Avatar : The Alien Ordeal
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Pandora: Artificially natural
This is not a review of Avatar. I am a great admirer of James Cameron and I don’t think I have the caliber to overcome the admiration and ‘review’ his cinema. This is just my afterthoughts about the concept, imagination and originality of stories of sci-fi and fantasy movies, on the context of Avatar.
In any case, a cutting edge 3D VFX technology when patiently nurtured with gigantic and generous financial facilities over a huge period with sincere dedication, the outcome is justifiably a visual celluloid extravaganza and can hardly be called a movie.
Even if it lacks a gripping story, acting or dialogues and other aspects of film/ animation. But that has always been the problem with fantasy films, till production budgets were increased to introduce special effects to attract audience- example Harry Potter series, LOTR and Golden Compass.
Avatar is a sci-fi fantasy but it’s not a fairy tale. It doesn’t have a fascinating story to tell, which can be narrated to young kids to put them to sleep. Because they will ask many pertinent questions, which parent’s won’t be able to answer and they have to make up the answers. An imaginary conversation may look like this-
Papa: Once upon a time in future, in the year 2154, the people of earth, mainly Americans had established a base on the beautiful planet called Pandora. They had set up a hospital as they could not breathe in the air of Pandora…
Kid: What happened to other people of earth, did Americans kill them all?
Papa: No, they were busy doing their work for saving earth from other alien attacks. Now listen, in the Hospital they copied human beings into Pandorian natives called Na’vis. But like it happens with a bad Xerox machine the human beings became blue and distorted after copy.
Kid: Why did they copy human beings to Na’vis?
Papa: So that they can interact with the real Na’vis and make friends with them.
Kid: ok, they wanted to play with them?
Papa: Well not exactly, they wanted to take away their rock called Unobtanium on top of which there was this giant tree where they all lived.
Kid: But that is cheating, trying to be friends and then taking away their rock. Why Americans cheat like this?
Papa: You are diverting again. I will not tell you the story if you ask too many questions. Listen now and try to sleep..….So this beautiful and tall and tail blazing Na’vi people of Pandora stayed peacefully with these ferocious beasts like Hammerheads and Thanators and used their pigtails to bond and interact with nature. They talked in their own language. They had beautiful floating mountains, lots of trees and water and everyone was very happy because they did not have to go to office like me.
Kid: What did Na’vi’s used their tail for? How come the beasts did not kill them? Did they have schools?
Papa: That’s irrelevant. Try to concentrate on the main story. They did not disturb the beasts and knew how to protect themselves. They carried bow and arrows tipped with poison. Yes, they had a school where they learnt English.
Kid: wow, the men must be looking like Rama – tall blue with bow and arrow. Papa, did Rama have a tail back then during Ramayan days?
Papa: No, there was no mention of a tail. But yes they looked like Rama. They had their own dragons to ride and fly on, called Banshees. They used to be very happy tribe living in harmony with nature. But the American war leaders wanted to uproot them and take their rock to become more powerful.
Kid: Like you said various countries are fighting now with each other to decide how to live with nature ?
Papa: err…yes, kinda. So the very intelligent Na’vi people stayed under a tree and slept on natural hammocks and loved the Mother Nature. All the plants, flowers and grass glowed on the dark so they did not need any lamp in the night.
Kid: If they were so intelligent why they lived under a tree? Were there no mosquitoes in Pandoras?
Papa: No. No mosquitoes, no bed bugs and no alarm clocks. It’s already very late, go to sleep.
Kid: Your description matches with Ray’s creation Prof Shonku’s adventure- Swapnadweep, but it was an island and there the musical flowers that made sound which made the visitors go mad.
Papa: Yeah, but here people were already kind of insane. It’s already very late, go to sleep.
Kid: No…please tell me what happens at the end?
Papa: The blue copy of one good American soldier gets lost into the jungle and one na’vi Sita saves him. The na’vi Ram and Sita calls many other na’vi people to make a big army to save their home tree, but they could not match the torpedoes and machine guns of the Americans. So they pray to their mother goddess Eywa…..
Kid: Did the Aiwa played music like my walkman?
Papa: No. The mother goddess listened to their prayer and the bad Americans were taught a good lesson. The Ram Sita continued living on Pandora happily ever after.
Kid: I understand, were there any song and dance at the end?
Papa: No. In year 2154 you don’t waste time in singing and dancing. Now sleep. I will take you to the movie and you’ll know why it is important to sleep.
This is the pose which reminds me of Ram
As I was telling, Avatar is a trip. A trip to a hallucinating dream world called Pandora which was never been made accessible by anyone or anything, (except for good quality dope, probably).
Anyway to sum up here’s my key takeaway from Avatar -
• Power = gazillion tons of gunpowder, torpedoes, uncountable flying war ships, choppers and machine guns.
• Head of Security= A living J I Joe with decorative scar marks to match his hairdo
• Ladies: Either a scientist or hot barb wire type chick in banyan
• Good skin= Blue skin
• TDH ( Tall dark handsome)= TBH ( Tall Blue Handsome) with a tail
• Love= love
• Kiss= Kiss
• Sex = taboo
Avatar, at one part is so full of clichéd character profiles, sequence of events and dialogues that it was like déjà vu of watching all those sci-fi American films made of the theme of war, humanoids, androids and destruction. The other part, the imaginary futuristic world of Pandora and its creatures, partly reminded me the story of Swapandweep (the Dream Island), I read as a kid and some of my favourite fantasy films.
But, Avatar is beyond that.
Mathematically, Avatar can be simply explained as-
f(Avatar)= f{(Universal Soldier+ Predator + Terminator+ Eragon+ Matrix + Apocalypto + $300mn + Patience – story)* epic}
Do your own math and wear the 3-D glasses.
[A note on the context : I believe, Satyajit Ray’s science fiction series Prof Shonku were extremely original, ahead of it’s time kinda imaginative and each of the stories deserves to be made into outstanding films, at probably 1/100th of the budget of Avatar. His ordeals of The Alien about the E.T controversy is on the records. Btw, he also thought ‘Avatar’ as one of the alternative title for the movie. But I wonder how many people knows the plot concept of Evolution (2001), which is exactly the same as Ray’s another Shonku story Professor Shonku o Golok Rahasya.]
Tags: avatar, Fantasy, james cameron, satyajit ray, Sci Fi, Story
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Putting LOTR with Harry Potter and Golden Compass makes no sense, LOTR is not just a special effects extravaganza, it has some of the most well defined characters, and deep levels of thought. No way it can be bracketed with Harry Potter( kiddie stuff) and Golden Compass.
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Agreed. My point was regarding the imaginative storyline coupled with special effects, made them superior.
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Agree with Ratnakar. I kept thinking through out the movie why it was not made in a trilogy or 2 part film. That way they could have added some depth to the story and all characters. But it takes the heart of Peter Jackson to do that.
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@Tejas Not Peter Jackson … but JRR Tolkien … LOTR as a book is unfilmable in one part … Dont think Peter Jackson had the option !!!
PJ did a brilliant job though …
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I agree, but JRR wrote the book at a time when reading was still a huge option for entertainment. He already had a successful prequel to LOTR to boost his confidence. Writing was not JRR’s only profession either. While for Peter Jackson, filming all three films at once was needed a lion heart while there are not many films shot that way.
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Mathematically, Udtahaathi’s critique can be simply explained as-
~UH~’s Review = (Look Ma! I’m not a fanboy + clichéd complains of poor story/dialogues + Smartass digs at inscrutable aliens (since they are not like us, they are MONKEYS) + mandatory ode to the indisputable technical wizardry of the movie) – wisdom to understand that epic fables of battles between good & evil are generally allegorical in nature and are oversimplified purposely.
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I actually started to write out a response to this review, but you have summed up everything I wanted to say so succinctly, that it is redundant. Great response to a not so great review!
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Quite an expensive oversimplification, I would say.
QED as someone commented on my blog.
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Nice one uh…..Btw, was wondering why Jake Sully was using a wheelchair that looked so primitive, when all around him there were hi-tech gadgets….when you could make avatars you surely could design better wheelchairs or artificial legs for that matter….however as you say Avatar is a trip….too ahead of everything out there….James Cameron just raised the bar more than a few notches….
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Yeah, the wheelchair was a blunder. I expected, there would be some wireless connection with the brain and the controls of the wheelchair. We had mouth operated wheelchair shown on a 1988 movie ( Monkey Shines).
Atleast, it should have been power driven and joystick controlled.
So was the smoking habit inside office. The aspect of smoking was treated in a much better way in “Fifth Element”. Remember the long filter Bruce smoked ?
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Can we suspend some disbelief here by assuming that the technology was available there like getting the new legs but Jake was denied of it?
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@Rashmi
Loved your dig at UH. You maths is definitely simpler to understand than UH’s .
@UH
Seems like you haven’t come out of your writer’s block yet. This review is nowhere near your Luck or Blue reviews. I think you shouldn’t write reviews for good movies (like you yourselves have admitted).
The lesson to be learnt out of this is that one has to be very careful about criticizing Avatar just for the sake of criticizing Avatar.
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I don’t know about this reviewer, but many who have a habit of criticizing path-breaking movies do so because they believe the only way you can be intelligent and stand out from the crowd is by being having a superior taste than the ‘aam janta.’ Finding themselves on the same side as the masses threatens their sense of superiority and hurts their carefully cultivated self-image. Writing negative reviews is their way of reassuring themselves that they are still more intelligent than the dumb masses.
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rashmi … while your thoughts are true in some instances, it is also true that certain ‘path breaking cinema’ are allowed to sweep away with undue accolades and attention cuz nobody raised a valid question…. for every avatar you will have another 10 movies which will never be questioned and we can live like the society in the ‘emperors new clothes’ … this is not say what you ve mentioned is incorrect but to being back this thought (Which I m pretty sure you might have felt as well) …. in case you read more reviews (prefereably older posts), keep this frame in mind, that most reviews are going to be like that….
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Aisa kuch nahin hain,
Chk out all Uh’s contribution………It is all light hearted….
We got to accept him with his robe……..He never claimed it to be sacred !
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@ UH,
Good start……lost the plot in the middle. Kiddo’s sub track was excellent. I actually went through it y day making my son sleep……
Takeways & Maths were disasters as usual. (Cold & frigid- No passion/ sounded like Ration for Cinema )
Ray, with his halo, saved you by lightening up the ending.
Nevertheless, keep it rollin…
UH will attain sainthood very soon, with a miracle post…….Very Soon !
Cheers, ali
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Thanks for the responses, digs, honest feedback and suggestions.
The point I was trying to make here was that a wider acceptability and awesomeness of a sci-fi, is more due to innovative, creative and original storyline which can be highlighted with technological prowess, but can hardly be replaced with the same.
That’s why I mentioned the fictions of Ray. Anyone who has read them probably understand my point.
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Dear … u have touched quite a chord … Ray is celebrated as a film maker but his output as an author is also unparallelled. Prof Shonku series would make brilliant films. Even his short stories with a supernatural twist like Fritz, the man turning into snake (sounds funny … though the story is pretty scary) are very filmable in my opinion.
Infact even stories not authored by him , but which passed under his watchful eyes into Sandesh have nice film potential. By film , may not be full length feature films but even 1 hour telefilms … which would be a refreshing change from the psycho Vindu focussed reality show on tv.
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@ Prasun: Thanks for understanding the point. I was waiting for a comment like yours.
The snake story is called ‘Khogom’ and it’s one of the best horror stories I’ve ever read.
Prof. Shonku’s ‘Moru Rahasya’ is one of the stories I would love to see as a film adaptation. Unfortunately, not many cinephiles are aware of such goldmine of stories or may be not competent enough to deal with the subject. I was banking on Sandeep Ray but he has gradually diverted into ‘other’ direction……
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Slightly off topic but have you read any of the english translations of Ray short stories by Penguin ?
I have not … and would want an opinion before i buy them. The originals by Ananda Publishers is unreadable to my wife and couple of bong friends who unfortunately do not read bengali.
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Prasun,
I have never felt the need to read the English translations but have gifted and suggested to many friends. Of course they can’t complain because they will never read the Bengali ones. As far as my knowledge goes Feluda and Shanku series are better, not sure about the spooky ‘Dozen series’ tales….
Try finding sample on the internet. Will share a link if i stumble upon something.
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How wide was the acceptance for 2001:A Space Odyssey or Solaris, two sci fi movies, i consider the most creative and original?
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Ratna,
All the movies you have named are mainly sci fi, which at the time of their release is fiction but is possible in future. Say- ‘20,000 leagues under the Sea’ was actually a sci fi. In fantasy there are lot of impossible imaginary things like magic or supernatural stuff.
To blend the two genres effectively and making it entertaining is the challenge.
Ofcourse it depends who’s the audience. I am sure Kubrick & AC Clerk will appeal to a lesser number of people than say Men in Black.
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Solaris as in the Euro version, not the English one. But even to date in spite of it’s storyline, that was quite original, many people have difficulty understanding it.
Forget about 2001, I love Star Wars, but end of day, its more an outer space version of Cowboys N Injuns, but when it first came in India, not many had any clue about it. The Abyss had a great storyline, in fact its my fav James Cameron movie, but was surprised to learn it was a flop. And while i very much liked Aliens, the movie was just one big Gigantic video game.
Independence Day had a wide acceptance, but its story was nowhereeven close to being original or innovative.
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I have got the Solaris/ 2001 DVDs last Sunday, will watch over this weekend.
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Forget it. Watch the Tarkovsky’s original version.
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Tarkovsky’s Solyaris had spooked me out. What awesome images!
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Jahanpanah, What I meant was Tarkovsky’s Solaris (USSR,1972) and Kubrick’s 2001: A space Odyssey.
The remake is a 2002 film.
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My bad. The remake was released in 2002 and was named Solaris while the original was Solyaris. So, I thought, you were referring to the latter.
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Sci-fi rules! And Cameron is a veteran of the genre. Coupled with Aliens and Abyss, Avatar (oi, they all start with A!) completes a solid trilogy of films that Cameron has contributed to the genre.
Now, I wait for a true Bollywood sci-fi film…. (not holding my breath though!)
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something on your mathematical formula. (nothing better to do so just nitpicking)
I dont see any connection with Universal Soldier, Predator, Terminator, Matrix. On this basis many Hollywood movies will qualify and I think Ferngully and Dances with Wolves deserve to be mentioned.
In f(Avatar). What does f denotes here? Function? Then the movies should be separated by commas and not plus signs. :glasses:
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Yeah, the syntax was wrong mathematically. I should have used integration instead of function. :glasses:
Conceptually I found the following movies were the first of its kind to introduce certain concepts in sci fi-
Matrix= Teleporting while the body is sleeping on another location.
Universal Soldier/ Manturian Candidate = Androids made out of soldiers.
Terminator/ Predator = Guns and ammunition to destruct Alien presence.
I have not seen the movies you’ve named, so can’t comment.
Your value addition is highly appreciated.
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~uh~,
Instead of digressing towards the incomparable Satyajit Ray and thus proving your higher tastes in reading, perhaps you could talk about the sci-fi short story Mr. Cameron is already being suspected of borrowing heavily from.
http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=15564
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