<p>I just saw it :]</p>
<p>I liked how they portrayed the indigenous people.</p>
<p>I thought they were portrayed kind of like Native Americans…spiritual, connected to nature, bows and arrows…</p>
<p>^Yea. That’s what I was thinking too. And the “I see you” phrase.</p>
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SAME HERE. It was coll how they won though.</p>
<p>I actually though the indigenous people were overly idealized. Shouldn’t people at their stage of development have tribal warfare, human sacrifices, SOMETHING that our culture would frown upon? It was just so easy to sympathize with them that the audience didn’t even have to think.</p>
<p>Of course, it didn’t help that they were all impossibly attractive.</p>
<p>^Attractive? Haha…I guess in some uncovnetional way…they were ALL SKINNY. and blue, in case no one noticed.</p>
<p>Also, the fact that there WERE different clans I took it to be that there had been/would be tribal warfare…perhaps they should have included that…but yea; also all the corporation people were SOOOO one-dimensional, as was the general…</p>
<p>I saw it about a week ago in imax 3d and it was awesome. although i do agree that the storyline wasn’t really original but the visual effects were amazing. my brother loved it so much, we’re probably gonna go watch it again next week, haha.</p>
<p>No, I have not seen it.</p>
<p>Did you guys know that almost all the actors who played the natives were black?</p>
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<p>I’ll take that as a compliment ;)</p>
<p>^The one actor who isn’t black (not including extras), I believe, is Native American.</p>
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This. I complained about that a lot to my sister. The division into good and evil is so easy, simple, black and white. The plot in general is too simple. Though simple can be good. Many movies with more advanced plots become less impressive when viewers realize that it’s not complex, just convoluted. Nonetheless, simpler plots can be done with some grace. Even that sort of black-and-white bifurcation of good and evil can be handled more gracefully.
The plot works even less when viewed as an allegory (and everything Cameron has said makes it sound to me that viewers are supposed to take it as such). When I made complaints to my sister, with whom I saw the film, about the difficulties of living in a Neolithic society and the fact that Earth has much more to give the Na’vi than “light beer and blue jeans,” as Jake put it, my sister said that we don’t know enough about the Na’vi to know if they need these things. And she’s right. We don’t know if they have a high infant mortality rate, or the average life expectancy. We don’t know if they suffer famine on a regular basis, or how far away they are from developing significant agriculture. And Earth would have had to develop new technologies for the Na’vi for this new moon if they wanted to give them the benefits of modernity (nonetheless, humans could undoubtedly get “there” technologically before the Na’vi).
When we view the film as an allegory, we do, because we know how all of those things were on Earth. Returns to nature are not all good. It’s not even close to all good. Maybe the development technology leads, in Cameron’s mind, ineluctably to the destruction of the planet (or moon) on which it is developed, but with the millenia of greater health and longer lives it brings, moving towards modernity can be seen as a better path than remaining Neolithic. I just wish Cameron would have shown more balance, both in the portrayal of Neolithic society and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Avatar in 3D = best digital visuals ever!</p>
<p>I saw it, and all I have to say is that I saw this movie about a million times. It’s called Dances with Wolves.</p>
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Me and my friends said the exact same thing.</p>
<p>^ I thought of it as more of a “Pocahontas” meets “Dune.” The plot wasn’t that great but in IMAX 3D the visuals and graphics are AMAZING.</p>
<p>Although the visuals were quite amazing, the script and plot of the movie itself was extremely simple actually. Everyone I watched it with was correctly predicting the events in the movie, simply because it drew from the plot and structure of so many other social/political commentaries of this nature.</p>
<p>It also bothered me that the Earthlings were so upfront about their interest in the planet. Better scenario:
CORPORATION: We need to get them out of the trees so we can civilize/free/bring democracy to them.
JAKE: So why are we only “helping” the ones living on a pile of Unobtainium?
CORPORATION: Because shut up!</p>
<p>I get the impression that they were afraid to take any real risks with the script, so the plot came out bland and predictable. If it wasn’t for the visuals, I would say it sucked.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the majority. The plot was a little on the Pocahontas side, but the visuals were stellar. Seeing it in 3D gave me a headache though. Maybe I shouldn’t have fiddled with my 3D glasses so much.</p>
<p>I’d have thought that the human race would’ve been more advanced in terms of warefare by the time the movie was set. Why’re we still using guns? Yeah, there were some cool robotic whatnots, but you’d think they’d have lasers and light sabers with all the new link technology that they were using in the science lab.</p>
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<p>Revolutionary not due to the script but due to CG effects–particularly the new type of CG Camera or something.</p>
<p>I think Wikipedia has a lot on the subject. <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film[/url])”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)</a></p>
<p>I saw it in IMAX 3D. It’s basically Dances With Wolves with a love interest and crazy special effects. It’s very very pretty, and I would say that the computer generate imagery in the movie is some of the best ever. the 3D aspect was pretty lame… and it gave me a headache (Unlike the old red and blue 3D technology, this IMAX 3D stuff works with some strobe effect, and it can really hurt your eyes… especially when you’re watching a 3 hour movie). </p>
<p>If I had to give the movie a letter grade it would be a B. The plot is probably a C because this story has been repeated soo many times, and the dialogue was pretty generic. The special effects are the only reason to go see the movie.</p>
<p>I hated it. My friends and I kind of fell asleep and then snuck into Sherlock Holmes. It’s an acquired taste to say the least. But the graphics were just amazing!</p>