io9 
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San Francisco, 5:28 PM
Sat Dec 19
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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03:26 PM
A: When white people stop paying to watch them.
(Race and ethnicity aside, I won't be watching Avatar because it looks like overblown pap and the preview alone is migraine-inducing.)
01:10 PM
12:30 PM
12:23 PM
1) That the Nigerians represent all black people. They definitely don't. Admittedly, there could be more sympathetic Africans, and the few there are could be arguably tokens, but the Nigerians represent the Nigerians.
2) That oppressed people are unified in their oppression. This has never been the case, and all oppressors have used the strategy of "divide and conquer." White indentured servants in the colonies were told that they should be fortunate that they weren't African slaves. Clearly, the Africans in D9 were capitalizing on the fact that there was a new group of "minorities" to push around.
3) That Wikus, though the protagonist, is supposed to be completely sympathetic. He is a very complicated character. I read somewhere that Wikus' last name is supposed to be a kind of joke name in South Africa, kind of the "dumb redneck"stereotype. Wikus is basically a Michael Scott character. He's supposed to be awkward, clumsy, and not very bright.
10:40 AM
Frank Herbert subverts this basic story by making the Fremen prophecy about an outsider becoming the Mahdi a partial fabrication built around ideas and patterns planted by the Bene Gesserit in order to protect their members should they be trapped on Arrakis. Paul and Lady Jessica knowingly take advantage of the prophecy for their own survival and later Paul uses it for his revenge. Herbert has said of heroes, ""The bottom line of the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better [to]rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes." In the second book, "heroic" Paul has become an ineffectual leader whose followers have gone out of control launching a jihad in his name that kills billions. Instead of dealing with the consequences of his actions, he ends by wandering into the desert to die like a Fremen -- only to return years later as a crazy prophet mocking his own empire.
The Fremen aren't truly native to Arrakis, they are descendants of colonists, the Zensunni wanderers who were exiled from the more civilized parts of the universe. Unlike the later colonists they adapted to the desert environment rather than wanting force to the environment to adapt to humans.
02:56 PM
10:34 AM
The fact is, I think you got it wrong. This story is really about the outsider becoming the insider -- that's the archetype at play, it just works really well in colonization stories because the sides are so well defined and it's easy to make the colonizers the bad guys. However, it works in crime stories (undercover agent/criminals), political stories (undercover agent/radicals), sci-fi (undercover agent/aliens), and so on.
The reason these stories are told is because the archetype is powerful ... it's just this particular flavor is so easy to do.
08:55 AM
07:52 AM
When people realize the concept of race is a load of BS.
Alternately, when people start hiring better writers.
-Kle.
09:24 AM
Cripes, humanity could have saved itself thousands of years of war if only you had been born in a small manger in Bethlehem to a virgin lady bla bla blah..
signed,
-Pompous.
09:30 AM
The downside of the human mind's tendency to classify everything into compartments, it seems.
07:30 AM
I thought that Pandora itself was a very three dimensional world -- even without the 3D glasses. Essentially, the 3D only served to enhance certain details, such as depth perception for some of those awesome vista panoramas and certain interior shots that popped off of the screen in a very cool way, and for the Pandoran jungle night sequences, which were very Midsummer Night's Dream-esque but still gorgeous even without the 3D (I kept closing my left eye to see what the film looked like sans the 3D) If I had seen this film even on a regular screen, it would still have felt powerful and profound to me.
I thought that the Na'vi were very well developed as characters, as opposed to the human characters which worked for the purposes they served in the plot, but could have withstood more development. I loved the Na'vi, I loved their language, I loved what they represented. The look of them far surpassed any animated film I have seen. At times, they seemed like physically altered actors in blue paint, other times, they were more obviously motion captured but still looked quite realistic. Their movements, their expressions, their EYES...omg, their eyes. So full of expression and life. And they had killer smiles. They were very cool. Their 10 foot, blue absurdity started to make sense when the story began to show more of what they were about and how they connected to the Pandoran world. The concept of Pandora being a living network of beings was very cool to me. I liked that the implications for destroying any part of such a world were far more severe than simply cutting down a tree. I was supremely impressed with the other forms of life in the world too, the plants, bugs, beasts. The Thanator and Banshees were supremely awesome. Cameron's team really outdid themselves creating the world, I could feel every inch of detail much more than in any video game. I really hope I can see the film again soon, I feel like I missed seeing so much.
Having finally seen it after listening to so much media hype and naysay, I can honestly say that I think they were all wrong about how this film would either be good on a visual level or no levels at all since most of them pretty much dismissed the plot. There IS a plot, and it's a good one. It engaged and entertained me, which is what I think it was supposed to do. Some things could have been more allegorically stated, but as far as I have noted, Cameron is not a very allegorical writer. As far as the anti-war/colonialism-critique goes, it's all true. Jarhead mentality exists, idiocy exists, there are people who just don't give a damn about anything but themselves and yeah, resource wars happen. Avatar didn't tell any lies, it just wrapped what everybody already knows about war, the military and colonialism in a very pretty package full of blue people. If you don't like the truth in an obvious form, you probably won't like Avatar's story. But I didn't personally mind some of the heavyhandedness because the story essentially seemed to me to be more about one man's struggle to escape from his box; from the prison of his closed mind and disabled body. It wasn't Pocahontas, it wasn't Dances With Wolves, it wasn't Ferngully. It was a film about a guy that was searching for himself and finally found himself. The end.
...the end, I hope, because it ended on a tight note that I don't think requires a sequel.
07:27 AM
06:47 AM
04:07 AM
What really disappointed me was that my Theater did not seem well equipped for such a feat. The RealD 3D element was almost lost on a small partially unfocused screen. There were certain scenes that I knew were supposed to be amazing, but the screen did not did not present it the way it was originally intended to be seen. It was a shame.
The story was fine. It had a climax, it had a twist, it had a moral dilemma. To be honest most of the downfalls I have heard were from people that were not able to integrate into the extreme emphasis on the visual aspects of the film. I am not talking about a Michael Bay method, but rather that the environment in itself was a character. You were supposed to grow attached to it by your visual experience. You were supposed to be awed by it and with that in mind to mourn for its impending demise.
Really, in my mind Cameron has attempted to develop a journey with the viewer that is based on being "Blown away" as an integral part of the story and in the end the film does succeed.... Depending on which Theater you saw it of course.
My recommendation: See it in 3D at the best and biggest theater you can.
12:19 AM
You'd date someone for less pretty than Avatar displayed. Admit it.
05:00 AM
If you want my body and you think I'm sexy
come on honey tell me so.
If you really need me just reach out and touch me
come on sugar let me know.
And yeah, I'm Blue
12:06 AM
03:39 AM
08:15 AM
09:33 AM
Natives are mostly invisible in modern American movies, unless they conform to the noble savage archetype/stereotype.
10:55 AM
12:04 AM