Poll: Avatar - Who did you root for

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ProfessorLayton

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Nov 6, 2008
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I feel the people rooting for the humans are doing it just to be different...

But I tend to agree with the Cracked article. I really doubt that the humans would have left after losing one battle. It doesn't matter what the end of the movie said...
 

Kwatsu

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Wicky_42 said:
Kwatsu said:
Not telling us what unobtainium actually is, was a major failing of Avatar. It basically took away our ability to have a properly informed debate about who was in the right and who was wrong. If it was, say, a mineral people could get high on, which is why it commanded such a high price, then yeah, the humans were just being exploitative and cruel.

But if it's something like starship fuel--without which human colonies and space explorers would be stranded and left to die--or some substance that can cure disease and the overpopulated Earth is suffering from endless plagues, then the human battle on Pandora is cast in a considerably different light. It would become a battle of two species trying to preserve their people and way of life. But it's never spelled out and it just becomes all about "humans want money, the Na'vi just want to be left alone."

Cameron didn't seem to realise that, with unobtainium being the crux of this conflict, he should tell us what it actually is. The conflict in Avatar could have been much more nuanced with villains and heroes on both sides. But because he clearly wanted to focus just on Jake Sully's Na'vi Adventure, he didn't bother. It reduces the film to the moral equivalent of a cartoon when it could have been much more, so easily.

This is why I only enjoyed Avatar as a very beautiful sci-fi nature documentary. Cameron doesn't put enough substance into the conflict for me to care about who wins.
Yeah, this is a good point. Cameron really should have included more of his back story into the first film - shown a bit of the state of the Earth, expanded on the use of Unobtanium and all that sort of stuff. It would have helped create a more balanced films as well as fleshed out its substance for those unwilling to read the site to supplement their understanding of the film.
But... why was something so important on the site and not in the finished film? Avatar is three hours long, and much of that is glorious shots of Pandora's landscape. Much as I liked the look of Pandora, I'd have gladly sacrificed a few scenes of Jake and Neytiri swimming or running through the forest, to understand more and care more about what was happening.

If a conflict's so unimportant they don't bother explaining it fully to the people watching the movie, how can the conflict be important enough to spin a whole movie around? All it would have taken is a few lines of dialogue, and the entire meaning of Avatar would have been positively shifted. That's what makes me sad.
 

Assassin Xaero

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Chunko said:
Why did everyone root for the Na'vi?
Because the humans were imperialistic, greedy pricks. They wanted to destroy the Na'vi land and take whatever that thing was just to sell it for money. That is like watching District 9 and siding with the douche before he has his change of heart... err... grows a heart...
 

Chunko

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Zeithri said:
Chunko said:
I was wondering if anyone else rooted for the humans in avatar?

[HEADING=2]Here's my reason for siding with the humans:[/HEADING]
I took this from another one of my forum posts
I agree. I always thought that the Na'vi were being arrogant and unreasonable. Humanity was offering them a lot and they refused. Humans were out there for there own survival and the Na'vi would not be diplomatic. That gave them only one option. The humans didn't care about exterminating the Na'vi, just surviving.

Jake Sully specifically was a jerk. Aside from showing no emotion he damned his own species. In addition to this he was hurting the Na'vi as well. If he had not united them maybe like twelve aliens would have died. Instead hundreds perished, both human and Na'vi. I'm sure that after the mining had been set up Na'vi would have been forced to negotiate with humanity, and maybe they could be uplifted from their primitive society.

In addition to this I quite frankly did not like any of the aliens. The only characters who stuck out to me were humans. I liked the executive and the macho military guy (I can't remember their names, sue me). On a really shallow level I didn't like the movie which made me immune to its propaganda.

Okay wow there's been 29 views and no posts. can you PLEASE qualify your opinions.

Why did everyone root for the Na'vi?

EDIT: Nevermind, thank you Hubilub.
What?
Are you stupid?

Humanity was NOT out there for survival, they were there for LOLPROFIT.
One of those small Un-obtain-ium rocks went for 20 FUCKING MILLIONS!
Is that survival? Capitalism?

That was just.. GAAAH!
This is the last time I'm answering this question:

Humanity needed unobtanium to stimulate their economy so they could keep functioning.
 

Chunko

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Assassin Xaero said:
Chunko said:
Why did everyone root for the Na'vi?
Because the humans were imperialistic, greedy pricks. They wanted to destroy the Na'vi land and take whatever that thing was just to sell it for money. That is like watching District 9 and siding with the douche before he has his change of heart... err... grows a heart...
Obviously not wanting your world's economy to crash and forcing everyone to live in squalor is greed.
 

Chunko

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Hubilub said:
Chunko said:
Hubilub said:
On an emotional level I stayed neutral, but I believe the Na'vi are right and the humans are wrong.

It was never explained that humanity needed unobtanium to survive, only that it's really expensive stuff they can get rich on. On an entire planet there should be more than just one place where they can find unobtanium, but apparently they didn't want to make the effort of relocating to another side of the planet.

And of course, that is considering that there are no other places in the entire universe where you can get unobtanium, which frankly sounds far-fetched. If it's so damn rare, then I don't see how humanity would survive for long on that stuff.

Jake Sully isn't a jerk. Why should he side with the humans in this conflict when they are the bigger assholes? And why should they just let the humans get their will through? They'd probably start harassing and killing other Na'vi as they went looking for more unobtanium.

And who the hell can support the idea of the humans uplifting the Na'vi from their primitive society? Remember the words Manifest Destiny?
We all regret that, which is why I think we wouldn't treat the Na'vi the same way we treated the Native Americans. As for the unobtanium we needed the minerals for our economy, and therefor our species to survive. Besides that even if we didn't taking over Na'vi would allow for us to build a galactic empire and make the world better for everyone. Mass Effect Anyone. The unobtanium itself would just get the humans started on bigger projects. Once Pandora was depleated (which would probably take 1000 years) they could expand to other planets.
The movie obviously showed that the higher ups don't give a lick about the Na'vi, that they have already tried to "civilize" them in a non-hostile and friendly way that didn't work one bit, and that they would gladly destroy anything the Na'vi hold dear. Hell, that's exactly what they would have done had the Na'vi agreed do diplomacy with them, and that's bullshit.

And they never said they needed unobtanium, just that they wanted it. There's no proof of our economy being so shite that we need all this unobtanium to survive.

And how the hell does Mass Effect have anything to do with this? And how the hell is an empire supposed to make the galaxy a better place?
I just liked the idea of a giant spacefaring civilization so that life can expand and be greater.

I'm pretty sure at the beginning they briefly mentioned the economy being crap.

You're making a pretty big assumption there by saying that they would have said no to diplomacy. Additionally they clearly cared for the Na'vi as evidenced by their attempts at negotiating with them peacefully. Even if they thought of them as dogs the media would have forced them to treat the Na'vi diplomatically. Or else face boycotting. There actions toward the end of the movie could be justified as defense.
 

Chunko

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rabidmidget said:
Chunko said:
rabidmidget said:
That's strange, I don't recall GLADOS being in that movie, I ought to go rewatch it.
It's after the credits. You have to beat the movie on insane difficulty. (It's 27 hours long and gives you even more of a headache)
hmmm, I would, but don't you need the 4d glasses to watch it on insane?
4D is for hard difficulty. You need 5D glasses for insane difficulty.
 

teisjm

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Mar 3, 2009
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I still fail to see how some greedy company guy getting some rocks worth billions, will be able to save the earth, it's not like you can eat those.

And just because you offer people something good in return, doesn't mean you're allowed to take it by force, if they reject.

Also the na'vi put out, the humans didn't.
 

crunchieman

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Nov 17, 2009
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I wanted everyone to die so I could leave the cinema and stop hearing people going like " I love this movie" and "I love the 3d" and "Somebody just give me James Camerons d*** to suck".
 

Berserker119

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Dec 31, 2009
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I was rooting for the fire bende... oh. Wrong one. In this one I was rooting for me to fall asleep, because I had nothing else better to do while watching it.
 

Czargent Sane

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May 31, 2010
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Chunko said:
I was wondering if anyone else rooted for the humans in avatar?

[HEADING=2]Here's my reason for siding with the humans:[/HEADING]
I took this from another one of my forum posts
I agree. I always thought that the Na'vi were being arrogant and unreasonable. Humanity was offering them a lot and they refused. Humans were out there for there own survival and the Na'vi would not be diplomatic. That gave them only one option. The humans didn't care about exterminating the Na'vi, just surviving.

Jake Sully specifically was a jerk. Aside from showing no emotion he damned his own species. In addition to this he was hurting the Na'vi as well. If he had not united them maybe like twelve aliens would have died. Instead hundreds perished, both human and Na'vi. I'm sure that after the mining had been set up Na'vi would have been forced to negotiate with humanity, and maybe they could be uplifted from their primitive society.

In addition to this I quite frankly did not like any of the aliens. The only characters who stuck out to me were humans. I liked the executive and the macho military guy (I can't remember their names, sue me). On a really shallow level I didn't like the movie which made me immune to its propaganda.


Okay wow there's been 29 views and no posts. can you PLEASE qualify your opinions.

Why did everyone root for the Na'vi?

EDIT: Nevermind, thank you Hubilub.
wait. the humans were not out for survival, they were out for money. they didn't need that stupid rock to survive. also, your reasoning would assert that there is no cause worth dying for. uplifted from their primitive society? if they want to live in the stone age (which they are perfectly happy to do) that's their choice. the navi were clearly in the right in this case. if I own a pile of dirt, its my pile of dirt, and you have no right to take it from me regardless of how much you've offered me for it.

my only real reason for supporting the navi is that anyone who puts a windshield on powered armor deserves to DIE.
 

Chunko

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Aug 2, 2009
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Zeithri said:
Chunko said:
Zeithri said:
Chunko said:
I was wondering if anyone else rooted for the humans in avatar?

[HEADING=2]Here's my reason for siding with the humans:[/HEADING]
I took this from another one of my forum posts
I agree. I always thought that the Na'vi were being arrogant and unreasonable. Humanity was offering them a lot and they refused. Humans were out there for there own survival and the Na'vi would not be diplomatic. That gave them only one option. The humans didn't care about exterminating the Na'vi, just surviving.

Jake Sully specifically was a jerk. Aside from showing no emotion he damned his own species. In addition to this he was hurting the Na'vi as well. If he had not united them maybe like twelve aliens would have died. Instead hundreds perished, both human and Na'vi. I'm sure that after the mining had been set up Na'vi would have been forced to negotiate with humanity, and maybe they could be uplifted from their primitive society.

In addition to this I quite frankly did not like any of the aliens. The only characters who stuck out to me were humans. I liked the executive and the macho military guy (I can't remember their names, sue me). On a really shallow level I didn't like the movie which made me immune to its propaganda.

Okay wow there's been 29 views and no posts. can you PLEASE qualify your opinions.

Why did everyone root for the Na'vi?

EDIT: Nevermind, thank you Hubilub.
What?
Are you stupid?

Humanity was NOT out there for survival, they were there for LOLPROFIT.
One of those small Un-obtain-ium rocks went for 20 FUCKING MILLIONS!
Is that survival? Capitalism?

That was just.. GAAAH!
This is the last time I'm answering this question:

Humanity needed unobtanium to stimulate their economy so they could keep functioning.
Well in that case,
Humanity deserves to die out.

Star Trek Humanity > Avatar Humanity.
I don't follow, wouldn't star trek only be achievable with a booming economy?
 

wadark

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Dec 22, 2007
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Why isn't there an option to vote for that nerdy human guy who's name I forget? I liked him.
 

tahrey

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Sep 18, 2009
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(apologies if these points have already been mentioned, i'm skimming :)

Na'vi, just about, but not for Cameron's anvil-dropping-levels-of-subtlety reasons.
(that's also the only time I'm going to sign up for that stupid apostrophes-in-the-name crap)

It's, what, the 23rd century or something, and our only method of extracting a precious mineral that's several hundred metres under a huge tree that's the core of one of the tribes of the planet's indigenous population is ... to freakin' STRIP MINE it?! Has the technology for shaft mining disappeared in the interim or something?

Plus one of the researchers has discovered something so automatically awesome (plants that have animal-like nerve fibres - and are interconnected between different organisms via the roots) and potentially almost as useful as unobtanium that even johnny random like myself sat in the theatre clocks it in the early scenes, and it's completely ignored? Get out of town. Never mind the enormous problem-solving potential of a planet-wide organic computer-internet that can both interface with and store innumerate living consciousnesses.

Oh, and they've got the ability to make hybrid clones of humans and natives that can be controlled over unexplained neuro-radio links, but no-one has thought of making surgically implantable rebreather units? Those firefighter/1950s diver type masks are aught but plot coupons.

Just for the two & a half points above, humanity in the future seems to have become so incredibly stupid even compared to the time the movie was conceived (where the general concensus was that we were on the handbasket express) that we could do with a good dose of natural-selection pruning and allow the carbon fibre boned, mind-melding cat people to inherit the metal and plastic technology we'd come up with and improve on it to their own ends.

Other than that, not a great deal of loyalty either way. It's probably intended as a tragedy overall - two cultures coming together in a battle for the survival of each, and BOTH are too goddamn stubborn to consider working with the other for mutual benefit (except for Sigourney Weaver and her damn-near-photocopied Aliens crew of course), so everyone suffers.

It's a shame an extra year or so wasn't sunk into getting the story and plot right, and realising that although presenting the viewer with pretty much a fait accompli, dropping them into the middle of a story already in progress with no exposition is a recognised narriative method, you do need to explain SOME things - e.g. what is the mineral/why they need it, rather than just "the Navi have this, we need it, they won't give it", what happened to the earth (X-files-ism is alright, but the awful things I can imagine wouldn't leave any humans alive, so...?), how come they can't get it by less destructive means, how in all the hell do they make and control the Avatars?
I view the film as quite awesome eye candy, and perhaps a tribute to a huge list of classic, sometimes game changing movies from the past century (there's so many little touches in there that basically say "JC saw film (x), loved it and wanted to include a little of it in his own"), but not a narriative masterpiece in its own right. It's just something very pretty to look at for a couple of hours, which isn't in of itself a failure. Just lacking in backup.

Maybe all this is answered in the special edition. Can't be bothered going back to the cinema for it though - I'll wait until The Friend With The Enormous TV rents the 3D Blu-Ray directors cut (which'll probably have even more extra bits). That or the these-days-inevitable sequel (ugh) :p
That and what might have happened to the tree if all the unobtanium was removed from under it anyway. I have a feeling the very plant life of the planet requires that mineral to thrive, at least in the form it appears. It might be the stuff that elevates it past what terrestrial plants managed, so if you mine it, they all die anyway.

Oh, and golddragon below does have a point :D COWBOYS AND INDIANS... IN SPAAAACE