Why AVATAR fails as a story

Some would say AVATAR is the best achievement in Motion Picture in a long time. "That film has it all", they would've gone on to say. And yes, it does indeed have it all - great actors, a fantastic director, great dialogue, an interesting place and universe, a "classic" story with romance, action and amazing visual effects... But by "has it all" I also mean the fact that it has cheap plot twists, deus ex machinas, is frequently tedious, not to mention pretentious, and it is too goddamn freaking long. 

 

  

Earlier tonight I rewatched the Collector's Extended Cut of AVATAR with a great friend of mine, her mom and her little brother. And before I begin to rant, I just have to say - I am really, truly sorry for my rants and anger. I know it was annoying, and I take full responsibility. Next time though, we're gonna watch a better movie, and I'll shut up then. Promise. :)

   

     

So. The second thing I'll say is - next time I'm watching this film, it'll be with some good buddys of mine, so we can trash-talk this movie and play drinking games with it. (And yes, I know I'm not old enough to drink yet, but I do not intend to watch this film again in the near future, so that'll work out great.)

  

Then over to the story, which is basically DANCES WITH WOLVES or POCAHONTAS (take your pick) in Space, on an even dangerous place. And it actually works fine - the characters are cool, the world interesting enough to keep you looking for the next creature, and be amazed when it pops up. This is a good movie, set in a fascinating universe, at a fascinating moon called Pandora. On this planet, there is a corporation which only wish is to get its hands on the material called "Unobtanium". We never learn what they use this material for, only that it's very, very expensive, and that they would do anything to get their hands on it.

Which is where Stephen Lang's character Quaritch, a general in the Army, comes in. A scientist called Selfridge has discovered a huge field of Unobtanium (notice that I'm not even going to make a joke about the name of this material) directly under a sacred tree which the Indigenous Na'Vi's live in. They need that Unobtainium, so they send our Main Character, a marine called Jake Sully, undercover into the Na'Vi territory, to get them to move. Of course this goes horribly wrong, as Jake Sully falls for the Na'Vi girl Neytiri and their way of living; he lost his legs in a battle, and has never been in a forest, as all of Earth has become one big city. He understands that there is nothing the humans have that the Na'Vi wants, and that this is an impossible, unsolvable situation.

  

It must be hell, to go through something like that - to really see an alien world, to try and understand an indigenous population, only to learn that nothing can be done. Humans will never get them to move, regardless of what they do or give them. The only way to get that Unobtanium is to attack them; remove the tree, kill the Na'Vi's and dig out the materials.

   

Which is exactly what the Military General plans (and starts) to do the minute he gets his hands on this information. 

  

If you haven't seen the movie, you'll probably see where this is going anyhow - Na'Vi discovers that Jake has been working undercover this whole time, and turn on him, just as they're attacked by the Military General and his army of Mercenaries. (Remember, it's a corperation that's on Pandora, not a Government of any kind.) The army shoots down all the Na'Vi's they see, and destroys the tree. 

   

Up until that point, the film is great - sweeping, epic, daunting, it tells an interesting story (though I would've liked to see more about the corporation, not just Pandora and the Na'Vi.), gets you interested in the characters, and takes you into a world you've never seen anything like. There's even a fair bit of action and romance thrown in. Point being, the whole thing feels like an original movie. Although upon rewatches, some of this stuff might feel a bit too long, you'll live with it.

   

The biggest problem this movie has, is that after the scene where Quaritch, the military general, destroys the home-tree of the Na'Vi, the film continues.

  

 

It should've ended there. It would've made for a brilliant story, and (more importantly) it would've REALLY driven home the point and the message this movie has. Think about it. Next time you're watching this film, put on the Extended Collector's Edition, and after the destruction of the home tree is done, with the Na'Vi walking away from the burning tree, it fades out. Pause it there. Right there; At the second when the screen is black. Then think to yourself "If that was the end of the film... how would I have felt about that?" 

  

Think I'm kidding? Well, I'm not. Go rewatch the movie (preferably the Extended Collector's one), pause it when it fades out, (it fades into Sully, Norm and Grace in jail) and pretend the movie just ended. 

What you would've seen is that the movie makes absolutely PERFECT sense. That ending would've knocked the socks out of you, and made the story (almost) as unique and great as the world-building and the visual effects. Hell, that scene even has a voice over by Jake where he states; "I was a warrior who dreamed he could bring peace... but sooner or later though, you always have to wake up".

   

This voice over brings back the theme where humans are greedy, and don't care about anything other than money. It brings back the fact that most of humanity is asleep - that we don't care about each other, or others, and that is why we've failed, as a species. It brings back all the things we've learned throughout the movie. It even has the fantastic, powerful stuff where some of the people starts doubting Quaritch (the Military General) and his opinions. (This goes for Michelle Rodriguez' character, along with Selfridges, my favorite character in the film) That scene even has the fantastic "Quaritch drinks his coffee while slaughtering innocent Na'vi's"-moment. It's a perfect ending, that drives home the whole message of the film; if humanity continues down the road we're currently on long enough, we'll end up as a species that doesn't care about nature, about kindness - we only care about ourselves, and money. It really makes you see humanity for what it is today, and what we could become if we continue down this road in the long run. 

  

Now, instead of ending, the film continues for A WHOLE FREAKING HOUR. It shows Jake getting back with the Na'Vi's again through a sequence where he takes his "dragon", flies a bit upwards with it, then jumps on top of another dragon and tames it. After doing this, he returns to the Na'Vi, whom he betrayed and fooled, shows off his mighty dragon and gets back in the gang automatically. Now, this part bothers me beyond belief, mostly because it wasn't in the original scripts - it was added later, much, much later. It's stupid, cheap storytelling.

  

However, it doesn't beat the next thing...

  

Cameron, thinking that the audience weren't tired of seeing evil corporation kicking Na'Vi butt, made the Na'Vi, along with Jake, Norm and some other Avatars, fight back against the Military big-time. They kicked ass, did a whole lotta damage...

  

and then lost. Many of them got killed, which was understandable, but they lost. They weren't going to survive. The evil money-loving humans were going to win. 

  

Then comes the giant Deus Ex Machina, which cheapens the film even more. 

  

("Deus Ex Machina" translates directly to "God in the Machine". The story-expression comes from Ancient Greece, where the playwriters called down the Gods directly to the stage when they'd written themselves into a corner.)

  

This is how I picture James Cameron when after he's written the scene where the Na'Vi "revolution" fails horribly....

Hm... What to do know...? How do I fix this... Oh yes OF COURSE! I only have to go back here... *goes back in the screenplay* Add some vague hints that the planet and all the animals are inter-connected here... *goes back a bit further* add an infodump here...

And that's it! Now to this fight again... *goes back to the fight*

*clears throat*

*writes*

"Suddenly, a rumble can be heard from far off; it's the sound of Pandora's animals, having been called by Eywa, and are now rushing to defend their home."

This is really cheap writing. Even moreso when you realise that the giant "Deus Ex Machina" really wasn't necessary. The only thing it does is to bring up a plot-hole (why didn't Eywa turn against the humans before?)

It also begs the question why in the holy freaking hell we needed to see the Na'Vi getting their ass kicked by the bad humans TWICE? Instead, it should've gone like this - Humans attack tree, Na'Vi is unprepared and many are slaughtered. However, a lot of them manage to get away. They team up with some of the other clans, along with humans in the Avtaras, and they attack the humans, exacting revenge. Humans die, overpowered by a sneaky enemy who manages to use the machine's vulnerabilities against them. Maybe it wouldn't have been groundbreaking, or "realistic", but it sure as hell wouldn't be as stupid as a planet sending out a distress call to all its inhabitants.

  

AVATAR is a breathtaking film. It has it all, jaw-dropping visual effects included. The only sad thing is that it's overlong, tedious and a wee bit pretentious. Cameron sure loves to hammer his audiences on the head with the film's message - if we continue down this road, humans will be even more nasty than we are now. Instead of making this message crystal-clear within the opening minutes, Cameron should've underplayed it, focusing more about the various characters, then ended the film with a sad, albeit realistic ending, which would've made the message very clear, very real and very good. It would've been a wake-up call. Instead, the film goes on for an hour more, and we're delivered a fine drivel of Deus ex Machina's and random plot-points that are supposed to fit together but really makes no sense at all.

  

These are my gripes with this film, and its story. 

  

Even if it had continued after the Soul Tree of the Na'Vi burns down, I wish they at least would've done it without the "Na'Vi looses again and the planet/God itself steps up to finish the job"-thing, no matter how satisfying it is to watch Na'Vi kick the Military's ass in the end. It would've shortened the film with about 20 minutes, and it would've been all the better for it, even with the "happy ending" that this film shouldn't have.

  

But these are just my two cents. What are yours?