What to watch: Avatar Review

After watching Avatar I wasn’t sure if this movie really deserves a review. But few days ago I have read a bizarre article. And bizarre is a weak word in this case. It sounded like this: “He, Jake, was getting his face closer to hers. She rubbed her cheek to his cheek. He kissed her mouth. They are exploring each other. Then, she drew herself back with her eyes full of lust.
Neytiri: Kissing is very enjoyable, but we have something a lot nicer.

She drags him down until they are both kneeing, staring at each other, sitting on the shining moss. Neytiry gets her tip of the tail closer to Jake. He does the same, impatiently shivering. Their nerve fibers touch and move like they posses their own will. Jake is deeply shaken by the contact of his nervous system and hers. It was the deeper intimacy he has ever encountered. They kiss and they fall on the moss bed, with light beams embracing them.
Later she falls on her chest, exhausted. He tenderly caresses her face. “

Isn’t this one of the most pathetic things you have ever read? I bet it is. Where are the bo**s? Now expect a whole new generation of girls, eager to rub you with their ponytail. Thank you mister Cameron!...maybe before you’ll quit making movies you’ll make a last one about the vegetation and wildlife which can be found inside a cave, unattached to anything, flying through space by itself) and how this wildlife is destroyed, repeatedly, by that human-like-pe**s-shaped larva, which, of course, wish to perpetuate its race regardless of anything, destroying everything in order to deploy its “life fluid” . Uhm, maybe I should make this movie and become rich overnight.

In that quoted article I’ve also found out that Avatar (in my humble opinion, an intellectual- mediocre film) made a big splash in the movie world, being close to overtake Titanic in earnings. I don’t say Titanic was Movie-God, but at least it isn’t as hollow as Avatar. Even more, it appears Avatar has put in motion a great wave of suicides. This is not necessarily bad, probably the average IQ of our planet rose a bit after that happened.

And now my opinion: It is a movie that can deeply impress only children, filmvirgins and those of us who were not the brightest in their class. Now if you’ve seen Avatar and you have been impressed by it, you probably are thinking I’m just a big jerk, an ignorant who only wants to destroy other planets and who didn’t see the hidden messages behind the bluish world.
And I would tell you that those messages were hardly hidden, and this is the exact reason why this movie is mediocre. But, it seemed this combination of so called “hidden messages”, well known director, superb visuals, and lies like “it took us six years to develop the plot” was in the end the perfect money recipe. I want to begin my review with this funny picture, which describes the originality of the plot and the stupidity of the believers. http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/130283/original.jpg

Why did I watch the movie even if i knew it is weak and over appreciated?
1. 3D- I wanted to see the wonder of science with my own eyes. If i wouldn’t have had the opportunity to watch it 3d probably I would have never watched it.
2. I was bored and without any movies to watch
3. I was kinda curious.

Important things to emphasize from the beginning:
The plot is weak, the graphics are amazing and the director is not that good (I love to be in contradiction with the popular belief)...but the movie adds something valuable in the education of not so educated people.
Graphics:

Sublime, it is obvious they worked very hard to achieve this level of graphical perfection. Probably they knew they don’t have a story so they were forced to work a lot more on the graphics. Of course, it wasn’t Cameron who realised that, I can easily imagine him being some sort of dictator, talking and talking, while others do the actual work. I hope it is obvious he wasn’t the person who did all these special effects, maybe he suggested most of them, but you need highly skilled people to achieve what they have achieved with Avatar...and Cameron is a film director, not a 3d artist.

Story:

If i would have a scale from 1 to 10 I would have at least 7 useless digits there. I wouldn’t give Avatar more than a 3 on a scale like that. Why do I say this? In each and every moment in the film you can accurately predict what is going to happen next. This suggests me that writing the plot was a lazy ride, the writer took no moments of deep reflection, he just wrote and wrote- a decently bad plot.
The single “nice” moment in the plot was somewhere towards the end, when the guys dressed in blue jerseys (avatars) seemed to be utterly defeated by the guys in the-colour-on-your-hands jerseys (humans). [If you got confused by that jersey thing and you think both colours were blue, please turn off your computer and visit a medic as soon as possible. Especially if you are not capable of multitasking and you are holding your breath while reading this article.] But not even that moment is not that impressive and out of nowhere, but it is above the movie average.

And now the part that made me write this whole review. The “hidden” messages. They are so hidden as while watching the movie I was wondering how this movie was allowed to air in cinemas, being so explicitly against USA past foreign policy. Ah, or maybe this is the reason they worked six years on the story, the continuously tried to change and censor it, until a new man came to power in USA so the story was ok then. Short in movie example: “We’ll fight terror with terror” is what the commander from the movie says after the main character attacks the machine that brought the humans, exactly the same words George Bush said before invading Afghanistan. Oh, new thought: the main avatar was in fact a human too, is it a reference to what has happened in that dark September in USA? I’ll search and see if there are any crazy people claiming this. I’m saying crazy because if the movie would have desired to point out this fact the plot would have been something like-the commander orders the avatar to destroy that machine, so he can kick some avatar’s ass without any other explanation. Commander’s behaviour is pure dictatorial, and in the shots in which he passionately talks he resembles George Bush with great accuracy. Then the whole idea with that expensive ore it is again inspired of the sole reason of Iraq invasion. And, for a complete stupid picture, all the typical Hollywood clichés are gathered together to create a very easy to grasp movie. There are environmental references too. In order to obtain the ore, the humans were supposed to destroy all these beautiful forests. And yeah, it is a moving bit when huge rusty excavators are marching through that paradise. It is normal to be touched by that image.

Funny stuff:

It’s the only movie I know in which humans are conquerors and not conquered and enslaved by aliens. And they did something bad out of it! Masochists. There was a point in the movie where avatars were attacking humans war ships with bows and arrows; so funny, I was very close of yelling “go humans”, but i was tempered by that lady next to me who was crying a river for the hopeless blue monkeys.

Bad director:

I went on with the idea that he had a very nice and polished in-movie environment but he didn’t know who to take full advantage of it and make the supreme movie. But, while I was writing this review I have read other two made-by-professionals reviews, in which they say that James Cameron was never good at making stories, but telling stories. So he has always had bad scripts, but excellent presentation. If this is true, I only can say James Cameron would have gave humanity a huge gift if he would have worked with brilliant script-writers.

Conclusion:

Adding together all the minuses I have found I came to realise that Avatar is a bigger piece of a puzzle containing solutions for today’s society problems. Basically this movie manages to make an important message more accessible to people who were unable to understand it before. Sadly, it seems it also started a wave of unnecessary extreme reactions from already established and educated societies. And my own experience showed me that the real danger comes from less developed civilisations which were kept under a certain level of terror (religious, politic or economical)

I would say Avatar is a worth to watch movie, but if you already saw tons of brilliant movies and read hundreds of great books it will show you no new ideas. But as a visual feast is a definite yes.
Let us stop fighting terror with terror, but fight it with culture and peace.



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