The curious case of Avatar

[Graham Kennedy]

On the note of curious things about Avatar, I find it interesting how the crowd here has reacted to it. The plot, in large part, is a political message and hits with people it resonates with.

Based on political threads a lot of folks here come off as hippie socialists, at least as Americans measure such things, however even from the earliest threads here there's been a lot more love for the capitalists than I'd have anticipated.

Is it sort of like in the meme Coalition linked where folks on this site are predisposed to root for the people with the spaceship? Backlash against an overly straightforward plot?

I don't think it's so much "straightforward" as it is that it doesn't respect the audience too much.

The parallels with Titanic are pretty striking; in both movies you're pretty much given little to no leeway in how you're supposed to feel about what's happening or the characters. Even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Rose is cheating on her fiance. We must be made to like Rose, since she is a protagonist. Therefore we must hate the fiance. Therefore pretty much every single thing the fiance says and does is sneeringly evil or stupid. Never for one second does the movie offer up the possibility that his side of things might have some merit.

Same in Avatar. We MUST like the Navi and hate the Humans. Therefore the Humans must be completely without merit, whilst Navi life must be just the best thing ever. Never mind that primitive people do NOT live lovely lives of peace and joy - there's a reason the last seven thousand years of Human civilisation has been one long drive to insulate ourselves from nature as much as we possibly could!

And never mind that half the technology on Earth probably depends on a regular supply of unobtanium. Room temperature supercondutors? At a guess, we're probably looking at Earth's entire power distribution system. Probably the power generation system. Probably the whole transport system. Probably the entire computer industry. The spaceflight industry. Basically anything that makes or uses electrical power in any form, you know? If that supply dries up, it would be the apocalyptic catastrophe of all time for Earth. Billions of people are going to die.

But we mustn't be allowed to care about that, because then we might weigh those billions against the couple of hundred Navi in this tribe and find ourselves not liking the Navi too much. So the movie simply never offers the Human side of the equation; the executives care only about profit, with that attitude being treated as something they do as a kind of evil hobby. No hint that the profit comes from, you know, providing services that keep an entire planet running.

Actually in this respect it's a lot like Insurrection, which left a good many people (and even one Studio Executive) saying "Um, isn't that Admiral guy right when he says that it's worth moving six hundred people to benefit tens of billions?" Not that I agree with that, but at least it's a question worth asking. A good movie would have put it on the table for the characters - and the audience - to chew over and make their minds up about. But Cameron won't do that because then people might come out thinking his message is wrong, and he's not having that.

[Coalition]

On the note of curious things about Avatar, I find it interesting how the crowd here has reacted to it. The plot, in large part, is a political message and hits with people it resonates with.

Based on political threads a lot of folks here come off as hippie socialists, at least as Americans measure such things, however even from the earliest threads here there's been a lot more love for the capitalists than I'd have anticipated.

Is it sort of like in the meme Coalition linked where folks on this site are predisposed to root for the people with the spaceship? Backlash against an overly straightforward plot?

Look at the budget for the film. He could've spent another ~$50k to get a plot where both sides are right and present excellent arguments, and the Administrator has to make a hard choice.

The Trees are a connection network, forming an organic computer
vs
Introducing a potential alien intelligence onto Earth with no way to predict what it will do

Mining orbital rocks for Unobtainium
vs
Only needing breathing masks when on Pandora

Work with the locals taking more time
vs
We need the material now

A culture that has extended itself through thousands of years and has allowed the people to be in tune with a giant organic intelligence
vs
The likelihood that they will never advance their culture or do anything with their intelligence (a reference to the 2010 novelization, where the sentients in Jupiter were measured against the sentients on Europa, and a decision made)

Millions or billions of people on Earth that need the material
vs
Tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties among the Navi in case of war

Living as a human being paralyzed from the waist down
vs
Living as a Navi Avatar where everything is slightly different and far more beautiful


We've gone from cheap special effects to CGI almost human-quality. Unfortunately the plots have gone from probing questions about humanity and our future to simple messages that children can understand. Let's go back.

[McAvoy]

I noticed in that past 15 or so years and especially more recently that studios are more willing to spend a shit ton of money for special effects than they ever have before. Remember when it took ingenuity and a better script so that they could save money on a special effect? Nowadays instead of someone saying that is too expensive now we get a million dollar five second shot of something CGI that could have easily have been cut out.

[Mikey]

Huh. Remember when Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempt to produce Dune got shit-canned because of all the pre-pro money spent on Giger for design and sets, O'Bannon for SFX, etc., etc.?