Thoughts on Avatar

Disclaimer: If you haven't yet seen the film Avatar, this post won't interest you.

I don't know why I feel the need to rehash this film in a post, perhaps because it's the highest grossing film of all time and I want to get my two cents in. Perhaps because it's the first film I've seen with the new 3D technology. Perhaps I'm just a highly opinionated person (this being most likely) but either way here are my thoughts.

My friend Nina and I saw Avatar on Wednesday night. I like seeing movies with Nina because she likes to analyze films as much as I do. Well, really, Nina likes to analyze just about any topic to death... give her a subject and she can talk for hours. Sometimes it's a little awkward, like when you have to interrupt her because the bar is closing and they want you to go home, or if you have to use the bathroom and she doesn't stop talking to you just crack the door a bit so you can still hear, but mostly it's just good, interesting conversation. Anyway, I hadn't heard anything about Avatar really before I saw it and I didn't read anything or watch any interviews after, so all the gibberish I'm about to write are just my observations. Well, the one thing I'd heard about the film was that it was like Ferngully but more mature...and 3D. And I agree with that whole heartedly.

Thoughts:

- Overall an amazing film. I'll say that now so what I say later doesn't seem like I didn't like it. I did like it, it was beautiful.

- The thing that stuck out to me the most in this film is how much I loved the indigenous people and Avatar's ears. I hope that this film is somehow foreshadowing what the evolution of the human race will look like (James Cameron could have those powers you know) because I love the idea of humans ears expressing emotion the way the people in the films did. Like a cat or a horse their ear movements changed with their emotions; perked up when they were listening, flat to their heads when they were afraid or uncomfortable and so on. I wish I had ears like that.

- Other things I enjoyed about the indigenous people (their race may have had a name, but I forgot it and I'm not going to do any google it): They had a lot of feline qualities that I loved, their faces and noses and their gracefulness. I enjoyed their cat like movements, but Nina didn't really appreciate the hissing.
- I liked that they were so much larger in scale than the humans.
- I wondered immediately why they had such long braids. I liked the answer I eventually got that those little "connectors" were at the end. I think it's an interesting take on "humans" connection to nature to literally make the two go together.

- I couldn't figure out why Sigourney Weaver's character was a smoker. Part of me thinks it was because they needed the "scientist/earthy/hippy" lady to have a flaw, and part of me thought it was some sort of tough guy thing... like she was channeling a character from JAWS or something. Either way she looked awkward as hell with those cigarettes and clearly isn't a smoker in real life. I thought the whole smoking thing was stupid and pointless.

- They really could have come up with a less cliche font than papyrus for the subtitles.

- I, like most people I'm sure, especially loved the night scenes when all of the vegetation glowed. It really was stunning. And like my dad, I especially loved the little jelly fish type flying creatures. So graceful and beautiful. The occasional bug they had flying around was also pretty cool.

- Speaking of beautiful, the lead male role was sexy as hell. I probably whispered that to Nina about three for four times during the film. So lovely.

- I think they missed a huge opportunity with the soundtrack. There were so many scenes that were so powerful and I was conscious of the fact that if say, Disney, had made the film, they would have made a point to make sure the music really hit home. I mean think about it, that scene where Sully finally gets his raptor like thing to fly with him and then they all go flying, the music was pathetic at that point, if they'd worked harder on it they really could have created some goose bumps. Maybe they should have called Elton John.

- Nina and I agreed the Giovanni Ribisi's character was completely underdeveloped. He seemed like a huge force in the beginning and then he became this sad little cliche (one of many I realize) of a "money guy". He's all "we need to make our numbers this quarter!" and it was just kind of pathetic. They threw him in again at the end, but it didn't do much good.

- At some point in the beginning of the film Nina and I whispered to each other that there was going to be a love scene between the main guy and the main girl. We were right. So when they finally kissed Nina was all "Oh, here we go!" and I was all "Yeah and in 3D!" and we giggled, but it was lame. And the whole "We're mated for life" thing was quite strange.

- I saved my 3D glasses so I don't have to pay the extra $3 when I see Alice In Wonderland.

- I could go on a whole rant about how the GI Joe character was just completely over the top and ridiculous... standing in that ship with his hand on the back of the chair and a cup of coffee... but I'll refrain because I'm sure we're all already on the same page there.

- One thing I will give them credit for is not having him die and then come back again and then they have to kill him twice. I hate that. Thank God he just got two arrows to the chest and we could be done with him.

- I really don't feel like going into the part where the whole movie was filled with cliche's about what we're doing to our planet and how we care more about money and power than people. We all got that I don't need to repeat it here.

- But there was a part when they were warned that the bad guys were coming and they needed to flee to the forest and they didn't that reminded me of a quote from the novel The History of Love where the character was a holocaust survivor and said "There were rumors of unfathomable things, and because we couldn't fathom them we failed to believe them, until we had no choice and it was too late." It made me realize how many levels this film could be interpreted on.

- The part that made me the most mad about the film was when they bulldozed that first tree and the guy running the bulldozer had on a trucker hat and a faded denim shirt cut off at the shoulders. I thought "Really?! You really want to make this guy that much of cliche?! Some stupid bulldozing yokel?! As if there aren't enough in this film already?!" It just annoyed me to no end. I kept throwing up my arms and Nina was like "Ok, we get it".

Well, that's it for me, what did you think of the film?