1y ago

Rewatching Avatar and Avatar 2 on blu ray

This week i've decided to rewatch the avatar films on blu ray. I picked up the special editions with the 3 hours worth of extras for each film. I've rewatched the first film and some extras. I'm a casual fan at best and by no means a movie critic, but here arey impressions.

The first avatar film has aged well. I enjoy the world of pandora and it is beautiful on blu ray. The details in the plants are incredible. A botanist that consulted on the film is featured in the bonus content.

I still get the sense that this could of been a two part film, with the first part ending with the destruction of the home tree. Then there would of been space go explore the na'vi tribes before the battle.

I watched the family audio version with english subtitles. The audio creatively removed the swears, but the subtitles didn't.

The bonus features had the main actors reflecting on their experiences making the film and their reflections on its success. They all played their characters brilliantly, and I was surprisingly impressed by Stephen Langs take on playing Quaritch.

Edit: Also after someone pointing this out, I can see the similatities with Fern Gully (which happens to be the first film I watched in theatre.)

I'm looking forward to rewatching way of the water, as I streamed it for the first watch.

7 comments

When Avatar first came out, a friend of mine described it as "Pocahontas with a tech demo" and I've had a hard time enjoying it since. The story is really similar.
- Your friends not wrong. The link with european arrival in north and south america was intentional for the film.
  
  If course, but it's not just that it's a story about colonialism, it's that the plot structure is basically the same

I disliked Avatar in theaters, but chalked it up to wearing glasses and seeing it in 3D. I figured with the colors desaturated and the uncomfortable double glasses set up that I just made a poor choice of format.
About 4 years ago I decided to rewatch Avatar at home without the 3D gimmick.
It was worse. Everyone acts in ways that seem to serve the plot not their motivations. The heroes were all devoid of personality and a rigid unsmiling caricature of duty and honor that there was nothing likeable about them. Jake Sully has no personality other than being mystified by the world. The tall smurfs just stare longingly, tell Jake he's dumb and sigh about the importance of the Earth.
The villains were so over the top on their moustache twirling I liked their bravado so much more than the heroes. After an hour of Smurfs telling us trees are very important in a condescending way, I wasn't against blowing up a tree.
The battle at the end made no sense. Why the space faring race didn't just drop a some rocks on the site is baffling to me. Why didn't they use their range and technology advantage? They just ran as close as possible to people with spears.
I think it's just a little too heavy handed for me, and feels like many aspects of the plot weren't thought out.
- Jake Sully has no personality other than being mystified by the world.
  Agree, and his purpose is to introduce us to the alien world. Him becoming a leader is one aspect that didnt sit right with me. He didn't earn enough goodwill to do that. Its just trust the superior humanoid, because he did something my great grandfather did.

The only good thing about this Avatar was a decent videogame tie-in.
It's pretty clear what's going on here - they deliberately made the blandest, most derivative story they could, so you can turn off your brain. I guess that might work for porn films and to some degree for normal movies too, but I can't get behind using blandness so excessively.
The CGI ain't saving that. (I don't even like those aliens personally.) I find that this thing and the sequel being the most grossing films of all time, to be an insult to filmmaking and especially storytelling.
- Seems like alot of people agree with your take. Despite its flaws, viewers found it and the sequel entertaining. I can't see it working as a novel though.

7 comments