In my last two posts, I wrote about Avatar ("Avatar's dream of the ideal self" and "Avatar takes the gamer dream a step further")
Here's Part I another take on the movie by guest "Geek Pride" blogger Mark Roessler, Managing Editor of the Valley Advocate.
[Note: see below for a way to win a free copy of Ethan Gilsdorf's book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks!]
Going Native: Part I
I would have enjoyed Avatar a whole lot more if I hadn't said I'd write about it.
Without the obligation of putting words to paper, if you'd asked me what I thought, right after the credits started to roll and the lights came up, I might have said this:
"Pretty f-ing cool. James Cameron hit it out of the ballpark again. The 3D stereo photography was amazing: really sucked you into the alien landscapes. And the CGI characters were basically indistinguishable from the real life actors. I forgot all about the technology, and I really thought the story and action were thrilling. The aliens looked more believable than they did in magazine photos I'd seen, and the scenes I liked best included the lead female alien on the prowl in the jungle (not only because she was mostly naked)."
Not at all a bad way to spend a weekday afternoon when I could have been back at the office answering email. Leaving the theater, though, I made a beeline to Target so I could pick up a few extra toys for my son to open on Christmas day, and I began to contemplate what I was going to write. As I headed into the toy section, I found that the thrill I'd felt wearing my 3D glasses was gone. Even worse, I felt myself beginning to pick James Cameron's all-time most expensive fantasy apart.
For me, nitpicking an adventure flick is damn near a criminal act. Since I was a boy, I've been a fan of blockbuster Hollywood special effect spectaculars, and these days they're about all I go to the theater to watch. If a movie doesn't require a big screen and incredible sound, I'm happier at home with a DVD. But in my day I've downed mountains of popcorn and gallons of Coke as I sat in the dark, absorbed in galactic conquests, dragon duels and historic epics. Like the filmmakers who spin these elaborate yarns, being amazed and having my imagination transported cinematically somewhere wild and different has become a kind of ritual for me.
Action and high adventure is the perfect tonic for utility bills and taking the trash to the dump, and I've always felt that mainstream movie reviewers miss the point when they criticized the dumb dialog or tenuous plot logic in these kinds of movies. To me, it's like riding a rollercoaster and then complaining about the speed and hair-raising turns. Still, when I began pulling at that one thread, the whole thing began to unravel.
* * *
Before I continue, a plot summary:
On a distant planet, Pandora, there is a valuable mineral that's only found there. An American corporation has set up shop and is mining the mineral, but since the jungle planet is full of wild creatures and angry natives, it has massive military support protecting its staff as they devastate the planet. Along with intimidation through firepower, humans are trying to infiltrate the alien tribes to win their hearts and minds by using avatars: alien bodies that are incubated and raised in test tubes, but then controlled by humans remotely. The human controller attaches wires to his head, lies down in an isolation chamber and is able to inhabit the avatar's body, wherever it may be. In this movie, one of the human avatars-a former Marine-becomes enamored of the aliens' beauty and their exotic ways, and leads them in a revolt against the humans that sends them packing back to Earth.
At its heart, Avatar is standard James Cameron fare: pig-headed corporate boobs looking for quick, decisive action, but who are in conflict with the wait-and-see, take-stock-of-the-world-around-you modus operandi of the scientists. Man versus nature, nature wins.
Tune in tomorrow for Part II ...
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Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks:
An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms.
