Avatar

My friend Tara, who had just seen and loved Avatar, was upset that the Avatars were so dumb!
She could not beleive that these brilliant beings had no action plan during the final battle scene -the Avatars just went straight into the battle facing the enemy head. Even the Ewoks, she said, had better strategy when fighting against insurmountable odds. The simple and cute, fuzzy little creatures really prepared for their battle, they organized, they made flanking moves to trip the machines, built traps. As much as I hated the Ewoks in the Star Wars ROTJ, because they got in the way of what I was really interested in - the development of Luke's Jedi powers, Lucas still had orchestrated a battle scene that showed how resilient nature can be when fighting against machines. The comparison between Lucas and Cameron will go on for ages I think, it will be a rivalry for the sci-fi geeks, who are the next generation of filmmakers. Essentially they are both great storytellers, who changed storytelling irreversibly. Comparing them is a bit of Apples and Oranges though. One thing is clear that Cameron's interests are - rather two dimensional, even in 3D. The avatars were a pretty backdrop to a good-ole smash'em and bash'em movie - only bigger... the biggest!
I myself hoped and waited for our hero to check out what was under his loin cloth - that's what I'd do! what with all the jumping and leaping we should have gotten a glimpse of what's under the hood or a boob or something. all the bodies looked the same even those of the elderly matrons - where are the sagging tits that we see among indigenous populations?
Again, Cameron did not want to venture into that territory ...he wanted pretty blue creatures.
It goes without saying that the film far surpasses expectations of prettiness - it was spectacular - while setting up a low standard for story...somehow the beauty numbs the receptors for intelligenc - just like the buddhist say!
Even for me who has such an allergy for bad plots and predictability - I only looked at my watch once during the 3 hours! Unlike the Transformers movies which had me resenting every minute I was in that theater.
With enough distractions thrown at me, I was able to hold down my usual urge to purge at what was essentially a very, very, very mediocre story. There was nothing new to this movie, except the visuals.

All films require a certain level of suspension of disbelief - you can't really be asking how did that mustang become a robot all of a sudden - you have to supress your brain's natural inkling to object to what it is seeing and buy into the story. I think that many films' failure is caused by the way certain quotes, or plots or imagery, shake the spectator out of that state of acceptance and start questioning.

The more solid the suture the less likely you'll hate the movie: this is the foundation of Brechtian Cricital Aesthetics: Art, which is a product of its culture and economics and politics, is an opportunity to improve Life, by being a torch bearer...enlightening us about society, economics, politics...as opposed to being pleasant waste of time.
Avatar, wether Cameron meant to or not, is smack dab in the middle of this ongoing dialogue between those who believe that art's purpose is to propose new ways of seeing the world and help society, and those who believe art is about creating a distraction from the troubles of the world...This discussion will go on for ever, and many may refer to Cameron and Lucas as polar opposites, but one thing for sure, Cameron will influence the next generation of filmmakers, though few people will talk of the relevance of Avatar in 5 years!
and now, I'm going to stop talking about it.