There are lot many problems when you want to write something about a giant, which is not public opinion, the most embarrassing of which is being called a smart-a$$ who is just plain frustrated with life in general and is not capable of enjoying anything good, who find it fashionable to go against the tide because s/he finds it ’cool’, you know, I guess you get the point.
Well, I sure am not one. And I have my reasons writing this piece here. The day I saw the poster of this movie: a blue face with Avatar written underneath, with James Cameron written somewhere, I said to myself that I am going to see it.
Avatar and the blue face made me think that its sure must be Cameron’s interpretation of the legend of ’Krishna’ or ’Ram’ and such foreign interpretation are mostly interesting.
I saw the trailer and I had seen nothing like it before: a blue lady saying ’You shouldn’t be here’ making a gesture with her palms and with a little emphasis on ’be’, made me marvel at the cute reproach, the hanging mountains, the grand warships, the concept that humans are the invaders (for a change) and Sam Worthington, I loved the guy in Terminator Salvation. So it was not Indian mythology but I still would watch it. And boy was I waiting.
And I totally love James Cameron’s work, or whatever I have seen of it. Titanic was masterly, period. It’s still hard to believe Jamie Lee Curtis would pack such a nice a$$ with that face of hers (True Lies) and the awesome action of the movie. Terminator 2 and Aliens are legendary. So this guy is a cool dude and that is the reason it hurt me a little when Avatar did not turn out to be that out-of-the-world. I came out and I would say I liked the movie but I had gone inside to love it and that was a little damper.
To start with, the 3D element didn’t make the impact it should have. It was my first 3D movie and I was very excited but soon I got so used to it that the movie was looking like any other. 3D gives you a sense of depth and relative distance. So for all those scenes, where the focus of the screen is a single primary body, the depth perception is rendered void because you are busy watching the focal element, I mean, when a guy is giving speech about how to break down a mega-tree, why would you see the foot soldier in background who is lifting a cup.
3D works best in scenes like the ashes falling from the sky or the jelly-fish like creatures floating about and when the guy plunged in the water but that’s not the whole movie, isn’t it? Ok, in case you wondering, I saw it in the best theaters the country has to offer. What I mean to say is, 3D was not an integral part of the movie.
But that’s OK, I would rather have it 3D than not. And somebody tell me, why does the successor to the ruler, in a tribe, has to be such a short-fused, juvenile punk? I mean, when a guy is chosen to rule by a sound minded old guy who has a wife who can touch and find that a random guy is pure or not, why would they chose a punk for their successor and groom for their daughter? In all movies it is supposed to be like this it seems, like the same way you are not supposed to pay the taxi driver but I would not expect it to be same in a masterpiece.
But here it was. And the guy was not much of a fighter too, as was evident when he was creamed in that short fight with the ’Hero’. I mean, why him? The whole sequence of this new guy entering a tribe and the ruler appointing his lovely daughter to ’teach’ him the ways of their world is so overdone. For one thing, can’t the old man see that the guy is handsome and so cutely naive and the girl so beautiful that they are bound to have s3x and that would pi$$ the punk off??
O boy, last I saw this was in ’The Last Samurai’ and it has been done this same way in so many movies. There is the curious case of Oriental philosophy. Whenever these guys in Hollywood want some higher sense to give to their movies, they turn east and pick some random vague lines like ’half full cup and full cup’ and ’overflowing cup’ and all that.
Dude, what’s the point of not giving a straight answer? When your dad appointed you to teach me to be a tribal and I am asking you when would I get my ride, don’t tell me ’when you are ready’ like old Chinese Kung-Fu masters and for no greater reason than we have seen it in some thousand movies already. Now I agree that the evolutionary process in this planet has been similar to the evolution on earth and hence the almost similar life forms. But language need not follow the evolutionary similarities.
So when the ’Hero’ is speaking in English asking the Punk to repeat it in the native language, why would the Punk emphasize the same part of sentence as his English speaking counterpart? I would have to speak to give an example but maybe you would get my point when you see the movie. Then the clichéd part of brain-dead army guys who are bound to be trigger-happy and not understand science.
Alright, there was not much scope for the director to be subtle with his characters but the Army chief showed poor judgement also. Why do your foot-fight when you can burn down the planet through missiles? And with the equipment they had, it’s hard to believe they only had air to surface missiles which needed deployment of such heavy aircrafts. And when you want to avoid birds, you fly higher isn’t it? Or the guys must have worked in Red Cross missions before and they were just used to dropping payloads from such low altitudes where birds would peck on them.
The whole military exercise looked childish. But its ok, otherwise it would be hard for arrow wielding guys to knock down such a mechanized army. But, I could not help it, was not the General’s dropping exactly near the make-shift lab at the end, too good to be true, for the general?? Looks to me that Cameron did not just borrow inspiration from Indian mythology but Bollywood too :-) And why would an alien race ’kiss’ to express love? Is kissing an evolutionary development?? I don’t know, but it sure looks improbable. And do all cool aviators have to wear the aviator glasses, those triangular ones? Which Ms. Rodriguez was wearing inside the room? Not all clichés please but why bother??
The movie was a visual treat nonetheless. But when you strive for greatness, the equation should change a bit.
Cameron has a responsibility to make movies which live up to his name and then I, personally, could not help wondering at these points while I watched the movie. I could not give this movie the concession of a work which is ’mostly’ good and hence its low points be overlooked.