Thinking about Avatar

[cheshirenoir]

I hate thinking about a movie like Avatar.

OK the dramatic final battle didn't work for me. I am NOT a tactical genius -or- a warrior trained in either modern warfare -or- native combat, unlike, supposedly, the characters involved.

1) The Na'vi are "born flyers". They bond with their pets. Do you know how SMALL a rock would have to be to totally destroy a rotorblade in ducted VTOL? About 5 - 10Kg should do it. The flyers should have been able to manage TWO per bird, with easily available reloads. Even better, tie em together with a rope so the blades themselves pull them in. Keep high in the clouds. Use scouts on the floating islands to call the shots. Drop concentrated rock barrages. Once your enemy has lost their support, hit the heavies. Maybe roll a rock the size of a Volkswagen off one of those floating islands? Better yet, have a couple of floating islands come up from below?

2) The Na'vi are jungle warriors, so why the last charge of the lighthorsemen? Didn't work for the Polish in WWII why was it gonna work here? Get your horsemen rounding up nasty nasty monsters and herd em in the right direction (or lure for the bigger ones) rather than waiting for GaiaEywa to do it for you. Keep to the trees! The marines are too heavily loaded to climb and even their heaviest rounds aren't gonna penetrate the thicker trunks. Fight the war of the tiny flea. Take a shot with an arrow from a hidden position then fade into the jungle. While their firepower is concentrated in where you used to be another warrior takes his/her shot. With enough of you striking simultaneously chaos will ensure. (The terror effect)
Oh and drop some frakking ROCKS on their heads. Even if local gravity is HALF that of Earth, 6.4m/s/s still stacks up folks! Not like you don't have BIG trees to drop em off. Oh and go all Ewok on their ass. Ropes, pits, spikes all fun for the Navi family.

Rocks!

(Oh and yes I did like the film. I did like the 3d, but here's a hint for directors of 3d films. If you put a visually interesting bit-o-stuff in the foregound of your shot and then pull it right into the extreme 3d zoom, KEEP IT IN FOCUS! My eye will be drawn to it and when I can't focus on it it'll make my eyes water.)

Comments

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I did think it was the best 3D I've ever seen. I would probably actually cry if 3D cinema becomes the norm, because I still can't watch it without horrible eye strain, and Sonia can't watch it at all.

[foamiethegreeny.livejournal.com]

From Lucretiae:
We also went to see Avatar yesterday but only the 2D version. Loved it. So pretty, such excellent CG.
Movies like this aren't supposed to be realistic, they are fiction so just check your brain at the door and enjoy the ride! Thinking about them too hard just ruins it.
They wouldn't have dropped trees on them because that would have meant chopping them down. Herding big nasty animals from horseback might not be feasible. Would you herd something akin to a rhino the size of an elephant with a bad temper from horseback? I wouldn't. And besides, it might have gone against their principles to use the animals in that way.
Damn it! Now you made me think about it!

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

See? What I suspect happened is this was a very personal movie for Cameron. He wrote it AND directed it, which means he had rigorous control, end to end. What he should have done is hired 2 dozen specialists from different fields to go over it and say "Do this bit different." "What the hell is that about?" but that was never going to happen (except for hiring people to make sure the military stuff was right, a trick that worked so well in Aliens)
So we had "Unobtanium" and culturally insensitive stories...

I can forgive floating mountains...

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

And if the humans had figured out what made the mountains float,
they wouldn't have needed all those ducted rotors.
Cameron's imagination has ossified,
he's developed Lucas' Syndrome.

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

I've never bought the
"this is fantasy, so turn your brain off" theory.
To me, fantasy is simply a story set in a non-existent reality.
It's not this reality, but a reality nonetheless.
Because immersion in such a story requires suspension of disbelief,
it's even more important that that reality is believable.
Internal inconsistencies drop you back into the mundane world.

I often wonder, if we've spent 10 minutes thinking about it,
and we can poke all these holes in it,
how is it that hundreds of people can work on it for years
and still turn out such shit?
Another example of capitalism fail.

[foamiethegreeny.livejournal.com]

again from Lucretiae:
We did think of the rocks but meh, it's not my movie.

what a waste

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but i can't help myself:
g/2 = 4.9 m/s²

And yes, I agree, the final battle was plain stupid.
The form may be spectacular,
but that doesn't excuse thoughtless content.

[dortamur.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy the spectacle of the end fight, but I agree, especially on the ground assault. Better use of the environment would've been more realistic AND more interesting.

I also felt that the Eywa animal attack felt a bit forced, as each amazing creature we "met" earlier in the film was reintroduced to strut their stuff in battle. They could've at least had some more as-yet-unseen critters introduced without all the back-story for each.