Okay, so I know the meat and potatoes of the film are anti imperialist and you are led to cheer on the defeat of the U.S. empire, but that does not make it a good film any more than smearing feces all over a wall and saying ‘that is what capitalist society looks like to you’ is art.
I will admit, Avatar did stink slightly less than a wall with feces smeared across it, but I found that it dragged on for too long, and that it was more or less Dances with Wolves crossed with Apocalypse Now. At least with a wall covered in shit, I can get the point and move on to the next one in a few seconds.
Politically, I also found it to be one of those ‘actions of an individual’ films. The main war vet in the wheelchair had to do all the groundwork on his own accord rather than trying to be an inside agitator for mass action (which clearly there was plenty of room due to soldier disillusionment in the operation).
The main female Na’vi character (Naytiri) started of as a very strong and assertive character, but as Jake becomes more and more versed in the ways of ‘Pandora’ (Shit and unoriginal name for a planet) she becomes more and more of an extension to his character rather than the other way around.
While I do understand that this film is an allegory for imperialism’ role in undermining the peaceful existence of indigenous tribes (in particular the U.S.A’s.) I also did not like the way that the Na’vi are depicted to have structured their primitive society so that when a male becomes a warrior, he is allowed to choose a female. Yes, I know he said “I have already chosen mine, but she has to choose me” and it was all very romantic, but my point is that anthropologically, this is just false and pre industrialized societies were not like this at all.
And to be completely honest, if it wasn’t for that big fuck off ‘Helms Deep’ battle sequence and the fact that I had to pay my friend back after the film for the ticket, I would have been bored stiff and probably left the cinema.
All in all, while this has been a somewhat incoherent rant about why I didn’t enjoy it, objectively it does have good politics. I just like to knit pick and found it highly unoriginal. To close with, I would give it 2 stars which means wait to see it when it comes out on DVD, but then again, you won’t get to see it in 3D . I guess that means don’t see it at all unless you want to be privy to what people with lame taste in films are talking about.
February 4, 2010 at 2:31 am |
You missed the most eye-gougingly terrible thing about the movie: ‘Unobtainium’. I have not heard of a noun, much less the name of a mineral, that was as campy as ‘Unobtainium’ since the 1960′s Batman seires or even the original Lost In Space.
February 4, 2010 at 5:07 am |
I thought the film was excellent and whilst can half see that some of the writing wasn’t the best, it didn’t ruin the film for me. The film’s strength I thought was the explicit references to the war on terror, such as ‘fighting terror with terror’ and ‘shock and awe’ to name a few.
I don’t know what all the fuss is about with the film being ‘unoriginal’ Sure, they are very close to film like Pocahantos but I don’t see this as a weakness. Classic storylines with certain morals can be used again in new ways, which avatar did.
Most action movies have highly unoriginal plots but no one goes on a basically ideological attack on those film.s
I think the fuss about Avatar is because it brings up again ideas that mainstream thought don’t want to discuss i.e. colonialism and imperialism. It’s like Marxists being told that their ideas are old and they need to come up with something new, that takes into account ‘grey’ areas.
February 5, 2010 at 3:28 am |
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