Poll: Avatar - Who did you root for

[Altherix]

You're very young or naive if you don't realize the entire movie is geared to make you side with the Na'vi. Hey, I'm pro-industry/military and even I would of helped the Na'vi against the cliché bad guys in the movie.

Plus, there's a huge plot hole in the movie that is completely irritating and the only way to believe it could happen is if you believe the humans have an IQ of 2.

No one ever tells the Na'vi what they're after, you know, the whole point Jake was put on the team. I'm honestly surprised the entire corporation didn't have the team arrested for wasting funds before a single shot got fired. I mean, they were able to figure out real quick Jake had turned against them but had no idea before this the team had no interest in communicating with the Na'vi their intent of getting unobtanium?

God forbid we have a intellectual movie about two different cultures on the brink of war and have a human find a way to communicate with the different culture and divert a war and prevent killings.

Nah, screw it, lets have the retarded fight that makes no sense and get the mind-numbing special effects going.

 

[Wicky_42]

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.

 

[Kaymish]

the indians since the cowboy's ... sorry Na'vi and Humans ... humans were too stupid to stay there

i cant remember details because i dont remember them at the best of times and i saw avatar once ages ago and it was a particularly bad western and i had trouble paying attention

 

[Maze1125]

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."

Given that there was no official human government attempt to obtain unobtainium, and the only people who were trying were the people of a single company which was clearly doing so with the intent of selling it for exorbitant prices. It's fairly safe to say that it was not vital to human survival.

The whole point of the movie was the standard "Humans are greedy, hate the human invaders." bit. If there was anything deeper about it then it would have been spelt out.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

I was just rooting for the credits

 

[Ldude893]

I rooted for whoever was on the receiving end of that cruel overpowered gunship attack that annihilated the Hometree.

 

[nmatters]

The Humans, bad-asses in giant spacecrafts!!!!

 

[ProfessorLayton]

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...

 

[Mr. Gency]

I'm rootING for the humans, because they'll come back...

With nukes.

 

[Kwatsu]

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]

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]

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

Spoiler

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Red Right Hand]

I honestly, cared for neither. To me, they were all assholes.