refined.
Unless you know the actual costs involved, you can’t say this. Mercantile voyages during the Age of Discovery often took several years for the round trip. The same with whaling voyages.
No. But asking for a bit of subtlety and depth is not necessarily the same as turning the natives culturally ugly.
Well, there’s a bit more to depth than adding a level of negative characteristics. I don’t think anyone is asking it to be turned into Dancer in the Dark. But the plot could’ve been a little less paint-by-the-numbers. I really don’t think this would have destroyed the immersiveness.
To point out the obvious, he’s also an outsider among the Na’vi. I wonder if his alienation from all three factions is why the tree “selected” him – perhaps only an outsider can resolve this conflict.
Maybe they’re electric-powered, and their batteries are recharged at the base’s fusion reactor. I mean, they’re unfamiliar vehicles. Would it be so hard to assume they have unfamiliar engines?
Actually, the important of the cripple-ness is significantly undercut when its made clear that it’s a temporary condition - the medical tech of the future could fix up Sully without a problem, if only he could afford it. I’m not sure if this a call for socialized medicine or the comment on the underfunding of the futuristic Veteran’s Administration or what, but I think exactly one person comments negatively on Sully’s paraplegia, in passing. To most of the characters, it seems to have little or no significance.
One minor thing that temporily destroyed my suspension of disbelief is when Sully opened his eyes for the first time in his avatar form, I expected that the Na’vi would have at least a somewhat different visual system, perhaps a wider field of view, different colour range etc
I realise there isn’t really anyway to show that in film but it did take me out of things a little.
Actually the fact that Sully could be fixed except for a lack of funds is pretty important for the story. It suggests that veterans aren’t particularly well taken care of. Later the colonel uses the handicap as a bargaining chip to get him to do what he wants and I think there is a subtext that Sully doesn’t really like being manipulated in this way. And while only a couple of characters comment about Sully’s handicap it is a very revealing moment which suggests the distance that the handicap creates between him and the other soldiers. The comment that Sully himself makes about the marines being just hired guns on Pandora also suggests the same.
I think the first fifteen minutes of the film are quite skillful in the way they set up Sully’s situation and lay the seeds for his eventual “betrayal” of the corporation.
Of course. Since the movie bombed in all other countries. Oh wait. It made more than $1 billion in the international market. Damn all those overseas Americans!
Hell, I wouldn’t even call Quarrich evil - the exact same character could have been a hero in a slightly different movie. He was just a soldier on the wrong side of a war. If he had a flaw, it was that he was *too *professional; he was incapable of looking past his mission to see the bigger picture.
I also think he actually liked Sully and was genuinely hurt by his betrayal.
