Avatar

[kerravonsen]

I've been meaning to post about Avatar, which I saw with JB last week.

One word: Beautiful.
Two words: So beautiful.

(And the 3D actually worked, too.)

But it wasn't just beautiful; sure, the plot was an old and tired plot, but the characterisation was good enough that it didn't feel old and tired. No, not particularly deep characterisation, but it wasn't flat, either, and it could so easily have been.

Worldbuilding! Yes! Languages with subtitles! Alien critters! Strange loveliness!

JB and I spent quite a bit of time after the movie discussing the strengths and the weaknesses of the worldbuilding, and wondering what sort of fanfic sequel one could write. So it was good in that way, too.

As soon as I heard the word "unobtanium", I smirked. Unobtainium! They actually called it Unobtainium! (grin)

My first remark after the end of the movie was "You know they're going to be back." Because there is no way the Corporate Lackeys aren't going to come back to steal all that wealth. Full-out war, with more troops and more firepower. Heck, they wouldn't care if they nuked the planet from orbit.
This isn't necessarily what we thought that TPTB would do in a sequel, this is talking about internally consistent story logic.

JB's favourite idea for getting around this was that the planet was really a spaceship whose drive needed repairing (like a generation-ship), and they could avoid the war by not being there when the Earthers came back. I didn't think that was feasible, but we both agreed that the Unobtainium was probably some sort of antigrav mineral used in starship drives, hence (a) the floating mountains and (b) its high value.

My favourite idea was that an alien spaceship had crashed on the planet in the distant past, and some of its biotechnology affected life on the planet; specifically, that the ship's computer was the "soul tree", and it had infiltrated all/most life on the planet.

The biggest difficulty (plot hole) was the planet's atmosphere. On the one hand, the need for, and behaviour in regard to breath masks, made it look like there was little or no oxygen in the atmosphere: the phrase "four minutes and you're dead" points to that (the brain can live four minutes without oxygen), and the fact that one can recover from exposure to the atmosphere simply by having one's breath-mask restored.
On the other hand, the fact that the home-tree burned, and burned so fiercely, indicates that there is oxygen in the atmosphere.
While an alternate explanation for the need for breath masks is that there is some kind of toxin in the air, that doesn't explain how (a) it acts so rapidly and (b) it is recovered from so rapidly.

One of the nice touches was that here we have the natives being taller than humans, and then it gets mentioned in passing that the planet has a lower gravity than Earth, which thus explains why the natives are taller.

I loved their feline grace.

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a very beautiful film, and I agree with you that while the plot was entirely paint-by-numbers, it still made me care for the characters and the world, which is no mean feat.

Oddly, the one tidbit I absolutely hated was the use of the word "unobtanium." Felt like something someone put into the script as a joke or a "filler" name, that never got replaced.

[dreamflower]

Yes, I thought it was a joke as well. I mean, you knew as soon as you heard the name that they weren't going to "obtain" it! It did seem like a deliberate play on words.

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

Unobtainium has been appearing in sci fi novels since the 1950s. It appears in movies too, like The Core (2003).

In Mountain biking, we use the term for really expensive stuff beyond the reach of mortals. eg. "unobtainium puncture proof tubes".

Unobtainium on TV tropes

[kerravonsen]

Felt like something someone put into the script as a joke or a "filler" name, that never got replaced.
I considered it to be a sort of in-joke (see link above to the TV-tropes entry on Unobtanium) and I was torn between the sheer gall of them to actually call it "Unobtanium", and laughing because they did call it Unobtanium. It didn't strike me as a filler that they were too lazy to replace; rather, I felt it was deliberate.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Well, if it was deliberate? Than I felt it was out of character with the rest of the film. *shrug* I just really, really didn't like the choice, there. (Actually, I think it might be the in-jokey nature, in a film where the worldbuilding is what grabbed me--anything that came across as less-than-Real-World would have rubbed me the wrong way, I think.)

[dreamflower]

Actually, I think the familiarity of the plot worked to the movie's advantage-- it was old, like an old comfortable shoe; you knew basically what to expect of the story and not having to work at it freed your mind to enjoy the astonishing pretties! I also agree about the worldbuilding and the possibility of fanfic. I don't want to write any myself, but I'd love to read some-- especially "prequel" type fanfic, aimed at the first contact with the Na'avi and at Grace Augustine. Love to see some backstory for both her and for Trudy, who were my favorite characters.

I also got a kick out of the forest battle-- another use of "old" to move the story along. If the Na'avi had been three feet tall and furry, they could have been called Ewoks. But again, it was fun, not "old and tired", and the viewer could know from the start how it was going to end.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I too was reminded with the battle between the Ewoks and the Imperial force. But these aliens had the great advantage of not being "cute".

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I'm in 100% agreement with your review. "Beautiful" is the word that I'd use to describe it too. And the 3D even worked even when wearing the 3D specs over ordinary specs.

I hadn't noticed the plot hole that you spotted, but it's a very good point.

I too grinned at the name "unobtainium".

I understand that a sequel is planned, but I don't know any details.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I like those idea, the planet being a literal world ship, and the crashed ship one. Perhaps you should write some fanfic. I haven't looked at any because I'm sure most will be about alien sex, and anyway I'm happy with the story as it is.

I was surprised at how well they recovered from a presumably toxic gas in the atmosphere too, but maybe there was a compound that stopped oxygen being used in human breathing and cells.

The only trope I didn't like much was "white man joins natives and becomes leader", beating them at many things. OTOH much of that can be explained by him having the warrior mentality, which was needed, and also the passionate love of the planet and being in his avatar body.

I do wonder what happens next though. Does he form a standing army, which would affect and change a culture that works very well, or does he, with the help of the others, form a strategy using the world consciousness somehow, which would be a lot better for the Na'vi, and also a lot more effective against humans.

I loved their feline grace.

Me too. I just loved looking at them.

[kerravonsen]

The only trope I didn't like much was "white man joins natives and becomes leader", beating them at many things.
True, but I was impressed by the fact that they avoided the cliche of the "chief's heir" being kicked out by the hero (as a karmic reward for disliking the hero); instead, the hero said that he needed his help to lead the people, and they actually worked together in the end.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I liked that too. I think Jake stepped back afterwards, being just the war leader, which is also a good thing. He wouldn't know enough to lead them in general, and that's as it should be.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Unobtanium made me giggle, I was expecting Marvin the Martian to turn up.

Interesting idea for the spaceship. Especially if you consider the Na'vi seem to be the only bioform built on quadrupedal lines, most of rest of the planetary population seemed to be hexapedal.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I loved the film lots, even though the plot was a standard one. :D

I like the idea of Pandora being a world ship that won't be there when the Earthers return. Hee. ;)