The Avatar Post

Ok first off let's make something clear, it is ok to enjoy a movie and still have issues with it. Just because you enjoyed the movie doesn't mean you should ignore what was, in my opinion, problematic with some of the underlying themes. I personally really enjoyed the film despite my issues with the "going native" undertone to the whole thing and would definitely recommend it to all of my friends. In I-Max, in 3D.

What I liked:
The movie is extremely immersive, the theatre I was in had the AC broken so it was 80 degrees but I was so lost in the movie I didn't care once it got underway. The storytelling for a big hollywood movie is top notch and Cameron deserves accolades for it. The characters were pretty good basic archetype characters that didn't have too much depth to make it difficult to imagine yourself as the main character. The 3D aspects of the film were really well done. A lot of the time 3D just adds tackiness to a movie but in Avatar they didn't overdo it and it really helped draw you in.

What I thought was overhyped:
The world design which everyone raves about wasn't as impressive to me since I was essentially weaned on fantasy, sci-fi, and manga where this sort of "damn that's a creative new world! thing is a prerequisite. Maybe I haven't seen it in awesome 3D before, I had a good imagination before TV whittled it away and I used to be able to imagine shit like this all day errday. I think when people are talking about how this is going to change movies forever I think what it's really doing is catching movies up to what decent authors have been building for years. Flying mountains were in fucking Sonic the Hedgehog for god's sake.

What I have Issues With:
The main characters main arc involves not only "going native" but being the chosen one and leading the natives to victory, eventually fully discarding his human body for that of the natives. Along the way he get's their princess, who was already betrothed, and is at the same time able to connect with the land in a way that the West has longed for since Judeo-Christian religions told them that it was to pagany and that some vengeful god wasn't down with feeling one with the earth. Once again, as in so many stories before this, (pocahantas, last samurai) a white man (who despite america's change to a more minority majority country is still the defualt blank slate i can project myself on to him character) comes to live with the natives, realizes what his culture has lost in it's materialism and modernity and decides to throw away his old life in favor of a newer more spiritually fulfilling society. So I ask, why even have Sully? Why not just let us watch the natives and come to this conclusion ourselves? Why do the natives always need outside assistance to be saved? Is it too much to have a film where they save themselves? Certainly sully's effort is appreciated but he is, within 3 months better than all the natives at everything. He is also able to get the girl who was previously engaged to the next chief in line. Why can't it be a female human who gets with a male native? Cause that would still make people uncomfortable.

Avatar is still a great movie. Go see it if you haven't already. I liked it so much I'm probably gonna buy it and if I can get myself to a real Imax and not the shoddy impersonation of the one I saw it on tonight I might even go see it again. But just because I had a grand ol' time doesn't mean I'm totally cool with everything. And you don't have to be either.