PH: The Home Tree battle was definitely understated. The Sky People did what they had to do and that was it. Although, the douche in charge seemed like the type to just blow everything up for the hell of it.
What’s this about Oscars?
SS: Given the romance at play here, and that it’s not just a fanboy dream, I think “Avatar” has a serious shot at the awards race, don’t you….
LG: I can’t tell if you guys are joking about the combat being restrained. A dragon grabbed a helicopter and used it to beat another helicopter out of the sky.
But yeah, the romance. I gotta admit, it was pretty convincing. I hereby release Sam Worthington from movie jail for his part Terminator 4.
AT: As far as awards go, I bet your assumptions are correct, HOWEVER that end credits song was no “My Heart Will Go On,” though I did get some major ship-breaks-in-half-sinks-into-the-ocean flashbacks during the battle for Home Tree. Anyone else?
LG: Cameron should get every FX Oscar there is, this year and in all future years, forever.
About the tree, I think one of the marines in the movie expressed my thoughts best: “That’s one big tree.”
I was also wondering if it was a reference to Agent Orange. And I was thinking, gosh, if the planet’s a network, you gotta figure it’s plenty redundant. I mean, if one root name server goes down, the whole Internet doesn’t crash.
SS: These battle sequences, at least the ones involving the Na’vi, ended way before I thought they would. I think the ads are making this look like intergalactic warfare, and it takes a long, long time to even get to the first shot being fired. There’s more going on here than an action-fest…something that I think is far more impressive, actually. Just like “Titanic” – if you can go back to a time before it made a gazillion dollars and we all hated it – was about more than a boat sinking, “Avatar” is about a WHOLE LOT more than two species going to war.
LG: If you wanna talk about what Avatar was about, I thought the movie had more subtle things to say about moviemaking than it did about the environment. We get it, killing plants is bad. But the whole idea of the avatar, putting yourself in someone else’s body, immersing yourself in another world, is one big metaphor for watching movies. And the thing about watching a movie is, you don’t want it to end. You want to go live there forever.
AT: I’m actually moving tomorrow…
Another praise for Cameron’s moviemaking: His female characters kicked all sorts of ass. Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Zoe Saldana were fantastic. Action writers/producers/directors could learn so much from Cameron’s style. (I’m talking to you, Michael Bay.)
LG: I’m just wondering if there’s going to be backlash from Native Americans or other minority groups though, re: the many cliches of “exotic indigenous peoples” Cameron uses. Tribal drummin’, face paintin’, nose piercin’, earth lovin’, etc. Not to go all Edward Said here, but it’s pretty boilerplate orientalism.
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