Gamespot’s negative review mentioned unfinished effects as well.
Yeah, I thought the tiger in the canoe looked pathetic
Likewise, because in addition to this, it’s also the worst exposition dump of all time—I mean, the Na’vi has the same memories as the original, right? Yet still, the Colonel, knowing full well the procedure he just underwent, which is thus recorded in his memories, feels the need to explain it to the copy that already has those memories? I mean, I’m used to one character telling another something that both already know, but one character telling himself (effectively) what he already knows is a new spin!
That’s something I maybe just didn’t understand. Weren’t the Na’vi avatars created to be biologically identical to ‘true’ Na’vi—I mean, their original purpose was to blend in, no? Then what’s with the four fingers? Was this addressed in the first movie?
More broadly, for a film that bills itself on the breadth of its imagination, I found it remarkably lacking in originality—basically, Pandora is just a reskin of an idealized Earth. There’s not-quite-people riding not-quite-pterodactyls (well, OK, people never did ride pterodactyls I grant), or not-quite-seals in seas with not-quite-whales and… You get the picture. It’s as if Earth is the original and Pandora is the not-quite-copyright violating version. Even down to male-female gender roles—healers are female, chiefs are male, etc. So glad to see that’s apparently a universal truth!
And on Pandora, the reef people are just a water-based analogue of the forest people—it’s like a cheap strategy game, where each side has direct analogues of every unit with just a slightly different design. Or like a ‘bonus character’ in an old fighting game that’s just a palette swap of one of the regular ones, with maybe an extra attack or two. Subtract forest, add water, there. All of that worked out beautifully and in detail, but in a sense, that’s just coloring inside the lines.
About the only thing that doesn’t have a direct analogue on Earth is that everything comes equipped with on-board USB. And that’s never really explored; for the purposes of this film, it’s just a way to more easily steer your not-horse/pterodactyl. Indeed, initially I thought they were just going to pass quietly over it, I think we only really see any linking being done once the Sullys get to the reef people. I thought maybe that was due to the somewhat questionable overtones of essentially melding your mind with something that’s not really capable of giving consent…
There were also lots of minor fractures in the picture the film was trying to paint. So there’s an emphasis on community and unity over exploitation and greed, but then, ‘Sullys stick together’—me and mine before you and yours. The humans are hunting Sully because he’s the leader of the resistance, but once he leaves the resistance, they still hunt him, so what did that exactly achieve?
And what was the purpose of introducing a second magic substance that’s also never really explored? Is that really the only way to drive forwards a plot of exploitation? Just invent some all-purpose plotinium that does just whatever the plot needs at any given moment. Also, what’s the use of an immortality serum if you can already just make backups of people and grow new bodies for them? Or, well, I guess you could hold that that’s not really the same person, but then that’s something that you’d think would be addressed.
Yeah, that was a scene that surprised me and got my hopes up with its attention to realistic detail. Then of course came the deorbiting scene to even out expectations again.