Minor Avatar gripes

[pozorvlak]

So, Avatar: as you've probably heard by now, it's very, very pretty, has little to recommend it by way of script, plotting or characterisation (to quote chromatic scthewriter: the solution to flat characters is not 3D, it's better writing), and it has a really stupid ending

Comments

[inkvoltslove]

I had many of the the same problems with this film. Also, is it really necessary to include the (white male) Jake Sully character as an audience avatar, so to speak, to suture with, in order to make the narrative effective?

[bdunbar]

They did. Genre authors may not need a sympathetic viewpoint character, and get by with excellent writing and narrative to fill a clued-in audience.

But when you're reaching for a mass audience who don't generally 'get SciFi you need someone the audience can identify with - he's their introduction to the odd world being shown.

Star Wars IV had Luke Skywalker - he's the everyman we identify with: a kid with hopes and dreams. Star Wars I had ... no one really we could ID with.

[pozorvlak]

Excellent point, but I think bdunbar's right about the mass-market: you and I have a lot more experience watching/reading SF and grokking new worlds than the average filmgoer. Plus Sully was about the only character with any sort of development or personal growth...

[bdunbar]

ooh, he's a Marine, he's going to be such a thicko

I've gotten that from time to time, in reverse. "You were a Marine? In the infantry?" and you can see them visibly trying not to follow up with 'But you don't look or act like a thug ....'

is Colonel the most evil rank, or what?

Phhs. I'll be whatever that fellow did in the Marines, he didn't leave the service as a Colonel. Maybe a passed-over Major. Possibly a Captain who left after his obligation was over. But I'll bet he was a lunk-headed NCO who cleaned up well for the interview on Earth.

and then have Phoebe's brother come back a few years later with nukes and bomb the Na'vi back from the Neolithic to the Pre-Cambrian.

In H. Beam Piper's very excellent 'Uller Uprising' - which takes as it's inspiration the Indian Mutiny - the characters discuss this. Their conclusion is that they gotta use a nasty weapon to win. The alternative is all the humans die and the Federation Navy shows up in nine months and blows everyone away - and a lot more innocent aliens will die, too.

[pozorvlak]

I'll bet whatever that fellow did in the Marines, he didn't leave the service as a Colonel.

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. Especially since (at least according to Generation Kill, which I'm reading now) First Recon's officers tend to be intelligence specialists and other rear-echelon types. Of course, we only have his word for it that he was in First Recon.

In H. Beam Piper's very excellent 'Uller Uprising' - which takes as it's inspiration the Indian Mutiny

Sounds good! And I see it's on Project Gutenberg... excellent.

[necaris]

Is it First Recon or Force Recon? From what I've read (and I used to read an awful lot of American military thrillers, a la Tom Clancy) they're the Marines' special forces, so typically on the front lines (or behind enemy lines)...

[pozorvlak]

You could be right: I hadn't heard of Force Recon before (I stopped reading Clancy after Rainbow Six), and might well have misheard.

Anyway, both exist. First Recon is the First Reconnaissance Battalion. One company of First Recon is part of Force Reconnaissance, who also have a company attached to Second Recon. But it looks like they're moving to a new force structure which will unify Force Recon under a Special Operations Command. First Recon appear to be fairly elite and crack, but less so than Force Recon. Or something, I don't really have time to read the half-dozen Wikipedia pages concerned right now :-)

[dynix]

alternative alternative endings:

I really liked that line about 'our mother does not take sides, she maintains the balance'

So when the damn planet *did* take sides, then
1) it didnt really make sense and
2) it wasnt really effective.

It's a whole planet. It could have caused any number of more effective things to happen than having the animals headbutt the vehicles.

Since we know that the planet can make usb connections with a human, wouldnt it make more sense to capture phoeboe's brother and make him talk to the planet so he sees sense. If the scientists are being too damn geeky to do a good job of communicating anything themselves.

Also could the Navi not have sabotaged the base? Guerilla tactics make much more sense.

Argh. So much stupid.

Very pretty though.

[pozorvlak]

True, true, true, true, true, true, true and true :-)