16 January 2010

My Observations on the movie Avatar

I am not going to cover much of the ground Suki already covered in her Avatar review, other than where our opinions differ.  She did a fine job and made some great observations.  See the link at the bottom of this post for her take on Neytiri and my response to that in the comments on her blog.  Also, take her advice and visit the Pandorapedia for more depth into key elements of the movie.  I am trying to do the same thing with my book series, putting background out on the web so the readers can get into the story and look things up as needed.  Now I have an example of how it is done right and will be working on that soon.

This is yet anothe of James Cameron's films that is in my all-time favorites list and has bumped Alien into being my second favorite of his.  Since seeing Avatar I have not been aable to stop telling people, anybody, everybody, that it is a must see movie and one of the best movies ever made.

Note: I am approaching this from the theory that James Cameron's intention was to write and film an interesting story.  There are hard ways to do it, there are easy ways to do it and there are many right ways to do it.  He did it right and I am not going to second-guess his decisions on portraying characters in certain ways.  I will point out why I think things were done and, in time, I am sure that his thoughts will make it out to the internet and I will see how close I got.

This was my first IMAX 3D experience and I highly recommend it.  Viewed in Alexandria, VA.

Observations

I did spot a hint of Libertarianism in the movie. Both Neytiri and Jake are rugged individualists. That's about it. The rest is pretty much mischaracterization of industrial business people and halo polishing of communal living.  The contrast makes for a good story.
I did not notice the "flatness" of the scenes in the mining compound vs. the depth of the Na'vi jungle scenes until Suki mentioned it.  She is right and it does have a "Wizard of Oz" effect.
The Na’vi have quite a few parallels to American Indians. These similarities are good for most viewers, especially with the sort of “Cowboys vs. Indians” story that is Avatar.

The Na’vi do not have wheels. At least I didn’t notice any. A sort-of similarity to American Indians. The Indians did have wheels on toys but no need to use them for transportation since they had no draft animals until the Europeans brought them to the Americas. The Na’vi do have draft-class animals and they have other tools. Just because they don’t have a need for agriculture or industry and they are masters of both running and flying beasts is not a real reason, in my mind, for them not having wheels for other uses.

The movie focuses on one Na’vi tribe, which is probably a good idea because that’s where Neytiri is and there is a significant romance story in here. They are fierce defenders of their part of the jungle, but otherwise portrayed as perfect Walden Pond residents. They do have property, but all personal property in the form of their weapons, clothing and sleeping hammocks. Like American Indians, they have territory as a group and a tribal hierarchy. No deeds or property lines.

Late in the movie it is revealed that there are other Na’vi clans or nations around Pandora. They happen to align with various American Indian Nations from the time of American Manifest Destiny. Plaines Na’avi, Swamp Na’avi (Seminoles?), Mountain Na’vi, and others. It helps the average American viewer and has the what-if twist: “What if the American Indians all banded together and kicked the Europeans out?”

As mentioned at the link below, Neytiri is one of the greatest female characters ever created. She is beautiful, brilliant and skillful. Her brilliance comes in handy when saving Jake’s life. His real life, not his avatar body.

The humans are portrayed as destructive, invading, stupid assholes with the scientists on the friendlier end of the scale. Suki finds Sigourney Weaver’s character to be a reincarnation of Ripley from Alien. I saw a hint of that, but after a few days away from the film I think it was just visual for me. Her character is the total she-wolf lab boss bitch, who softens up toward the end.

Jake, the operator of the Avatar that Neytiri fall in love with, is more of a bumbling fool than Suki described. However, I and everybody else with a military background, know people of all ranks who demonstrate his lack of maturity and discipline. Cameron’s tapping into the male trait of “boyishness” is a good. He was able to use that to put the character in peril, have Neytiri save him and grow him up too.

As mentioned above, both Neytiri and Jake are rugged individualists. The twist here, and it is quite effective, is that Jake is not the white-knight type in the beginning. He is the diamond in the rough that the girl finds and polishes. It is a geek fantasy, I think and is great in fiction. Maybe Beauty and the Beast light is too strong, but that is the idea I was having.

I have heard more people describe the Jake and Neytiri part of the story as Dances with Wolves. I was spared having to see that, so I don’t know. I immediately thought Continental Divide, whit John Belushi. There are many examples of this sort of couple in the movies and in print, so pick the one you like and compare. Guys like it, women like it at least in enough numbers for it to work over and over again. I even used a hint of it in my book series, but it may not be noticed since most of the growing up is done by the female character with help from the male.

The IMDB site seems to be incorrect on who is who with the humans. RDA is running the show on Pandora. No government employees. No Army, no Marines. The brutal security forces are RDA, not military, as far as I can tell from the Pandorapedia. At first blush, this would seem Libertarianish, until you discover that the Interplanetary Commerce Commission has granted them a monopoly over all resources off of earth.

I had the thought that using more Special Operations heavy security force would be a better use of funds and resources than the Air Cavalry and Combat Engineer heavy mix that Cameron chose for the film. In reality that would be better, but in fiction that creates a completely different story and the big battle at the end would not be so spectacular. Yes, I did get so into the movie that I had to think later that it is a story and certain things have to happen for it to be an exciting story. Big battles are exciting.

Apocalypse Now homage that I have not seen anybody else mention: when Pilot Trudy Chacon is shot down near the end she calls out “mayday mayday, red one is hit, I’m going in” (may not be exact) same as the first OH-6 in the Air Cav attack in Apocalypse Now. Other quotes and observations are on IMDB and I did notice most of them.

IMDB notes that the Na'vi arrows do not penetrate cockpit glass when they were fired from the ground, but did when fired from above due to gravity assist, not losing energy, etc.  Another obvious factor is the arrows fired from below glance off of the glass.  All of the penetrating shots from above hit the glass plates square on, the most effective way to penetrate any flat plate with any projectile.

Hard to think of anything else to note here. The above is not meant to be critical of Cameron’s work at all, it is nothing more than observations. It is a great story, a great movie and I will continue to recommend it to anybody and everybody.

Suki's take on Neytiri, my response in the comments.

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15 January 2010

Suki's Avatar Movie Review



Great movie, one of my favorites ever!

18 December 2009 (USA), written and directed by James Cameron

Viewed in IMAX 3D, Cherry Hill, NJ with two friends who know military stuff.  Note: Military stuff below provided by input from those friends and their friends, because I am a lil clueless there.

IMDB has the basic plot description:
A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
My description:  A tribal culture clash between humans of Earth and the native Na’vi of the moon Pandora over the control of that world’s resources.  Each side values different resources resulting in violent clashes over use of the commons.  This is a decidedly anti-libertarian story with the human miners portrayed as murderous thieves versus the natives as communal stewards of nature.  I thought all of the humans were contractors, but IMDB has many of them being military, so there is a heavy dose of rent seeking on the part of the humans too.

Let me save all of you the time that I wasted thinking about different things I noticed in the movie that seemed odd.  The Pandorapedia has an explanation for just about everything I was going to comment on as being strange, like the choice of aircraft that the mining company uses.  Additionally, IMDB has goofs and things confused with goofs too.
For example: I thought it odd that the small Scorpion gunships would still be using 20th/21st century technology so far in the future.  But my friends noted that they seemed to fit with the mission of the miners and the threats they faced.  Pandorapedia confirmed that and had gobs more info like what the rotor system is called:
Dual co-axial ducted-fan rotor systems with a total of four 3-bladed prop-rotors.  Twin Magnussen KE-76 turbine generators driving counter-rotating annular ceramic motors.
BTW, guy friend knew the generic description off the top of his head.  The distraction here?  Unless they are made of ‘upsidasium’ they must be fueled by ‘undepletium’ because they are always fully loaded and hovering.  Oh, the miners are strip mining for ‘unobtainium’ (yes, this is true) and that it the only thing I can think of in any James Cameron movie that I cannot forgive him for ;)  Well, maybe 'molecular acid' too.

Since this is a James Cameron film, much of the gadgetry is similar to his other movies and Sigourney Weaver isn’t Ripley, she is sort-of Ripley renamed Dr. Grace Augustine.  Back to the tech, Cameron uses various display technology for the workers in this film.  Some have “surround” holographic displays, most have clear flat panel touch screens, but they all are well thought-out for functionally.  Of course, the big fancy 3D display is in the mine boss’ headquarters and he is not really good at operating it.

My favorite part of the story?  The ROMANCE of course!  Actually, right up there with the display technology, but I am odd that way.  Jake is a former Marine Corporal who lost the use of his legs in battle.  Not that cute, in my opinion, either.  He is the twin brother of a scientist who was working on the Avatar project, i.e., flesh and blood remotely operated beings that are very expensive.  The scientist brother died before the mission, so Jake was asked to fill in for him, since he is an identical twin.  I really did not like the way he was portrayed as “stupid,” like the rest of the mining company employees.  However, it dawned on me before I asked a stupid question, it does make the story work and makes him more heroic in the end.  His Avatar is a lot hotter than he is.

When the security chief (Colonel Miles Quaritch) discovers an Avatar operator is a former Marine, he sees an opportunity to use Jake to infiltrate the Na’vi and see if there is anything they will take to move from their home so that it can be mined for the massive unobtainium deposits beneath it.  Quaritch's job is made easier by the condescending manner of Dr. Augustine towards Jake.

As we get to know Jake, he demonstrates boyish, childish, behavior that might be cute back on earth, but in a lab where he is first getting to operate his Avatar it borders offensive and dangerous.  Not offensive as in “Cameron, what were you thinking?”  The actors are convincingly offensive in their roles, as I think was intended.  Even more offensive is the lax lab procedure.  Jake is given almost no prep or briefing on what to expect.  He is getting to use legs for the first time in who-knows-when and NOBODY told him what to expect, or what the initial evaluation procedure was going to be.  So, he tries out his new legs in the Avatar body, wrecks a lab and goes outside to run, like a little kid.  It doesn’t get better for a while.

When the Avatar team finally gets out into the forest Jakes childish behavior is almost his end.  He has that annoying boy trait of touching anything he sees, even if he has no idea if it will eat him, or poison him.  Like an unmannered child in a museum.  While he is supposed to be the armed guard for the team he wanders off, touching things, until he finds something that wants to eat him!  Several, actually, so he gets chased through the forest and almost dies escaping.

While trying to survive the night alone he is spotted by one of the Na’vi, Neytiri.  She is lovely, graceful and lethal with her bow and poison tipped arrows.  As she stalks the intruder and is about to shoot, a sign comes to her that she shouldn't kill him and the man-boy-sitting begins.  Other than sparing him she really just wants him to leave her forest and she does note aloud that he is like a baby.  Noisy, messing with everything, etc., as he clumsily follows her graceful lead through the wood and she is eventually given the task, by her mother, one of the tribal elders, to educate Jake on their ways, which she objects to like a child.

Neytiri isn’t your average Princess.  She is an expert in everything around her.  She can kill or tame anything around her.  Like Laura Croft of the wilderness, without a gun.

By the time Jake is about to take his “final exam,” something else that can kill him, she is rooting for him as her warrior brother is rooting against him.  Then he dies.  Just kidding!  The couple flies together on large reptiles and start getting romantic, after almost being eaten by a giant flying reptile.  Jake gets to do the ceremony for becoming a tribe member and I am not going to spoil how the couple actually decides to be a couple, but I wanted to cry, it was so well done.

Neytiri saves Jake several times.  She is so badass!  When Jake is “unconscious” (Avatar link shut down) she crouches over him with her knife drawn to protect him from any threat.

The romance is broken for a while when Jake tries to warn the Na’vi that they must leave or the “sky people” (humans) are going to kill them all to take the unobtainium that is below their sacred trees.  Again, the people back at base didn’t help him much with how to do something like that.  He messes it up, is seen as an infiltrator and not truly one with the Na’vi, Neytiri dumps him and the security people shut off the Avatars.
Not to worry, Jake proves himself by showing everybody he really is trying to save them, asks for the right help and get it.  In a fantastic twist of the Knight on the white horse, he comes back to the tribe in the way of their legends and leads them against the miners.

I hope I didn't spoil too much.  Now for the bits I really didn’t like, which is less than it looks like all written down.

I thought all the humans on the Pandora were contractors and the ones with guns were ex-military.  IMDB says some are military.  If that’s right, then they are using the military for something a mining company should be hiring the Space Pinkerton’s to do.  Major rent-seeking by the mining company too.

Everybody with a gun is portrayed as stupid, evil, an asshole or all three.  Even when scientists are given guns, they become stupid.  Trust me, there are plenty of smart gun loving scientists today.  Maybe it is different in the future.

Mining operations are run by evil incompetents who think shooting everybody is cheaper than any other course of action.  All they know how to do is mine and shoot.  They try other courses of action only as boilerplate for doing what they wanted to do anyway, bulldoze away the forest until they find the unobtainium.   I suppose a new conflict would have to be written if they did something unique, like digging tunnels with big nice future tunnel diggers (like the Channel Tunnel was dug with) to get the unobtainium and leave the beings above alone.

Floating mountains with gushing waterfalls.  They must be made of upsidasium and get monsoons when off camera.

Flying reptiles are able to grab Scorpion gunships and fling them to the ground.  Unless the gunships are also made of upsidasium, or at least lowmassium, they should be much heavier than the flying lizards.  As informed by others, they don’t use tail rotors so grabbing the tail doesn’t really do much if you have less mass and thrust than the Scorpion.

That is all for now.  I want to see it again, so I may be back for an update.




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14 January 2010

Pat Robertson on Haiti

Pat Robertson on Haiti and that is an Entertainment Weekly link because that is the only value this story has:

I feel terrible taking any attention away from televangelist Pat Robertson during his big media moment, but I’m kind of fascinated with how 700 Club co-host Kristi Watts barely reacts as he informs her that the reason there was an earthquake in Haiti is because “the people of Haiti got together and swore a pact with the devil.” Do the producers send a current of electricity into her just before Robertson’s gonna say something f—ed up so that she freezes up and just nods? This is the second-biggest trainwreck I’ve seen all day.
The basics: in the only successful slave uprising in history, the slave leader gave an offering of a pig before the revolt began, in 1791.  Whoa!  Never mind that Haiti is slightly worse shape than many former French colonies.  Think that might be the key?  We should all count our blessings that they are not a former Dutch colony.

Here is the video of Robertson:



Advice Goddess has a discussion on her blog now.


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13 January 2010

Dan Rather loses bid in CBS lawsuit

Dan Rather loses bid in CBS lawsuit

The short story:  CBS fired Dan Rather and paid him the rest of his contract to get rid of him.  Then Rather sued them for even more money, even though he got paid and went off to shows that nobody watched.

Now, the loser loses again: No soup for you!

They needed to go through a whole court shebang for this?


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I heart the scarsm point (¡)

The Sarcasm Point, from Slate

Oh, Slate is such a favorite of mine ¡


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10 January 2010

Harry Reid Apologises for his Vast Stupidity

Majority Leader Reid apologizes to Obama for 2008 remarks

Reid's remarks about Obama were revealed in "Game Change," a book detailing the 2008 race by Time's Mark Halperin and New York magazine's John Heilemann.
The authors describe Reid assessing Obama's strengths as a candidate. Reid, they write, "believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination."
Is this sort of ancient speech common in modern Nevada?

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