My biggest problem with the movie is why in the world would Eywa/ Pandora "choose" him?
They did? I thought they bought into the logic of his argument - Eywa wants nature to have a balance, and therefore doesn't get involved, but he points out that the balance is going to be screwed up by the human invaders (citing the evidence Eywa would have from Grace's memories). I'm actually interested in how that works - does Eywa controll all the animals besides the Na'vi, or can it just jack into them whenever it feels conveinent? This is where the insistence on the 'science' aspect clashes a little bit with what is essentially a mythic moment of storytelling; for animals to side with Gods need not be explained in such a work.
Eywa appeared to "choose" Jake when he first meets Natiri and the seeds of the sacred tree light all over him. This is completely contrived and no attempt at explanation is ever made.
Beyond that he isn't 'chosen' by Eywa; but by the vagaries of the script, certainly (it's suggested he tames the Turok simply because he had an outside-the-box approach to it, but then, isn't it always the great ability of the white man to both accept the native ways and then improve upon them in these stories?)
Was that suggested? If so, I didn't catch it. He simply shows up on the Turok.
The only interesting character was Natiri - it would have been a hell of a better movie if she had been the lead character and the hero of the piece.
She's pretty much the same as Jake, though, in that she's a very simply drawn character wiith a rather obvious character arc. It'd certainly be a different movie if she was the hero, though, and one of these days I'd like to see a movie about aliens which is told from the alien perspective.
I thought Natiri had much more of a defined character - and one that was far more admirableand heroic than Jake. She was repeatedly shown to be brave, loyal, empathetic, spiritual, and intellectually and physically adventurous. Saldana also turned in the most convincing performance. The only time I had any kind of emotional response was due to Natiri's pain and passion.
Meanwhile, as part of this tale designed to assuage white guilt, the humans are greedy and evil (all but moutache twirling) except for the small group of kindly scientists and one token brown skinned solider. The Na'vi are spiritual, eco-friendly, peaceful, perfectly egalitarian and sexy. Jake's going over to their side lets the audience think how they would do the same in his shoes, recognizing the superior values of the natives (which are highly idealized and totally unrealistic for any society) and choosing to join them - thus allowing the white guy to once again appropriate the possessions of the natives (now, instead of their mineral resources - their ideas and ways of life). So, the audience gets to simultaneously assuage their guilt by identifying with the natives over the greedy humans and possess the groovy parts of native culture.
Why is it always "white guilt" anytime someone tries to pay respect to another culture or another way of thinking?
It's white guilt because a white guy enters and masters their culture. If the idea of the story was to show respect for the native culture, then a native would have been the hero who united the tribes and fought off the invaders. As it was, they needed a white guy to do that for them, and even their own Goddess preferred him to any of Her own people. So let me ask you - if the story is about how great the Na'vi culture is, why did we even need Jake to be involved?
Or tries to suggest that maybe western culture isn't perfect and has gotten some things wrong in the past?
There's nothing wrong with pointing out that the history of Western culture is one of domination and genocide of native cultures. That's not what this story was about. If this story was simply about that, then, again, a native would havbe been the hero of it. But Natiri wasn't the hero, nor was Tsutsey, or any of the Na'vi. Jake, the white guy, was.
In any case, I think it's a stretch to say this movie is being condescending or racist in regards to the Nav'i. Yeah they're held up as an ideal, but all the movie is saying is that they should be left alone to live in peace and (horror!) that the natural world is a beautiful thing that should be preserved.
There's nothing wrong with the ecological message except that it is delivered as part of fetishizing indigenous cultures as unrealistic noble savages, instead of as civilizations with strengths and weaknesses like any culture. And the movie is condescending and racists towards the Na'vi because, according to the story, Jake was able to equal and even lead all the Na'vi after spending only three months with them. The other Na'vi warriors had spent a lifetime learning the forest and the ways of Eywa, yet Jake walks in and becomes the one to lead the battle because, according to the story, even an ignorant, and rather dumb, white human man can learn everything these noble savages have to teach in a mere three months. That is the very essence of condescending.
And the only "evil humans" are the members of this one corporation (and their mercernaries) that are trying to strip mine the planet for profit. Kind of hard to see the positive in that. Hell, we even see the evil Colonel willing to exercise restraint early on; it's only at the end that he resorts to violence.
Indeed, one of the great weaknesses of the movie is its cartoonish, moustache twirling villains who might as well have "I am EVIL" tattooed on their foreheads.
I'd forgotten about that. The only explanation given appears to be Neytiri's; that he has a good heart.
