Minor Avatar gripes

[pozorvlak]

So, Avatar: as you've probably heard by now, it's very, very pretty, has little to recommend it by way of script, plotting or characterisation (to quote chromatic scthewriter: the solution to flat characters is not 3D, it's better writing), and it has a really stupid ending.

Other than that, I quite enjoyed it. The fight scenes are good. But I'm going to air some minor grievances anyway, because these things have been bugging me.

First off: when Jake Sully arrives, the scientists are all "ooh, he's a Marine, he's going to be such a thicko, why did they bother". Er, no. He's the identical twin of the scientist originally slated for the mission, which means he shares his genome and upbringing: hence, there's a very good chance that he's highly intelligent. Secondly, he's had extensive experience of jungle warfare in Venezuela¹, and thus should be at home working and surviving for long periods of time in a jungle environment (in a rather different ecosystem, obviously, but there must be some transferable skills, especially given how much Pandoran jungle looks like Earth jungle). Thirdly, he's a reconnaissance specialist, which means he's been trained in close, careful observation. Put all this together, and you have the makings of a first-rate field assistant, which is not something to be sniffed at. Yes, scientists can be dismissive of expertise from outside their field. But they're not stupid, and they'd certainly think of the identical-twin thing.

Secondly: is Colonel the most evil rank, or what? At least as far as the movie biz is concerned. A re-watching of Akira suggests that yes, it is. Relatedly, Col. Miles Quaritch is another entry for my ongoing list of "evil characters called Miles in fiction".

Thirdly, the ending. Oh God, the ending. There were at least two ways they could have recovered the situation:

1. Sully and/or the scientists discover that unobtainium is produced as a side-effect of something the Na'vi are doing, on a reasonably short timescale. Hence, the only way to assure the continued supply of unobtainium would be to come to an accommodation with the Na'vi.
2. Instead of babbling about "ten to the twelve connections", Sigourney Weaver could have pointed out that the biological uploading/mind-gestalt technology represented by the Pandoran jungle (USB dreadlocks and all) represented a potentially vastly bigger economic opportunity than the market for novelty anti-gravity paperweights. Mining is halted while Phoebe's idiot brother² hotfoots it back to Earth to raise MOAR VENTUER CAPITOL.

Or they could have kept the Dien Bien Phu stuff, and then have Phoebe's brother come back a few years later with nukes and bomb the Na'vi back from the Neolithic to the Pre-Cambrian. Because if you're going to make an allegory for the genocide of the Native American populations, you might as well go the whole hog.

Anyway, I'd like to end on a more serious note. The displacement and genocide of tribal peoples is not safely confined to the past or the cinema; it's still going on now, and it's much more brutal than Cameron dared to show. If your planet is affected by the issues raised in this feature film, please consider donating to Survival International³.

¹ Even though he later appears completely unable to move tactically in a jungle environment. Never mind, there are bigger plot holes out there.
² Did you notice him? Giovanni Ribisi, AKA Phoebe's idiot brother Frank from Friends. If you ever get the chance to catch him in the Kieszlowski-written film Heaven, do take it.
³ Hat-tip to James "Two Doctors" Mackenzie for the link.

Comments

[inkvoltslove.livejournal.com]

I had many of the the same problems with this film. Also, is it really necessary to include the (white male) Jake Sully character as an audience avatar, so to speak, to suture with, in order to make the narrative effective?

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

They did. Genre authors may not need a sympathetic viewpoint character, and get by with excellent writing and narrative to fill a clued-in audience.

But when you're reaching for a mass audience who don't generally 'get SciFi you need someone the audience can identify with - he's their introduction to the odd world being shown.

Star Wars IV had Luke Skywalker - he's the everyman we identify with: a kid with hopes and dreams. Star Wars I had ... no one really we could ID with.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Excellent point, but I think bdunbar's right about the mass-market: you and I have a lot more experience watching/reading SF and grokking new worlds than the average filmgoer. Plus Sully was about the only character with any sort of development or personal growth...

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

ooh, he's a Marine, he's going to be such a thicko

I've gotten that from time to time, in reverse. "You were a Marine? In the infantry?" and you can see them visibly trying not to follow up with 'But you don't look or act like a thug ....'

is Colonel the most evil rank, or what?

Phhs. I'll be whatever that fellow did in the Marines, he didn't leave the service as a Colonel. Maybe a passed-over Major. Possibly a Captain who left after his obligation was over. But I'll bet he was a lunk-headed NCO who cleaned up well for the interview on Earth.

and then have Phoebe's brother come back a few years later with nukes and bomb the Na'vi back from the Neolithic to the Pre-Cambrian.

In H. Beam Piper's very excellent 'Uller Uprising' - which takes as it's inspiration the Indian Mutiny - the characters discuss this. Their conclusion is that they gotta use a nasty weapon to win. The alternative is all the humans die and the Federation Navy shows up in nine months and blows everyone away - and a lot more innocent aliens will die, too.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I'll bet whatever that fellow did in the Marines, he didn't leave the service as a Colonel.

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. Especially since (at least according to Generation Kill, which I'm reading now) First Recon's officers tend to be intelligence specialists and other rear-echelon types. Of course, we only have his word for it that he was in First Recon.

In H. Beam Piper's very excellent 'Uller Uprising' - which takes as it's inspiration the Indian Mutiny

Sounds good! And I see it's on Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19474)... excellent.

[necaris.livejournal.com]

Is it First Recon or Force Recon? From what I've read (and I used to read an awful lot of American military thrillers, a la Tom Clancy) they're the Marines' special forces, so typically on the front lines (or behind enemy lines)...

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

You could be right: I hadn't heard of Force Recon before (I stopped reading Clancy after Rainbow Six), and might well have misheard.

Anyway, both exist. First Recon is the First Reconnaissance Battalion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Reconnaissance_Battalion). One company of First Recon is part of Force Reconnaissance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Reconnaissance), who also have a company attached to Second Recon. But it looks like they're moving to a new force structure which will unify Force Recon under a Special Operations Command. First Recon appear to be fairly elite and crack, but less so than Force Recon. Or something, I don't really have time to read the half-dozen Wikipedia pages concerned right now :-)

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

On the officers thing: apparently (again according to Generation Kill) the typical First Recon mission is given to a four- or five-man patrol led by an NCO, and the officers stay in the rear doing analysis. In Iraq, they were doing something totally different: driving around in Humvees as a large formation. Some of the officers were Afghanistan vets or otherwise clued-up, but some seem to have been seriously out of their depth.

Interestingly, the SAS also use the "small patrol led by an NCO" structure, as seen in Bravo Two Zero, but AIUI they require all their officers to go through the same Selection and training as the enlisted men - probably to avoid exactly this problem...

[dynix.livejournal.com]

alternative alternative endings:

I really liked that line about 'our mother does not take sides, she maintains the balance'

So when the damn planet *did* take sides, then
1) it didnt really make sense and
2) it wasnt really effective.

It's a whole planet. It could have caused any number of more effective things to happen than having the animals headbutt the vehicles.

Since we know that the planet can make usb connections with a human, wouldnt it make more sense to capture phoeboe's brother and make him talk to the planet so he sees sense. If the scientists are being too damn geeky to do a good job of communicating anything themselves.

Also could the Navi not have sabotaged the base? Guerilla tactics make much more sense.

Argh. So much stupid.

Very pretty though.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

True, true, true, true, true, true, true and true :-)

[gaspodog.livejournal.com]

Colonels aren't always evil - Colonel O'Neill (the one with 2 Ls not 1) in SG-1 was mostly cool.

Though there was an evil Colonel in that too, so maybe it cancels out.