Great Movie (NaBloPoMo, Day #4)
(Actually, I already posted today, but this is the post I had intended for NaBloPoMo, so here it is.)
Is it Day #4 already? Boy, does time fly. At least, it certainly did in the three-hour film D.H.* and I saw last night. We saw Avatar, and it was everything our son (Mister Arnold Mayergi) said it was (he had just seen it in Tel-Aviv when we spoke to him yesterday). The three hours only felt like one. We saw it in 3-D, which enhanced it even more (is the future...3 dimensional, motion holograms, as in Star Wars?). The special effects / CG technology were superb. It also had a vertiginous feel to it, with mountains suspended in "air" in their non-earth-atmospheric world.
The plot by itself was formula, though: a technologically superior people (humans) tries to subdue an 'inferior' race to exploit the latter's world's geological resources for their (the hi-tech people's) own benefit: profit over ethical behavior. In the process there is a love story of course, between a human come down to learn the native's ways (for nefarious purposes) in his 'avatar' body, and a native Na'vi princess (no relation to the Jewish Navi, or prophet). But the native population is really a good, spiritual one, which values life and the balance of nature; and the would-be conquering race is crass and profit-hungry and evil. So of course, the ending is--wait a minute, this is not a spoiler. I hope.
It is a combination of 'Dances with Wolves' and the concept of 'The Noble Savage.'
But as in every cliche and embellishment, there is some truth, and there was a truth in this movie. Go see it, and you figure it out. In short, I liked it. And the language, created by Professor Paul Frommer is much cooler than Klingon. I predict that there will eventually be a Na'vi cult and following, with a language institute of its own. So I'll end by saying,
Eywa ngahu int*. (Look it up.)
*D.H.: future term for 'dear hubby.'
Is it Day #4 already? Boy, does time fly. At least, it certainly did in the three-hour film D.H.* and I saw last night. We saw Avatar, and it was everything our son (Mister Arnold Mayergi) said it was (he had just seen it in Tel-Aviv when we spoke to him yesterday). The three hours only felt like one. We saw it in 3-D, which enhanced it even more (is the future...3 dimensional, motion holograms, as in Star Wars?). The special effects / CG technology were superb. It also had a vertiginous feel to it, with mountains suspended in "air" in their non-earth-atmospheric world.
The plot by itself was formula, though: a technologically superior people (humans) tries to subdue an 'inferior' race to exploit the latter's world's geological resources for their (the hi-tech people's) own benefit: profit over ethical behavior. In the process there is a love story of course, between a human come down to learn the native's ways (for nefarious purposes) in his 'avatar' body, and a native Na'vi princess (no relation to the Jewish Navi, or prophet). But the native population is really a good, spiritual one, which values life and the balance of nature; and the would-be conquering race is crass and profit-hungry and evil. So of course, the ending is--wait a minute, this is not a spoiler. I hope.
It is a combination of 'Dances with Wolves' and the concept of 'The Noble Savage.'
But as in every cliche and embellishment, there is some truth, and there was a truth in this movie. Go see it, and you figure it out. In short, I liked it. And the language, created by Professor Paul Frommer is much cooler than Klingon. I predict that there will eventually be a Na'vi cult and following, with a language institute of its own. So I'll end by saying,
Eywa ngahu int*. (Look it up.)
*D.H.: future term for 'dear hubby.'
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