Comments on: Awkward Movie Review: Avatar

By: The Awkward Movie Challenge: Oscar Picks | Awkward Press

The Awkward Movie Challenge: Oscar Picks | Awkward Press — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:35:10 +0000

[...] are going to get it, either. The race to watch is between The Hurt Locker and Avatar. My views on Avatar are pretty well known to anyone who reads this website (no one reads this website), and I thought [...]

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:30:50 +0000

This is my favorite review ever.

By: hrovai

hrovai — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:33:58 +0000

Hi Jeffrey!

John and I saw this last night at Arclight? Were you there (at the 11:15 show????)

I, like you, am not that impressed with special effects in general. I never see a movie based on CGI alone. Dragged to Avatar, I was expecting a slightly upgraded version of the Polar Express, but with Celine Dion songs. I was pleasantly surprised. It was really neat.

But as others attending with me mentioned, almost every plot point and much of the conceptual elements were lifted from other films - especially Miyazaki's catalog of animated films - Totoro and Nausicaa being obvious "inspiration" in terms of plot AND visual elements.

But that's okay, Avatar managed to steal from more artsy sources and still stand on its own. It came together nicely. I cared about the Tree of Souls and wanted the bad guys to get it at the end. And I liked Sigourney Weaver.

But Linda Hamilton should've had a cameo.

By: jeffrey

jeffrey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:57:39 +0000

Agreed. This is exactly the kind of movie that should be seen in the theater.

By: jonthegeek

jonthegeek — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:43:07 +0000

BTW, I think we can agree that, regardless, everyone should see this movie in the theater, right? I mean, good god. I'm not even sure what it is that makes the animation in this seem so much realler than, say, Lord of the Rings. Did they learn a new shading technique or something? The scenes where Na'vi and humans interact with one another are what really blows me away. Did they figure out a trick for combining the two without artifacts, or were the humans in those scenes animated? I love that I don't know!

By: jeffrey

jeffrey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:36:18 +0000

Good on you for listening closely to the endless exposition, but I still found it silly.

By: jonthegeek

jonthegeek — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:28:49 +0000

On There Will Be Blood: It could be because I don't personally know anyone who liked it (at least not as far as I know), so the only good things I heard about a movie I found unenjoyable and uninteresting were things I read in reviews; it seemed like people were saying it was good because they heard it was good and didn't want to seem stupid. You say bedroom farce, I say epic. Epic characters don't exactly act like people, they act like archetypes. And, well, when you miss basic things about the story (like that the military on the base were ex-military gung-ho mercs brought there by the promise of a "substantial" paycheck and removed from any real oversight by a 6-year trip, rather than people serving their country), I'm not sure it's Cameron's fault if you don't see any believability in the characters.

By: jeffrey

jeffrey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:56:12 +0000

Also, that is an unusually bold stance to take on There Will Be Blood. I did not like that movie, but I'm not convinced that everyone I respect who liked it is an idiot.

By: jeffrey

jeffrey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:53:53 +0000

Sounds good, but they were all running around like they were in a bedroom farce. It wasn't in the slightest bit nuanced. I'm sure Cameron had explanations for everything, but that doesn't mean his explanations made a lick of sense or that anyone in the film behaved in the way humans actually behave.

By: jonthegeek

jonthegeek — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:46:29 +0000

The military people were ex-military mercenaries (Black Water), working for the corporation. Cory from My Two Dads was in charge of everything, but psycho colonel took over when the Na'vi pissed him off (he had the guns and robot suits, so Cory didn't stop him). Sully explained that in the opening monologue. The scientists also worked for the corporation, most likely originally looking for other things that could make the corporation money, and then refocused on diplomacy once the avatars were developed (which presumably the humans were able to do in this case since the creatures they were working on already had networking capabilities; they didn't indicate that there were any avatars of anything other than Na'vi). Sigourney Weaver had a school to teach the Na'vi English (we see pictures of several of them at the school, including a slightly younger Neytiri), but it got shut down when there was a falling out between the cats and the humans (due to shooting at one another, presumably because, like in the real world, their corporate military is led by a psychopath). Just as humans who had never met the Na'vi were learning the Na'vi language, presumably Na'vi were teaching English to one another. Those were the easy ones. I expected the critique everyone's focusing on: that Cameron made his $230 million technological marvel all anti-technology. 'Cuz, ya know, biological robots with built-in USB cables aren't technology; guns, helicopters, and robot suits that are ever-so-slightly more advanced than what we already have are technology. I don't mean to get all worked up, but I think it's super simple to see this movie as super simple. I think the same people who couldn't see that the emperor had no clothes for crap like There Will Be Blood and Babel can't see the complexity in Cameron's story. PS: I hate the whole alien apostrophe thing, too.