AvatarAuthor: jawapro
Date: Tue 08/12/2009 11:04 PM
I’m bored - so lets talk about a movie that isn’t out yet...
For those who don't know, there's a movie on it's way called Avatar. Apparently there are heaps of people that are extremely excited about it - but so far I haven't met any. It almost seems like the hype is faked. If we pretend enough people are interested, people will be fooled into getting interested. Or maybe I just haven't been talking to the right people.
It's a movie by James Cameron. Apparently he's most famous for making Titanic, and being lazy since. While I'm sure Titanic was an ok movie, I have never managed to sit through the whole thing without getting bored and going to do something else. On the other hand, Terminator 2 and Aliens were also Cameron - so he IS a good director. He should be more famous for those.
Anyway - I've watched the trailers for avatar, and it looks weird and predictable. It’s half CG, and half Live Action and looks well shot, but the story looks overly predictable.
Human armies are attacking a planet for some reason (this bit looks good) while the natives of the planet (big ugly blue things) fight back with primitive weapons and sort of magic. Somehow the human scientists are able to turn one of the humans into a blue thing, and send him on a spying/sabotage/intelligence/something mission. Of course, he makes friends with the blue freaks, and probably falls in love with one of them. They will eventually find out who he really is, and if it's as predictable as it appears, he will join them in fighting against the humans. I haven’t done any research other than watching the trailer - but this looks like where it’s going.
So the point of the move? Humans are bad, aliens are good. Natives are good, newcomers are bad. By extension, all of Western colonization was bad - and we should be ashamed of it. While it certainly wasn't all good, I'm not ashamed of the colonist period of history. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the British Empire.
So the big question is, will Avatar (which is apparently being waited for with baited breath) prove to be interesting, or just very predictable? Wouldn't it be cool to have a twist at the end. Turns out the planet they are fighting on actually used to be Earth. Mankind had colonized other planets, then some blue alien freaks came and conquered Earth, teraformed it, and now humanity is trying to re-take it.
Or perhaps keep going with the humans are bad idea. When the inevitable happens and the blue guys find out that the disguised human is actually a human, instead of that human deciding to side with the aliens, he says something pithy, and then proceeds to kill all the other blue guys around him. Still means that the humans are the bad guys, but it's far less predictable and more interesting.
So am I interested in Avatar? Well, more than I was. The human military machines (ships, helicopter, mechs etc) look pretty sweet. And I'm interested to see if it's as predictable as it appears. So I'm interested and will go to see it, but I'm expecting it'll suck.
Any of you interested (assuming you've actually heard about it)?
Comments: 1
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