Avatar

Avatar. I have nothing against this movie. If forced to score it (out of 5) I would probably give it a 3.5 which is good by anyone’s standard. Before I get started I would just like to repeat that. However despite this I didn’t like Avatar. This wasn’t because of the visuals or (really) the plot I just found it hard to get immersed in this movie. Every time I got close to suspending my disbelief something would happen. Whether a character did something stupid or I felt that something wasn’t explained properly I just couldn’t get into this movie. I’ll list some of my major complaints below and we will see what you think.




3D VISUALS

The visuals in avatar were stunning. This is one of the few movies in which 3d would (and has) worked. No the problem I have with the visuals in Avatar is because of this movies success every man and his dog will think 3d is a good idea and for the vast majority of movies it is emphatically not. Just you wait there will be a string of terrible movies now that all use 3d as their only selling point. 3d also reinforces the thought that a movie is about its visuals which it is not. It is about characters and plot, good visuals can complement these things but a movie that has bad characters and plot will be a bad movie no matter how pretty it is.



THE PLOT

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/zz4b70bcca.jpg

This is not necessarily a bad thing it’s just worth remembering that avatar is as original plot wise as…look it’s just not original okay.



THE ONE BAD CHARACTER

Remember what I said about Avatar being a good movie. There was only one character in this movie who was truly bad. Jake Sully was reasonable and Ripley…umm…I can’t call her anything else sorry…was an awesome character from whom the only genuinely funny lines in the movie come from. The evil general guy was fine because he was easy to hate (which was all he had to do) and the head of the corporation was actually more interesting that other heads of corporations in other movies (he was motivated by greed but he was feeling the pressure of his job more than anything else he allowed himself to be manipulated by the army guy because it gave him an easy way out).

No the only BAD character was that fucking Na’vi girl love interest. From the first time I saw her I could pretty much say exactly what she would do in the rest of the movie (except for one thing but that will be later). She has no defining character traits. Jake may be a stereotype but at least he can’t walk. Oh wait she’s the perfect wank material I forgo THAT’S NOT A CHARACTER TRAIT. This is the same problem I had with Bella in twilight. Her only character trait actually digs her further into the pit of her stereotype, but this is worse because being a member of an alien species isn’t even a character trait. It’s a state of being that she couldn’t change even if she wanted too. For the moment I’ll leave it at that and move on.



THE END

Towards the end of avatar the movie began to get silly. More than that the most odd and jarring decision in the movie is made. The Na’vi girl falls in love with Jake again only like 1 Day after he betrayed her entire species. Okay yes he comes in on the big flying dinosaur thing that’s like a holy symbol. But I would like to point out that saying “yes you are the salvation of my species” and saying “yes I forgive you for basically killing my father and destroying the only home I have ever known”, are two entirely different things. And from a purely filmmaking standpoint wouldn’t the ending have been improved by there being a bit of romantic tension. The current ending is sooooo one dimensional. It is simple good vs. evil. More than that the ending gives the feeling that the Na’vi girl actually is supposed to still be angry at Jake. When she is on the verge of disobeying one of his orders jumps into mind.

Also the destructive military forces (that are a little too destructive) have a ground campaign for no adequate reason beyond, “YEAH LET GO KILL THEM ALL YEA BITCHIZ” tell me how are the horse riding Na’vi any threat to the walled compound with huge gun emplacements. If you’re that worried about them stick the guys in the ground campaign on top of the walls of the compound. That would stop any number of the horse guys. True the flying quys would be a threat. But if the whole dropping the bomb on the tree of souls plan works you won’t need to defend yourself from the flying guys. And their the only thing that’s going to stop the shuttle from dropping its payload. So its safe to assume that what they will be doing. And if that’s not what their doing if they are in fact attacking the compound GOOD that means no resistance while you blow the shit out of the sacred tree. Sigh. I truly hated the ending.



OKAY SO CAN ANYONE IN THIS FIGHT ACTUALLY DIE?

I have the sad misfortune of seeing this movie three times (Once with parents once with friends and once with friends mark two). The first time this wasn’t an issue but the second and third time it defiantly was. It is never explained what happens when an avatar body dies. Now after seeing this movie three times this is what I came up with. The human body is the important one. If your avatar body dies your mind goes back into your human body. This is a really stupid decision. You know why? Because it (with a surgical scalpel) removes all the tension for the first two hour of the movie. You know that bit where he doesn’t really care and the Na’vi don’t like him. That entire section is like, “well he doesn’t care and they don’t care and he can’t die sooo why do I care?”. Even in the later parts of the movie its still mutes the tension. When he dies he comes back I his normal body. So he gets a second chance after this one. Soooo this is FUCKING POINTLESS.



ARROWS CAN SHOOT PLANES DOWN

Okay now at the end of the movie the Na’vi starts shooting at the planes and killing the pilots by punching through the glass. Now earlier we saw the arrows bounce off the glass but no apparently that’s a different plane and hence has no relation to the other planes. Okay. Now I must ask the question how long have the human race been on this planet? I would assume that because it takes six years to get to Pandora they would have to have been her 24 years at the least? (6 for scientists of come and discover unobtanium, 6 for the corporation to get wind of it and send a survey team and 6 for the materials to build the complex station thing, 6 to build the miners and exploration vehicles). Now it its strongly hinted that there have been problems with the Na’vi before.

Now put yourself in the corporation’s shoes. You know this is a strange and hostile world with a strange and hostile native population. You know that they shoot arrows. Now your making planes to survive in this environment and even the slightest crack in the plane could result in the death of the pilot because the atmosphere is poisonous (in a way that is never adequately explained >=Z). Wouldn’t the first thing you would do is make the planes arrow proof? It’s not like it would be hard. Bullet resistant glass would do. There is no way an arrow is getting through bullet proof glass. No way in hell.

Also this thin layer of glass is all that’s keeping the pilot away from the deadly atmosphere. If I was a pilot and I discovered how thin and weak the glass was I would go on strike or report them to OHS or something. Yeah it would take OHS 6 years to get here but I WOULD STILL BE ALIVE.



THE ROBOT KNIFE BIT

Okay now this is a truly minor complaint in that it’s not really a complaint it’s a statement. THE BIT WHERE THE ROBOT PULLS OUT THE OVERSIZED KNIFE IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY. This came up in a discussion where one of my friends said that the funniest part of the movie was the aforementioned knife robot bit. Instantly about three of my other friends were all over him with “how should the robot fight in close combat then?” “what if he drops his gun or it’s destroyed hmm? ”. Well, the filmmaker put this in as a semi-humorous moment that also gets them an excuse to give the robot a knife.

If you take this scene seriously it doesn’t make sense. If we assume the Robot was built purely for the Pandora environment (I don’t fully accept this but everyone else seems to) it having some kind of weapon for close quarters fighting is not unreasonable. However there are more elegant solutions. The gun had a bayonet so as long as the robot had the gun it had a close quarter’s weapon. If your worried about the robot dropping the gun ATTATCH THE GUN TO THE ROBOT WITH BOLTS AND A SOLDERING IRON. Even if you wanted the robot to multitask and it therefore needs its hands (which doesn’t make a lot of sense but hey) there are more efficient ways to give it a close quarters weapon. How about giving it a sword that slides out from its wrist wolverine style? This also eliminates the problem of the robot (after it dropped the gun) dropping the knife. It would also be so cool it would make me forgive the movie of any previous faults.

Once again this complaint’s not really a complaint. If you assume this scene is funny it makes sense. If you take it seriously it doesn’t. On one final note I would argue that a robot that can pulverise logs of wood with one blow could pretty much beat the crap out of most opponents. At the point where you’re stabbing something you may as well be caving in its face with your giant robot fists…





I have other problems with the film but these have either been successfully rebutted or even I consider them too minor to bother with. I would like to repeat that this was a good movie I just didn’t like it. At all