Avatar, or Going Native

[noein9]

So, I saw Avatar on Saturday. I will probably see it again, just to take in all the little bits and pieces that one tends to miss when watching a grand movie of this scope.

Now,before I tell you that it is good, that if you have the spare money you run and go see it, that if you have the spare cash and are near a 3-d movie theatre that you simply

Comments

[merisunshine36]

Very interesting to hear a positive review, as that's the total opposite of what I've been hearing in the raceblog circles. Taking both perspectives into account, I am willing to believe that Cameron was well intentioned but didn't take into consideration/wasn't aware of the possible ways this movie could strike a negative chord with people. I think the crux of the problem lies in this point that you made--We think that the N'Avi are savages, and so does the trading company that wants to get rid of them, by nature of their nudity. This is not the case. I think someone well-versed in critical viewing would be able to make this distinction, but I am less sure about the average viewer.

I've heard enough negative things that I'm not willing to support his box office revenues, but I'll remember to Netflix it the next time I visit my uncle and his 60" big screen TV.

[noein9]

Hey you!

Yes, Cameron's intentions are genuinely good in this film, in my humble opinion. He was trying to show technologies and different sciences are not always based on machinery, and that worlds (environments) need not be destroyed for gain. If anything, it's the white leaders(specificly, the white men) who come off really horrid in this picture. The Jedi Mind game maybe too subtle for some.

Oh, don't worry- Cameron will make plenty of money, and he will sweep at the Scientific and Regular Academy Awards. But like Titanic, the experience is truly unparalleled in a movie theater. After seeing it in a movie theatre, I don't think I can watch at home.

(but that's because I don't have access to a 60" tv! Whoa!)

[merisunshine36]

60" TV with surround sound speakers that can locate you within a room and alter the volume levels accordingly. It's not as good as a movie theater, but it's close enough.

Besides, seeing a movie costs $12 where I am, and I am reserving those $12 for Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes :)

[noein9]

I will see the FUCK out of Sherlock Holmes, girl.

[diane_kepler]

Hey there.

Interesting how we came at the film from totally different angles. I really enjoyed reading your take on it. Question, though. Are your Ma'asii the same as what I refer to as the Masai? Definitely there are some African influences in there. saw other parallels, too. The Na'vi are also kind of like the Sioux, and kind of like Australian indigenous people too.

I like how Avatar took elements from all these different indigenous cultures and mixed them up, plus gave us new things as well.

[noein9]

Hey there-

I wrote this while drinking rum grog, so I apparently I cannot spell. Masai, yes.

There has been plenty of talk about the film and issues and I understand them. Weird thing, I get where Cameron was coming from to, and it was not as much fail as people seem to think that it is.