let's talk about avatar, shall we?

[fivil]

Because I so very rarely go see hip and happening movies (is this one? I guess so) when they're actually hip and happening

Comments

[fivil]

True, her character definitely had some flaws, some review I pointed out was how her character and her avatar were like two different people. I guess I liked her in her human form better, but I also disliked how she began to lack guts at the latter half of the movie because Jake had to get all the convincing opportunities. Meh meh meh.

[plazmah]

In my ideal world, Avatar would have been a story about how Tsu'tey and Neytiri rise to epic levels of awesomeness and fuck up some hapless douchebag humans in the process. Srsly.

[fivil]

I would've loved a historical, more mythological look into the Na'vi culture.

But then, that's not what Avatar's about. Still, what a wasted opportunity. 260m and for some pretty graphics? Sigh.

[kenboy]

I haven't seen it, and I'm not in any rush to, but I wonder if there's any possibility (and I'm sure others are raising this elsewhere, I'm just not paying attention) that what's really happening here, and in movies like The Last Samurai and Dances With Wolves, is simply a variation on the old trope "Outsider comes to show the way / solve the problem

[fivil]

It's very much that old trope, and in some instances it works - I think it works in the narrative of Avatar but the film's messy when it comes to how things actually play out. (And kind of an annoying example of the genre. I mean, hobbits aren't essentially a part of this trope because they're not leaders, but they're also unlikely heroes - a better example in LOTR would be Aragorn, maybe.)

The race stuff seems pretty intentional, though, as it's actually referenced (by the villains especially).

[alexandral]

I agree with you main points - ableism, subtle racism, it all is there, in the film. Basically, it is just another story about a big American hero who comes and saves other nations (because poor other nations aren't able to do it themselves).

[fivil]

Indeed.

It's actually quite a shame the story is such old hat and can't match the visuals at all in terms of being ground-breaking or original.