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Avatar broke box office records in China but what I found interesting was how some Chinese have interpreted it.

Chinese audiences, according to the Telegraph’s Malcolm Moore, are raising questions about the parallels between the blockbuster and current social issues related to Chinese developers and urban renewal projects.

Citing a post by Li Chengpeng, a Chinese football reporter and blogger, Moore’s piece draws connections between "Avatar’s" plot and “the perils that ordinary Chinese face at the hands of avaricious property developers.” Tensions between these two groups, namely allegations of eviction without adequate compensation, are ever present in news headlines across the country.

Was this Cameron’s original intent for the film? We’re guessing not. The relatively simple plot line is easily assimilated by a spectrum of activists around the globe.
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Source: http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/play/avatar-china-sets-chinese-box-office-record-795780
 
There are many ways to interpret it. There was a line that Jake said that went something like "If people are sitting on something you want you make them your enemy, then you're justified in taking it". That made me think of the way the rich tend to be demonised by the left so that the mob feels ok taking their stuff, when in reality they're mostly ordinary people like you and me and just happen to be better off. Its something all sides are guilty of.
 
I'm basically agreeing with the consensus that the Visuals were a mind blowing 12 (on a scale of 10 which must now be recalibrated) but the plot was a mediocre 5 due to its predictability and juvenile character. As mentioned earlier when you look at just the plot and the intellectual maturity of what the movies are trying to say District 9 just eviscerates Avatar and is arguably the rightful heir to "best Sci-Fi movie" of 09.

I think in decades hence Avatar will be remembered for is cementing firmly three trends of which have been on the rise but I predict will now explode due to follow the leader effects, 3D filming, Motion-Capture/CGI and 3 hour running times which was started by Cameron with Titanic (yes I know this is common outside N.A already).

Their were some pondering earlier on how their was no 'colonialism' because no humans were trying to live on the planet permanently, its 'just' a resource-grab. That's the point, they stripped down the evils of colonialism to its most unambiguously evil parts. Actual Colonization as in people leaving some miserable place to start new lives in a new land isn't even evil to most Americans, neither is converting the natives. But pure unadulterated resource theft is cut and dry evil, they intentionally don't say what the unobtainable is FOR (cures cancer perhaps?) because that could introduce some moral ambiguity, its just psudo-gold. Also calling it Unobtanium while some what questionable should never have been done without an immediate lampshade hanging http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging if they had just thrown in a quick jab like "What Hollywood guru thought that name up" or the like I would have died laughing.

Speaking of which I'm still pondering what the Pandoran Atmosphere was composed of, the gravity is said to be lower so that mean light gasses like hydrogen and helium are out (they don't even remain in Earths Atmosphere). I'm guessing high amounts of Nitrogen, perhaps lethal CO2 levels, Noble gasses like Argon or some Hydrocarbons of some sort.

I'm somewhat hopeful that a sequel if made will be better, Cameron is the only Director to have ever created a sequel to a great movie arguably better then the original (T2), and the cliche plot devices have been somewhat used up. Any prospective sequel will have to deal with the real meat-and-potatoes struggle of a culture trying to preserve itself in the face of a technologically superior one. If this trip to Pandora is only a few years the Earth is going to respond probably by sending a real military in a little more then a decade. It's only logical to assume the humans are going to 'back' in some form, perhaps on a negotiated basis but back none the less. Rather then the usual shoot-em-up Cameron could explore how this fragile peace is held together or falls apart.
 
Newbunkle said:
There are many ways to interpret it. There was a line that Jake said that went something like "If people are sitting on something you want you make them your enemy, then you're justified in taking it". That made me think of the way the rich tend to be demonised by the left so that the mob feels ok taking their stuff, when in reality they're mostly ordinary people like you and me and just happen to be better off. Its something all sides are guilty of.
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You're turning it upside down. Isn't it the rich who want something and are taking it by force?
 
Okay. Question

The Unobtainium was in those giant floating mountains right? Where no natives lived? Can someone explain why they didn't just mine those first, and avoid casualties.

Visually spectacular, but some really insanely bad glaring plot holes very much bother me
 
Newbunkle said:
There are many ways to interpret it. There was a line that Jake said that went something like "If people are sitting on something you want you make them your enemy, then you're justified in taking it". That made me think of the way the rich tend to be demonised by the left so that the mob feels ok taking their stuff, when in reality they're mostly ordinary people like you and me and just happen to be better off. Its something all sides are guilty of.
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Newbunkle, you literally couldn't have got it more wrong.
 
JerichoHill said:
Okay. Question

The Unobtainium was in those giant floating mountains right? Where no natives lived? Can someone explain why they didn't just mine those first, and avoid casualties.

Visually spectacular, but some really insanely bad glaring plot holes very much bother me
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No, the unobtanium was under the sacred tree. I think.
 
JerichoHill said:
Okay. Question

The Unobtainium was in those giant floating mountains right? Where no natives lived? Can someone explain why they didn't just mine those first, and avoid casualties.

Visually spectacular, but some really insanely bad glaring plot holes very much bother me
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No, the big deposit was under the big tree they lived in.

EDIT: What RRW said.
 
JerichoHill said:
Okay. Question

The Unobtainium was in those giant floating mountains right? Where no natives lived? Can someone explain why they didn't just mine those first, and avoid casualties.

Visually spectacular, but some really insanely bad glaring plot holes very much bother me
Click to expand...

I think there was some sort of spiritual significant tide to the floating mountains. It would've pissed off the natives almost as much as destroying HomeTree.
 
warpus said:
Might Avatar be remembered on a similar scale as the first colour movie, or the first one where people actually talked? Maybe a bit more - it is making a lot of money after all.
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No way. It is not that revolutionary. It just improved the art of computer generated looks. It did not introduce it. Babylon 5 was more revolutionary in that respect ;)

It rather will be remembered as what you just said: Making a lot of money (and maybe for being the most epic case of over interpretation)
 
aelf said:
You're turning it upside down. Isn't it the rich who want something and are taking it by force?
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It depends what you think of as wealth.

On one hand you have humans in need of this ore to prevent their civilization from dying, as their homeworld can't support them anymore. (According to the Avatar wiki, the ore is "the key to Earth's energy needs").

On the other hand the natives live on a world that provides everything for them. They don't need the ore, and they don't need to live in the tree. What do you call people who sit on wealth for the fun of it and refuse to share?

I'm not saying its the only way to look at it, and I turned it "upside down" deliberately, because a lot of people don't seem to realise how similar each side is. Its the same hooker with different lipstick.

If the majority of people are in need of something that a minority controls and won't part with, would you support taking it by force? (Assume that the use of the law is also a use of force in this case - it doesn't have to be a physical threat). Does it really make a difference if the groups belong to different civilizations?

This isn't why I made the comment and I don't really want to argue (it bores the pants off me), but I'm curious whether you see any similarities there.

Anyway, I read that the unobtanium itself is what allowed the humans to become a true spacefaring civilization. Its what enables their current fleet of freighters to function. I don't know where the sequels will be going with the story, but now that humans have ships capable of making interstellar trips in a reasonable time (thanks to the ore), they might find other deposits which make the mining of Pandora unnecessary.

One of my theories for the sequels is that the Na'vi may end up needing human assistance to overcome another threat, and the two races will eventually learn to live in harmony.
 
Unobtainium is the thing that bugged me the most about the movie (which I enjoyed, overall)

Stupid stupid name! It didn't bug me THAT much during the movie, cause every time they mentioned it, I'd go "oooh look at the pretty graphics", but now that I think back to it, couldn't they have gone with something a bit less silly?
 
Exactly....it's like rubbing it in that they have no imagination, they could have just made up some chemical or ore.
 
warpus said:
Unobtainium is the thing that bugged me the most about the movie (which I enjoyed, overall)

Stupid stupid name! It didn't bug me THAT much during the movie, cause every time they mentioned it, I'd go "oooh look at the pretty graphics", but now that I think back to it, couldn't they have gone with something a bit less silly?
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To be honest, considering how quirky science is, I wouldn't be surprised that some material will eventually be named unobtainium. I mean, quarks, really?
 
SiLL said:
Well his family name is Quarks. Are you saying there is a Mr. an Ms. Unobtainium out there?
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They were named after the sound made by ducks, and spelled after this poem in the book Finnegans Wake:

Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he has not got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.

—James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
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