Notes on Avatar

Just a few brief notes to add to the chorus that’s singing praises in harmony with Avatar’s tremendous hype:

1. This film is beautiful inside and out. I love it so much that I don't care how cheesy saying that makes me sound.

2. I spoke with Gabe about this (so credit to him for bringing up this point), but the whole notion that a native people needs the help of an outside white man so that it can continue existing is at least worthy of examination. I don’t have too much of a problem with this, since Jake Sully's ostensible value to the Na'vi people is not his culture or skin color, but his knowledge of his co-workers’ plans to destroy monuments key to their culture. More problematic, though, is how good of an Na’vi is proves to be while inhabiting his avatar. His greatest achievement is harnessing a giant bird of prey (a Turok) that no one else can, thus inspiring reverential bowing amongst the Na’vi when he shows up on the back of it. At this point, he hasn’t just assimilated into these people, he’s won the videogame of their culture. This bothered me less than perhaps it should have partially because of how Dune-esque it was (it was Paul riding the sandworm all over again). Can’t be mad at Dune-esque, sorry. But at that point, I was so invested in the advancement of this people that I wanted their well-being by any means necessary, by hook or by white dude. Clearly, as people so tied to their world that they have formed a sort of spiritual network with it, and still have it, period  (unlike humans in 2154, as posited by Avatar), they are the superior race, if we’re laying it out like that. Yes, Jake Sully harnessed the ride and he did it well, but wasn't it ultimately on the Na'vi's coattails? 

3. As something that took James Cameron basically 15 years to make (he wrote the Avatar script in 1994), this hyper-futuristic, technological fantasia is old-fashioned in its own way. It’s about as antithetical as movies get to the get-it-done-do-it-cheap ethic of today. Furthermore, as someone who often gets 24 hours to a week (tops!) to really think about something, I felt like this movie was a fireworks display of a reminder of the worth in slow-cooking and taking time to get it right. I hope it proves to be as inspiring as I think it is.

4. I'm seeing this again (in 3-D IMAX again) tomorrow night. Follow suit or be jealous.

Comments

[Dust-mask]

This story generated feeling of fear and dread until the end. Euphoria can happen from this type of contrasting dread and realization.

[crystal laser]

If you thought that dating after forty was scary, try it a decade later! Though I looked at it as an incredible learning curve, most of the learning was about myself.