"Avatar" Comments (SpoilerFest)

Let’s be clear from the outset: Avatar is nothing more than a meshing of religious, mythological, evolutionary themes, within a mostly well-concocted (if extremely formulaic) plot, powered by visually stunning scenery and innovative effects. As such, it neatly conjures the Matrix and Star Wars recipe (among many others): a collage of heavy-handed themes explored within tried-out plot templates and spectacular FX, be it bullet time, space explosions or motion capture / 3D. Aside from the technological merits, it brings about nothing new, yet it’s entertaining enough to make a good product. It reminds one of Solaris and Being John Malkovich, without being deep enough to be as thought-provoking.

A few bulleted thoughts that grabbed my attention:

-Gaia: The high point was how the Gaia hypothesis was presented: a collective set of memories from the planet’s (moon, actually) sentient inhabitants from eras bygone preserved within itself; a planetary Library of Alexandria for the ages. It’s an interesting evolutionary concept, the natives’ fortunes tied to their ecological surroundings; their shared experiences, their past, being preserved in the spirits of their ancestors. No need for books (or memorizing them à la Fahrenheit 451) or computers, one can simply use a built-in biological “port” to connect with the shared collective wisdom: a true democracy of knowledge.

(Moreover, the representation of a symbiotic evolutionary process wherein both, people and planet, evolve together as a holistic, interdependent Being, and are sufficiently entangled to the point that the fate of different tribes is (ostensibly) intertwined with that of their home celestial body, is a nice metaphor of the Cold war doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction. The biological and ecological dependence is an organically-developed—by Nature itself—system of checks and balances: if sectarian strife brings about war, collective destruction of all factions, sooner or later, is assured. Every martial “victory” one tribe may attain over another is, by design, a pyrrhic one. The equivalent of the contemporaneous “armed peace” here on Earth—sans technology extrapolated to its tragic worst: nuclear weapons—has organically materialized. Darwinism at its romantic best!).

Religious undertones notwithstanding, the proposed scientific model (neural networking of “spirits” in another phase of existence with not only planet, but its flora and fauna too) analogizes an actual human brain in a quite elegant fashion: an Armstrong-ian giant leap from the mystical to a rational, scientifically-feasible template for an ecosystem in inextricable communion with the living beings that populate it.

-Buddhism: Just as Terminator presented Christian parallels in the annunciation of John Connor’s birth and supposed messianic stature, here Cameron threads a line towards a more philosophy-friendly, deity-less religion: Siddhartha’s own, Buddhism: Sigourney Weaver’s character’s is the Buddha that not only reaches Nirvana and becomes one with Truth & Perfect Knowledge (represented by the sacred tree, which is a proxy for Gautama’s Bodhi Tree), but also serves as the catalyst that, through its enlightened perspective, informs Pandora’s “sentient ecosystem” about the impending danger to its existence, awaking it from its passive, dormant state, so it can fulfill its own Darwinian purpose: survive through centrally coordinating its planet-encompassing neural network for an all-out, survival-of-the-fittest war against an exogenous enemy menacing the status quo upon which its existence is predicated.

(Sully himself can reasonably be read as a bodhisattva that abstains himself from reaching Nirvana and remains with his people, perhaps, not only out of love for la femme de ses rêves, but to eventually lead them to an evolutionary scientific leap harmonious with Nature, ushering a new era of progress).

-McGuffin: Cameron tends to use McGuffins in his films (John Connor in the 1st Terminator, la Coeur de la Mer in Titanic), and now he brings forth the unoriginally-named unobtanium, a priceless mineral that abounds in Pandora, coincidentally right under the tree where the native protagonists dwell. This serves to introduce the theme of the resource curse, i.e., the presence of a valuable commodity causing strife and exploitation to poor civilizations (rather than enhanced lifestyles) for reasons both endogenous as well as exogenous (this was most recently brought to life in the magnificent Blood Diamond). The “twist” here is that the natives were in such an early evolutionary stage (a non-commoditized, spiritual society) that they had no need for what the colonizers could offer them (i.e., no shiny mirrors for gold rip-off); their only desire being the status quo of their simple, yet spiritually-fulfilling existence, hence no bargaining was feasible, and war, inevitable (avatar infiltration or not).

(One glaring faux pas was using an actual piece of unobtanium rock placed in the corporate manager’s office in order to facilitate visual exposition to the audience, serving inadvertently to compromise the credibility of the story: in an actual corporate setting, a 20 million (or so) dollar mineral wouldn’t be idly sitting in a manager’s office to be shown to curious visitors; rather, it would be earning a profit in the market. Most shareholders would agree with this, to paraphrase one of the characters. Again, this is a small instance of actually detracting from the believability of the plot by trying to visually enhance exposition to the audience).

-Lack of peripheral characters: Besides the main 4 Na’avi protagonists (the leaders of the clan), the rest of the tribe is an anonymous mass of acolytes apparently devoid of individuality or opinions of their own. It would have been interesting if they had expounded more upon the basis of their society and shown a collage of the village’s daily activities.

-Emotional Evolution: The hero’s journey story prototype is made more interesting by the use of the antagonists to show the character’s emotional transition from human (when a Na’avi was his bête noire), to a man emotionally detached from his original race and progressively more attuned to his new nature and surroundings (the Colonel, initially a paternal figure of sorts, becomes his enemy). Kudos for this nifty trick!

-Deus ex machinas aplenty. The various other clans are only obliquely mentioned in one quick scene, yet that‘s sufficient to summon them at a moment’s notice, and garner their blind acquiescence and servitude when needed. This point should have really been worked upon via more screen time explaining the commonalities linking together Pandora’s different Na’avi clans (yes, they are symbiotic and common belief in Toruk Makto takes care of the leadership issue, but still it seems too contrived and convenient) . Without said scenes, the impromptu “coalition” seems like a gratuitous platform for an FX extravaganza typical of lesser films such as 2012 and 10,000 B.C.

On a lesser scale, the Na’avi poison arrows suddenly being able to penetrate the helicopter’s cockpit was a stretch, but most sad of all, was the wasted opportunity in the scene were Sully’s avatar was selected by the “flowery” souls of generations-past to be invited by Neyteri to the village. This introduced the messianic-chosen one theme—without justifying why he was chosen—when there was an actual reasonable explanation consistent with the screenplay: Sully’s avatar was, DNA-wise, part human, part Na’avi. Couldn’t his Na’avi side have been the previous Toruk Makto which, after being instantly organized by the spirits, received their protective embrace, thus explaining his sudden acceptance? Did Cameron left this (seemingly) correct explanation out to provide a more mystical feel? Whatever the case may be, the picture is lesser in its absence.

Screenplay: This was definitely the film’s nadir. All the interesting themes explored (colonialism, capitalism, human—and alien— individual and societal nature, symbiosis with the environment, et cetera), are diffused in an extremely formulaic script that seems back-engineered to fit the director’s agenda. That being said, the main characters are very well delineated and show a malleable emotional growth in alignment with the plot’s progression (excepting of course the hardcore capitalist and warmonger colonel who remain as static in the film as they would likely have in a real life setting).

The dialogue, on the other hand was more effective, drawing on a minimalist, to-the-point style—with few witty one-liners—as is to be expected from scientists and tribal beings in communion with their spiritual selves. George Lucas should take note: verbosity sometimes distracts attention from the plot. In Avatar’s case, the dialogue struck a perfect chord with the mood of the film and characters. Less is more, sometimes. Well done.

-The middle of the film seemed a bit overlong than it should perhaps be, but in retrospect it’s necessary to understand the character’s immersion into his avatar’s world and his subsequent emotional transformation.

Score: Frankly, this is one of the most spectacular scores I’ve been treated to, not because of a particular piece of music that elevates itself about the rest (like the signature John Williams’ scores from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, and such), but because of the seemingly perfect way the sound coalesces with the spirit of each and every scene it accompanies. When a score can tell a story by evoking the feeling of the images before your eyes, when image and sound fuse to capture the essence of a shot in richly textured detail, you know you’re in the presence of greatness. Hail, Mr. Horner!

Oscar. Besides set design, score and a plethora of technical awards, I just can’t see this film deserving any of the major recognitions. (Definitely not original screenplay or best picture, although best Director looks like a reasonable proposition). Despite the solid storytelling and a creative meshing of well-known themes and ideas, the overall framework of the film is too formulaic to make it a deserving winner. Of course, the paradigm shift brought about by the 3D technology is a technical element that fortifies its case and surely must be considered.

But in the end, it’s the sociological context in which the film’s technological prowess is being introduced that will secure the best-picture Oscar: at a time when the business model of movies as a (theatrical) experience is being challenged by a tsunami-like wave of new media that menaces to shift film-watching to the PC, laptop, cellphone (maybe even the microwave, eventually!), Avatar brings hope that its added dimension (both literal and metaphorical) will help galvanize the public back towards the theaters, and maintain alive the romance between audiences and the silver screen as the medium of choice that links generations together (a Tree of Souls, if you will).