I wuv you, I wuv you, said the little blue man...

[greatgreybeast]

Avatar

I had more cogent things to say, but I'm too sleepy. Perhaps I'll revisit them later. In the meantime, my summary is that the movie begins with the strong authenticity and wonderment of The Abyss, and ends with the dramatic and political sophistication of Return of the Jedi. Which is no terrible thing. I LIKE Return of the Jedi. I'm

Comments

[greatgreybeast]

Yeah, more or less. There are a few minor differences - Tsu-tay never tries to kill Jake, though he'd be happy to watch someone/thing else do it - there is no resolving of differences at the end... the humans are booted off the planet. But yeah, that's pretty much the outline.

The sad part is, as simple-minded and dumb as the Pocahontas plot is, at least it's consistent. The various details and trappings of Avatar not mentioned in that summary (mostly science stuff about the avatar program and the unique ecology of Pandora, as well as the message it's trying to send) cause that plot outline to become largely illogical. And worse, if the setup elements of Avatar had been followed to their logical conclusion it would have resulted in a much more interesting movie that accomplishes everything the actual movie was trying to do better than it actually did it. The moral and ecological messages... the romance and the action set-pieces... all of it follows naturally from the premise and characters and structure of the world - and then is continually harassed by the wedged-in cliches. This is what I mean by "bumping into itself," and needing more time to simmer.

I still recommend you see it. For one thing, with a movie this big everybody should have their own opinion. And it IS full of great ideas, even if they are strewn around like bodies in its wake.