I finally saw Avatar
This post has nothing to do with Harry Potter. My icon is here merely to remind you that Lucius Malfoy is the man.
I think I'm one of the only people on the planet who has only recently seen Avatar, and on HBO to boot.
It was...entertaining, I guess.
The main question I was left asking at the conclusion is why do the Na'vi think that merely kicking the humans off the planet is going to work? It's going to be like any other native people conquest when the superior force with superior firepower and technology simply heads back to the planet in superior numbers. Instead of a mining colony it will be a military outpost, complete with lots and lots of humans to take over the Na'vi's 2000 warriors (which no doubt dwindled after the final battle there).
It's nice to think about that the humans left with their tails between their legs and realized the error of their ways, but no. There's unobtanium under them thar hills glowy trees! Also: "unobtanium?" There's a whole frickin' Na'vi language created for this movie for Chrissakes and he couldn't come up with something better than "unobtanium?"
This is like the Black Hills in South Dakota, when Custer found gold during an expedition to one of the holiest places on Earth for the Lakota people. There was a treaty that strictly forbade white incursion, but, y'know, gold. The government did nothing to prevent it when thousands of miners went into the Hills.
So the Lakota started to fight back, which set into motion of whole shitty series of events that ended in the near-extinction of an entire race of people. And that wouldn't be the miners, if you were wondering.
But I digress.
We can pretend that the humans felt really, really bad for blasting apart the Na'vi homeworld. In fact, though, there are more dickhead government Giovanni Ribisi characters than there are Sigourney Weaver characters. Once the miners got back to Earth the first thing they're gonna do is rally the troops and bring a shitstorm down on glowy tree world because they got their asses kicked by native people.
I feel that I need to see the beginning again, because there was too much exposition setting up what happened instead of actually showing us. I get it, I suppose, because Cameron needed all those minutes to show us the pretty glowing plant world of Pandora, but I would have rather watched at least small scenes of how Jake got in the wheelchair and his brother was killed.
I was also distracted by Sam Worthington's Australian accent that came and went. I wouldn't have minded if he used his real accent, but either do a straight American or straight Aussie, not an amalgamation.
I also have a question about the whole Toruk thing. In the whole history of the Na'vi only five have ridden it. Okay, I get that. It's mystical. But is stupid Jakesully the only dude who has ever thought about jumping on one from above? I mean, he doesn't have to be particularly brave or spiritual or commune with Enya Eywa or anything, he just needs good aim.
Good things. I have some. I recognized Wes Studi and CCH Pounder right away, and I will admit that Zoe Saldana's voice acting (yeah, I know about all the motion capture and tech and blah blah blah but she's not a 10-foot-tall painted blue Na'vi, so voice acting) was fantastic. She was the most enjoyable part of the film for me.
I loved the battle scene at the end there (although it reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon), and I know I wasn't supposed to cheer him on, but that colonel guy was kick ass. The one-on-one knife scene was cool.
In the end, it was entertaining. I'm sure it was pretty to look at on the big screen, too. I guess now I'll wait to see when Cameron comes out with a realistically plotted Part 2, Avatar: Wounded Knee.
I think I'm one of the only people on the planet who has only recently seen Avatar, and on HBO to boot.
It was...entertaining, I guess.
The main question I was left asking at the conclusion is why do the Na'vi think that merely kicking the humans off the planet is going to work? It's going to be like any other native people conquest when the superior force with superior firepower and technology simply heads back to the planet in superior numbers. Instead of a mining colony it will be a military outpost, complete with lots and lots of humans to take over the Na'vi's 2000 warriors (which no doubt dwindled after the final battle there).
It's nice to think about that the humans left with their tails between their legs and realized the error of their ways, but no. There's unobtanium under them thar hills glowy trees! Also: "unobtanium?" There's a whole frickin' Na'vi language created for this movie for Chrissakes and he couldn't come up with something better than "unobtanium?"
This is like the Black Hills in South Dakota, when Custer found gold during an expedition to one of the holiest places on Earth for the Lakota people. There was a treaty that strictly forbade white incursion, but, y'know, gold. The government did nothing to prevent it when thousands of miners went into the Hills.
So the Lakota started to fight back, which set into motion of whole shitty series of events that ended in the near-extinction of an entire race of people. And that wouldn't be the miners, if you were wondering.
But I digress.
We can pretend that the humans felt really, really bad for blasting apart the Na'vi homeworld. In fact, though, there are more dickhead government Giovanni Ribisi characters than there are Sigourney Weaver characters. Once the miners got back to Earth the first thing they're gonna do is rally the troops and bring a shitstorm down on glowy tree world because they got their asses kicked by native people.
I feel that I need to see the beginning again, because there was too much exposition setting up what happened instead of actually showing us. I get it, I suppose, because Cameron needed all those minutes to show us the pretty glowing plant world of Pandora, but I would have rather watched at least small scenes of how Jake got in the wheelchair and his brother was killed.
I was also distracted by Sam Worthington's Australian accent that came and went. I wouldn't have minded if he used his real accent, but either do a straight American or straight Aussie, not an amalgamation.
I also have a question about the whole Toruk thing. In the whole history of the Na'vi only five have ridden it. Okay, I get that. It's mystical. But is stupid Jakesully the only dude who has ever thought about jumping on one from above? I mean, he doesn't have to be particularly brave or spiritual or commune with Enya Eywa or anything, he just needs good aim.
Good things. I have some. I recognized Wes Studi and CCH Pounder right away, and I will admit that Zoe Saldana's voice acting (yeah, I know about all the motion capture and tech and blah blah blah but she's not a 10-foot-tall painted blue Na'vi, so voice acting) was fantastic. She was the most enjoyable part of the film for me.
I loved the battle scene at the end there (although it reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon), and I know I wasn't supposed to cheer him on, but that colonel guy was kick ass. The one-on-one knife scene was cool.
In the end, it was entertaining. I'm sure it was pretty to look at on the big screen, too. I guess now I'll wait to see when Cameron comes out with a realistically plotted Part 2, Avatar: Wounded Knee.