Avatar is stupid

[Deimos Anomaly]

The visual world of it is unbelievable, like nothing portrayed before in film, but it's unfortunately marred by being married to a dumb storyline.

First off it's a fairly thinly veiled anti-capitalist screed and white-guilt-fest rolled into one. I'm no racist but I am fed up of preachy white guilt flicks. And the anti-capitalism is laughable considering the amount of money JC raked in from this film.

Secondly, our hero is doing it wrong. If he really wanted to help the Navi he'd try to Meiji them up a bit. (Google it if you don't know what I mean by that.) It's the only way for them to last in the long term against the vast technological / industrial superiority of humanity.

Spoiler: What they shouldn't have done

Throwing all the remaining humans back into space and being like "Now we're free" and going on as before is the dumbest thing they could have done. Specifically it's the dumbest thing Sully could have had them do. He's human, he knows our history and culture.

He should know that what's likely to happen next is a return expedition with greater numbers and heavier hardware. Space gunboat diplomacy with orbital bombardment aplenty... It's the human way. Sully should know this.

Simply put they cannot remain isolationist and survive. He should have steered them in the direction of setting up a government with a written constitution and opening relations directly with earth. It would be hard for some evil cliche megacorp with its private armies to justify invasion then. And the Na'vi could actually get rich quick selling that stuff.

Thoughts?

 

[Warped9]

I just saw this last night on a borrowed dvd

I wouldn't call it a dumb movie, but yes I agree that I saw the same inevitable consequence that would likely happen after the ending: the humans return en masse with the really big guns.

Essentially what I see here is Dances With Wolves as science fiction. It isn't exactly the same, but close enough. That isn't to say it's bad. It's actually a decent film. To me it's so obviously an allegory for the Europeans clash with the North American aboriginals only this time the natives win...temporarily. But I wouldn't call it awesome. Something is missing for me.

Visually and conceptually it's something else. How the alien world and its life is depicted is rather interesting and it is visually spectacular. That said I thought the design of the Navi aliens a letdown. I just mostly thought them comical looking.

The human tech shown here is very similar in look to the Alien movies. And the way humanity is depicted here is very depressing. Of course in this story humanity is supposed to look bad. And it's also similar to how much of humanity was depicted in the Alien movies. This certainly isn't the original Star Trek's depiction of humanity.

But I liked it enough to get the fuller version dvd when it's released later on.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

Posted on Simon Pegg's Twitter...

Happy to hear all round cool dudes Fred Armisen and Anton Yelchin have signed up for the Smurfs movie but will it just be Dances With N'avi?
about 23 hours ago via TweetDeck

 

[od0_ital]

It will take the humans six years to get back to Earth from Pandora.

It will take them another six years to get back.

Over a decade...its possible that they would find another moon to exploit that could be closer to home, without so much native resistance.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

First off it's a fairly thinly veiled anti-capitalist screed and white-guilt-fest rolled into one. I'm no racist but I am fed up of preachy white guilt flicks. And the anti-capitalism is laughable considering the amount of money JC raked in from this film.

The extent of its "anti-capitalism" is to say that capitalism left unchecked without oversight and regulation or environmental and societal impact studies is wrong. Oh, and genocide is bad, mmkay? Believe it or not, it is possible to be a responsible capitalist and show care and concern for how your operations are going to affect the local ecosystem and indigenous people.

If I oppose removing the summits of hundreds of Appalachian mountains for mining, does that make me anti-capitalist, or am I just seeking a compromise between preserving a beautiful region and benefiting companies, workers, and the people in a more responsible way? Being pro-capitalist shouldn't mean you throw all ethics out the window at the same time.

Besides which, asserting that a movie that allegedly opposes capitalism (it doesn't) invalidates its own premise by attracting audiences and making money itself is absurd.

You're right on one thing, though. I felt some serious white guilt when I saw 'Blue Man Group' in concert after seeing 'Avatar.' Those poor bastards, forced to perform night after night with their makeshift instruments for our amusement, their heads shaved so they can never again perform ponytail sex. It's cruel.

 

[Warped9]

Our own history shows humanity doesn't always do the rational thing. Just imagine how this story gets twisted and spun for Earth media and the howls for revenge start.

 

[captcalhoun]

i saw something about magic flying rocks and just thought fuck that.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

They were communist magic flying rocks levitated by sheer hatred of the white man too, so the OP's criticisms remain valid.

 

[Warped9]

i saw something about magic flying rocks and just thought fuck that.

It was a cool but also definately WTF! moment. I can't get around how that could even be possible even in a lighter gravity.

The other thing that bugged me was that although this obviously had to be at least one to two hundred years or so in the future the corporate guy was still dressed in contemporary clothes with tie and the military guys looked like they had just come back from Iraq.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I haven't seen it yet. I may rent the DVD, but it's nice to hear people talking about special effects and must-see-in-the-theater.
Makes it feel like the late 70s early 80s again!

 

[milo bloom]

Sorry, no. 2012 was dumb. Avatar was paint by numbers. While I'd of course much rather watch scifi like District 9, Avatar was at least an enjoyable diversion due to how pretty it was.

2012 was just trash.

 

[stonester1]

First off it's a fairly thinly veiled anti-capitalist screed and white-guilt-fest rolled into one. I'm no racist but I am fed up of preachy white guilt flicks. And the anti-capitalism is laughable considering the amount of money JC raked in from this film.

The extent of its "anti-capitalism" is to say that capitalism left unchecked without oversight and regulation or environmental and societal impact studies is wrong. Oh, and genocide is bad, mmkay? Believe it or not, it is possible to be a responsible capitalist and show care and concern for how your operations are going to affect the local ecosystem and indigenous people.

If I oppose removing the summits of hundreds of Appalachian mountains for mining, does that make me anti-capitalist, or am I just seeking a compromise between preserving a beautiful region and benefiting companies, workers, and the people in a more responsible way? Being pro-capitalist shouldn't mean you throw all ethics out the window at the same time.

This.

 

[David cgc]

i saw something about magic flying rocks and just thought fuck that.

It was a cool but also definately WTF! moment. I can't get around how that could even be possible even in a lighter gravity.

Magnets.

 

[Caliburn24]

What makes me laugh is how the Avatar DVD is being marketed. All of the countless(and it literally is countless) commercials I see on TV make it look like the humans are the good guys.

Seriously, take anyone who doesn't know a thing about Avatar, have them watch a commercial and ask them about it. They'll say it looks like an action packed us human v. blue alien movie. Even Col. Quaritch comes across as a hero in the commercials.

 

[Samurai8472]

It will take the humans six years to get back to Earth from Pandora.

It will take them another six years to get back.

Over a decade...its possible that they would find another moon to exploit that could be closer to home, without so much native resistance.

By that time RDA will have moved on to capturing a xenomorph.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

By that time RDA will have moved on to capturing a xenomorph.

Just out of curiosity, has Cameron ever given any indication as whether Avatar takes place (unofficially) in the same universe as Aliens? The heavily corporatized spacefaring civilization of Earth and Syd Mead-inspired military/aerospace hardware design aesthetic are virtually identical.

SLR

 

[gturner]

The extent of its "anti-capitalism" is to say that capitalism left unchecked without oversight and regulation or environmental and societal impact studies is wrong. Oh, and genocide is bad, mmkay? Believe it or not, it is possible to be a responsible capitalist and show care and concern for how your operations are going to affect the local ecosystem and indigenous people.

If I oppose removing the summits of hundreds of Appalachian mountains for mining, does that make me anti-capitalist, or am I just seeking a compromise between preserving a beautiful region and benefiting companies, workers, and the people in a more responsible way? Being pro-capitalist shouldn't mean you throw all ethics out the window at the same time.

Hey, as someone born and raised in the heart of coal country (near Cumberland Gap), I love mountaintop removal! We've got to many frickin' mountains. They're too tall and serve no purpose other than shortening the daylight in the valleys by an hour or so a day.

 

[Deckerd]

What makes me laugh is how the Avatar DVD is being marketed. All of the countless(and it literally is countless) commercials I see on TV make it look like the humans are the good guys.

Humans are the good guys. Or did I see a different movie?

 

[Warped9]

The other thing that struck me about this film, and it's neither good nor bad, is how easily I felt this could have been set in the Alien universe. Particular because of how the majority of humanity is depicted and references to "the company."

 

[Deckerd]

I'm not sure about that. The way the 'employees' behaved in Avatar was completely unbelievable - letting a homicidal maniac with a lot of firepower run everything just wouldn't happen - unless they had gone the military coup route. The Alien movies were a completely different setup since the alien(s) in question were not really into negotiating all that much.