Went into town to the IMAX theater and watched Avatar in 3-D.
It’s a cool movie. Visually stunning. But I suspect that in a few years (not too long, really) people will see it again and wonder what all the fuss was about. Banal story. Trite dialog. Noble natives bearing spears and bows and arrows prevail against massively overpowering technical military might. Totally populated with archetypes. Although someone in the group I went with said that it does a good job of adding to the archetype of the driven-only-by-profits businessman. The material he’s after is called “unobtainium” – sheesh!
One big leap I had to overlook was why the local natives would allow one of the avatars into their inner circle of cultural training. They make it clear they know they’re avatars – they call them “dreamwalkers”. They know (or ought to for crying out loud) that a dreamwalker can “fall asleep” at any moment if the folks back in the lab decide to break the connection to the avatar. Why would you trust any such fake-being into your tribe? (oh yeah, the little fluffy things are attracted to the avatar… whatever…)
But the big “oh give me a break” is at the end when the big bad business people and their military force are walking back to their ships to leave the planet. The natives stand above them and watch, glowing in their victory, as their enemy leaves with defeat written all over their faces. Come on! All this means is that big bad business will be back – with a take-no-prisoners attitude and no attempt at any sham of diplomacy. They want their unobtainium and they’ll get it next time – and they won’t putz around with avatars.