S. Worthen | Weblog

Avatar was gorgeous. I knew the 3D was going to be good from the water droplets in vacuum. I was thrilled when, despite all the aerial sequences, I realized that there hadn't been a single vertical drop shot, nothing to induce freefalling vertigo mid-movie. For that, it is not only well-done, but considerate and accessible to a wider audience.

Two things threw me out of the movie along the way. The first was freezing cold hands. I know that 200 people (or so) in one movie theater generate a certain amount of heat, but not enough to counteract the air conditioning. Neither was it that the mall's heat wasn't working. If it hadn't been, it wouldn't've been open at all, since it was perhaps 5°F outside at the time.

The second was a line in the movie itself. I knew from reviews that the plot was generic and cliché but, after several months of training the main character to be fully one of "The People", it was a real blow when his life mentor told him that now that he was fully A Person, he would have his pick of females to mate with. For life. Just like how the Na'avi pair with their dragonalikes for life. I guess female Na'avi aren't really part of The People then?

Minor note: Interesting that we never see the Na'avi eating. We see them hunting meat, but not cooking or consuming it. There is native fruit and agricultural practices which work on this planet, but we only see them in use on the perimeters of the human's base camp. The main character eats one piece of fruit, and that given to him by a fellow human. If the main tribe cultivate fields, they are not within several miles of where they life.

P.S. The movie made me think of Miyazaki's work a lot - the association of environmentalism and the natural world fighting back with the clincher, floating mountains.