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movie review - Avatar

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a science fiction flick set in a considerably-distant future where humanity is combing the stars looking for things to plunder from planets that are already occupied by intelligent species we don't understand. Frankly, that's probably how we'll roll and I'm glad it looks rather that we'll simply mess up this planet and die out having never taken our shit that far.

But I digress. In the movie, an extremely valuable resource lies beneath the tree at the center of an alien civilization's religious culture. So obviously all that has to because capitalism. The humans send one of their Marines in to stir up trouble, using some kind of mental connection to a purpose-grown body called an avatar. The Marine quickly becomes conflicted because it's clear that the aliens have an advanced civilization and that the inconvenient tree thing has real biological purpose and relevance to this race.

I liked the visuals, the story, and the general tone but there was something about this that put me off; were the human villains just too cardboard-cut-out Baddies? Was the whole story about an avatar making its way among the aliens just a contrived and problematic invention to make something unique? At one point the Marine's avatar makes love to one of the aliens, what are the ramifications of that? In short, I found the mechanics and inventiveness of the movie got in the way of the story and that the result was something less than it could and should have been.

Not recommended.