poohza said:

The jellyfish/seed things though, awesome.

Yeah, those jellyfish are adorable. Great way to allude to Cameron's nautical documentaries...
I've seen it on Boxing Day (which is Second Christmas Day here, haha ), and I was impressed. The local newspaper compared the story to Dances With Wolves as well, also to Pocahontas. Truth be told, it's not much of an original story, but the way Cameron has brought it to screen is original. As always, I cried (because I'm a sucker for sad romantic dramas, even though I know it's going to be alright...) but I think part of it was me being overwhelmed by this whole new world literally opening itself in front of my eyes. It's a visual spectacle. Never mind the many plot holes (like where that second Avatar guy went after he returned to the barracks. Last time I saw him he grabbed a gun and erm, left.), it's brilliant and it's new.
I like the way that the Na'vi were so much connected to nature and the 'bad guys' trying to destroy it. Environmental message noted, but it was sent out well, like it was in the Lord of the Rings as well.
I'm rooting for a tell-all documentary on the DVD, which will clarify so much.

The missus and I finally got around to seeing Avatar . . . wearing 3D glasses and all. All I can say is wow! Despite the various criticisms I've read, I think the movie is a tremendous cinematic work. The criticisms are valid to a point but perhaps overstated. It is problematic that one of the American jarheads becomes the savior for the Na'vi people, however, I have to say this idea also works pretty well within the context of the story. Cameron has said that the movie is not anti-human and I think what that means is that humans are capable of despicable acts of exploitation and degradation, but they are also compelled towards gentleness and unity with nature, capable of joy and love for and integrally connected to the natural world. The main character, Cpl. Jake Sully, is portrayed with a typical military mindset, unenlightened and arrogant, certainly willing to exploit the resources of the planet, Pandora. There are some brilliant sequences early in the film such as where his first reaction to the floating jellyfish creatures is to smack them like annoying insects, not aware of their spiritual significance. Neytiri, the Na'vi female protagonist is forced to destroy a a pack of attacking wolf-like creatures and is deeply saddened by their unnecessary deaths, a notion which is completely lost on the hapless Jake Sully. But as he learns of the ways of the Na'vi, Sully's spiritual side is awakened and through the course of the movie he becomes much more attuned to the natural world. His later role as savior for the Na'vi people works because he is a human and Na'vi after being immersed into the tribal way of life and his world is opened to new possibilities which his fellow humans cannot see.

Cameron's story is so tight and well-written and integral to the plot. I found it to be a brilliant sci-fi epic story. The military violence comes close to being gratuitous towards the end but certainly not enough to mar the film's finer points and I think the overall message is very positive and cautionary at the same time. The visual effects are stunning. This is definitely one of the better films I've seen in some time.

An excellent review of Avatar from the New York Review of Books is at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23726

Volume 57, Number 5 · March 25, 2010
The Wizard

By Daniel Mendelsohn
Avatar
a film directed by James Cameron
1.

Two hugely popular "mashups"—homemade videos that humorously juxtapose material from different sources—that are currently making the rounds on the Internet seek to ridicule James Cameron's visually ravishing and ideologically awkward new blockbuster, Avatar. In one, the portentous voice-over from the trailer for Disney's Oscar-winning animated feature Pocahontas (1995) has been seamlessly laid over footage from Avatar, in which, as in Pocahontas, a confrontation between dark-skinned native peoples and white-skinned invaders intent on commercial exploitation is leavened by an intercultural love story. "But though their worlds were very different...their destinies were one," the plummy voice of the narrator intones, interrupted by the sound of a Powhatan saying, "These pale visitors are strange to us!"

The other mashup reverses the joke. Here, dialogue from Avatar—a futuristic fantasy in which a crippled ex-Marine is given a second chance at life on a strange new world called Pandora, and there falls in love with a native girl, a complication that confuses his allegiances—has been just as seamlessly laid over bits of Pocahontas. In one, we see an animated image of Captain John Smith's ship after it makes its fateful landing at Jamestown, while we hear the voice of a character in Avatar—a tough Marine colonel as he welcomes some new recruits to Pandora—sardonically quoting a bit of movie dialogue that has become an iconic expression of all kinds of cultural displacement. "Ladies and gentlemen," he bellows, "you are not in Kansas anymore!" ...