Jan 292010
AVATAR: I wasn’t planning on seeing it. I’m not a big fan of James Cameron, si-fi, or animation. After it made a zillion dollars I was still happy to stay home. But then it won the Golden Globe for Best Picture and Best Director! Reluctantly, and with low expectations, I paid my thirteen dollars and sat in the second row to take in the spectacle that is Avatar.
Did I like it? Yes and no.
The 3D technology was amazing–I dodged angry animals and flying fern fronds throughout the movie. The settings were interesting–Pandora was lush and beautiful; the command center ordered and calculating.
Mr. Cameron gave Avatar’s Na’vi people a vibrant shade of blue with subtle tiger stripes (the only subtle thing about the movie), and feline-like faces and eyes that made them look at home in their setting. But, their heads were large and their bodies very slim, giving them an “alien look”. And yes, I know that they are technically aliens, but the blue combined with the over-sized head made them look like cold aliens and un-relatable. I would have preferred (James, I hope you are listening) a curvy, more sensual body (muscular for the male aliens) to make them more humanoid than alien, warmer, and interesting–all very important characteristics if Mr. Cameron wants us to aspire to his Na’vi people. He chose to make the Na’vi people literally larger in stature than the humans, which drove home his figurative point–that they are “bigger” people than we Earth-abusing humans. The over-simplification of this theme drives me crazy. Somewhere between loin cloth-wearing aliens that apologize to everything they eat, and arrogant humans that destroy everything they come in contact with for the almighty dollar, lies the truth.
Mr. Cameron also chose to rely on the cliche’ of military figures as ruthless and heartless. Fortunately, recent television images of American military personnel in Haiti delivering food and water, rescuing people from rubble, and otherwise aiding desperate and grief-stricken Haitians, have helped to dispel the myth that Mr. Cameron seeks to propagate.
My biggest problem with Avatar was its lack of originality. It was Pocahontas with a touch of Star Wars thrown in. For some people–mostly male and between the ages of birth to death–this won’t matter.
I quit dating for about six months when I was a teenager because seeing Star Wars ten times just seemed like enough. I didn’t “get it” but the teenage boys I was dating got it plenty! However, twenty-five years later when Star Wars was re-released, I took my five year-old son to see it and boy-oh-boy, I got it then–we were mesmerized. I saw George Lucas today as I was leaving Starbucks in the Presidio and I wanted to go over and throw myself at his feet and thank him for such a great movie! You’ll be glad to know that I just smiled and murmured “good morning”. Maybe I’ll feel differently about Avatar in twenty-five years watching it with my grandchildren, or then again, maybe I will just ask if we can watch Star Wars or Pocahontas instead.
Avatar will garner many Academy Award nominations and should win some technical and artistic ones, and maybe even best director. I will be disappointed if it wins best picture–that should go to Up in the Air, or to James Cameron’s ex-wife’s film, The Hurt Locker.
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