I watched Avatar (3D) today – finally after everyone else around me has been raving about it. I tried my best not to get my expectations up too much before the film. As everyone said, it was spectacular. Visually beautiful and I love the ideas with all the creatures in the forest and the tiny little details that went into everything. It is definitely something everyone needs to see... BUT...
It's just a little heart breaking to see such a visually rich and beautiful film be let down by it's core - the story.
I walked into the cinema knowing I'd be incredibly skeptical about the story (thank you Cynthia Whitcomb, I will consequently henceforth always judge a movie by it's screenplay... haha). It's like Avatar had all the right ingredients for the perfect film – just the wrong flavours were accentuated.
OK, let's do away with the metaphors...
I thought the story would have been better if Grace was the main character. She understood the Na'vi the most and was the one who originally sought out for a way for both humans and Na'vi to live peacefully together. It's like she was the history of the human invasion of Pandora - a whole other tale that we could only build from a little detective work – the book she wrote about creating Avatars, the photos she had on her fridge of the Na'vi missionary school she must have worked with a long time ago... etc. So what I don't get is why some jarhead got most of the screen time and she got, what, 20 minutes? I felt like her story was more important but it was practically buried.
Cynthia Whitcomb has a whole chapter in her book Writing Your Screenplay about character evolution. (I highly recommend anyone interested in understanding stories to read this book). She talks about character transformations between five stages of being: 1. for yourself, 2. for your partner, 3. for your family, 4. for your community, 5. for humanity and how rare "complete transformations" (characters evolving from level one to five) are but how much we love to tell (and retell) these stories. (For example, Dickens' A Christmas Carol or Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life.) Grace went through all these stages. She started off caring only for her scientific mission (level one) but soon opens up and accepts Jake as part of her team (level three - okay, she skips two). We learn later through the photos Jake sees on the fridge that she once worked with the Na'vi in their villages and (somehow... I must have missed it) joined Jake and became a part of the Na'vi community (level four). Then she dies for her belief in finding a more peaceful resolution between the two races (level five). I thought to myself, "is that it?" Surely, she deserved more than that? Sure Jake had it all too, but it was Grace's passion that drove her. Jake was just doing his job (then doing it for the chick.) And Grace made the ultimate sacrifice... Jake falls a little short on that. He gets to live in a brand spanking new blue body.
The film would have worked just as well if Jake and Grace's character were meshed together. So Jake, instead of being an ex-soldier was a scientist who had studied and tried to understand the Na'vi all his life. Then his twin brother dies... so he takes his place. Then he almost dies because he runs out of air... but the Na'vi save him by moving him into his Avatar body. Ta da! (one less character to model/rig/texture/motion capture and actor to pay.)
In terms of conclusions, I liked the ending of District 9 better. Wikus chose to hang on to the hope of one day becoming human again but at the same time, fought for the weak. Whereas Jake practically discards his humanity in the end and the rest of the humans are sent home, tails tucked. Essentially there's no hope for human beings to ever evolve beyond the primal instinct of invade and conquer. So we have to become something other than human to be good? Jake (the human protagonist – and therefore our main human representative) had a choice and he chose to be one of them. I guess perhaps it's a lot of gamer's dreams - to become their avatar which is "hotter than reality by far." Well, I guess Jake will be able to move around better in his new body... not to mention breathe the air. We humans suck.
Oh well. Who cares, right? It's an epic and gorgeous film.
On the plus side, I'm looking forward to seeing how this will affect the film industry. Crossing my fingers that this means more jobs for creative types.
