"Only a three hour movie."
Um, are you joking? This movie is three hours long and can you think of one instance of Jake's character developing beyond a Heel Face Turn? There is a veritable cornucopia of shorter movies with better character development, Mirror Mask, Slumdog Millionaire, hell, even Shaft has more complex characters.
And So Okay Its Average? Yeah, that's most of the criticism, this movie was hyped to the stars, had James Cameron as the director with some excellent actors, with a divine budget and the newest in technology, a movie with that many advantages is not supposed to be average!
And the Na'vi are hated cause they have reasons for being bonded with nature, it's like a shitty PSA and really cheesy to boot.
"Whoa" Keanu Reeves
I broadly agree with everything you've said, but in my opinion the prophecy bit is a bug, not a feature. You can't throw a rock without hitting a prophecy in planetary romance, so Cameron's at least got precedent on his side, but that's still one cliche that could easily have been avoided without changing the basic structure of the story.
I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.
Other than the taming of the Giant Flyer, which I thought was pretty cool, I agree. It was an all right movie, but hardly God's gift to mankind, or Satan's curse on mankind or whatever.
This is still a signature.
^^^ I meant "only a three hour movie" because I felt that if they wanted to do character development, plot, and the eye candy, it'd be hella long. There wasn't room to fit it all in. I think it's a little strange that you don't count the "Heel Face Turn", that's when Jake goes from "durhurr I want my legs back" to realizing there's something bigger than himself going on. In the beginning he's the self-centered Idiot Hero but he finds his place with the Na'vi after learning some competence. Not exactly the best instance of character development, but it's there.
I didn't think the literal bond with nature was cheesy, I thought it was pretty cool. I didn't read any environmentalist stuff into it, it was just "Whoa, Pandora is The Matrix with plants!" IMO if they hadn't given the Na'vi a reason to be so touchy-feely about nature, then it would have been too narmy for me and the Na'vi wouldn't have been nearly as sympathetic. Honestly I thought the bond thing changed Avatar from typical cheesy "save nature!" to something completely different. Probably the difference between me and you is that I watched the movie with no expectations at all, while it looks like you have.
^^ I'm generally not a fan of prophecy bullshit, don't know if you could tell I was being half-exasperated, half-joking :P
^ It was cool, just kinda silly when you step back and think why didn't any of the Na'vi try doing that before if it was so easy.
Character development, plot, and eye candy can all be done at the same time, and can be better done if done at the same time. If you can't get any real development in a 3 hour movie you've failed as a filmmaker.
@melloncollie My problem with the Na'Vi is that they seem like selfish tools, they want to protect nature because it's a powerful weapon not because they actually give a shit, they're selfish, very very selfish, and that bothers me. Also they're violent assholes with the exact same characters as Pocahontas.
@Big Mad Draco Yeah, you don't have to an hour of plot, an hour of Scenery Porn, and an hour of character development, you should be able to blend them all together.
God this movie was forgettable, all I remember is anger and annoyance interspersed with brief moments of utter badassness by Quatrich.
"Whoa" Keanu Reeves
This may just be me, but one difference I've noticed between good action movies and bad action movies is that bad action movies view character development as something so totally different from the action that separate character building scenes and action scenes which gives a choppy bloated feel to the film. On the other hand good action movies develop characters both in and out of action sequences using the action as a tool to develop the characters rather than just visual spectacle.
I suppose it's commendable the Na'vi's connection to nature was biological rather than mystical, but to me that just made the movie even more black and white. They're not just one with nature in a metaphorical sense, they actually are at one with nature because their environment has evolved in such a way they can plug themselves into the things in their ecosystem.
I might not have had trouble going along with that if I'd had the level of expectations I might of an episode of Power Rangers, but this movie cost $300 million and was more than a decade in the making. I don't feel wrong asking for more than a pretty CGI jungle.
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so okay it's average
Due to all the hype, I finally got curious enough to get the DVD and see the film. I have to say, while it's definitely not the second coming, it's not quite So Bad Its Horrible and all the people looking into all the offensive under/overtones might be overthinking the movie.
The first half-hour or so was physically painful. I thought Jake was a complete moron (you're a soldier not some stupid bratty kid with no common sense), I think the only reason I didn't wish for him to die a painful death was because he hadn't kicked any dogs. But after the Na'vi take him in his idiocy was kind of endearing in an Idiot Hero sort of way. I also didn't mind because otherwise we'd be going into Mighty Whitey Mary Sue territory.
Now I will address one of the biggest complaints about this movie: Jake being Mighty Whitey. Honestly, if the writers had been really careful maybe they'd have fleshed out a couple other Na'vi characters besides the Proud Warrior Race Guy and The Chiefs Daughter, and have one of them do the important leading in the final battle (or hell, even pray to Eywa, I thought it was too ironic that Jake would be the only one to think of that) and have Jake help out but not be fully responsible for their victory. But it's only a 3 hour movie and he's the protagonist, so the writers were on time restraint and all that. So I didn't make too much of it.
I will say though, the one thing that broke my Willing Suspension Of Disbelief was Jake taming the biggest Giant Flyer. None of the Na'vi had seriously thought of doing that before? He made it look easy. But maybe Eywa interfered so that could happen, since Jake was part of a prophecy blah blah, and a similar thing happens with Neytiri and the dire wolf thing later that was obviously Eywa's doing.
I don't quite get all the hate for the Na'vi either. They're shown to have actual reasons to be in tune with nature and all that jazz, I thought that was more relateable than a purely mystical rehash of religion. There was one Wall Banger moment (trying to shoot sticks at guys in flying tanks? Great idea!), I was hoping they'd be more creative/resourceful/smarter than that.
So Yeah, definitely a flawed film, but I am not understand of the huge hatedom. So Okay Its Average.