So I finally saw Avatar, everyone. Yeah, I know, I’m late. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would, but I didn’t love it, either. The story had problems, and I didn’t find myself connecting with any of the characters. The animation was cool, but not cool enough to justify the boring plot and characters. Also, the movie was long. Real long.
But I did quite enjoy one thing about the film, and that thing was the world building. Okay, the Na’vi species isn’t all that different from the human species, and, sure, the Na’vi culture isn’t all that different from white Americans’ common misinterpretations and mental mishmashing of every native culture our grubby pale hands have ever come in contact with. But overall I thought the Na’vi were kinda neat. I liked the idea that they could literally connect with nature via a neural net, I liked that they could tame animals this way, and I liked that this all influenced the development of their culture. I also liked the general badassness of the Na’vi, whose pedagogy seemed to boil down to, “Learn this fast or die in the most painful way possible.” Probably wouldn’t work for us squishy humans, but Na’vi bodies take a beating better than ours do—they can handle it.
My quick review of Avatar, then, is, “Bland plot, bland characters, pretty animation but not so pretty that I’m going to start cursing God for giving James Cameron such powers… but it had its moments. And those moments involved the world building.”
Color me surprised, then, that the ever popular Jason Kottke had almost the exact opposite reaction. To him, Avatar’s story, characters, and visuals were top-notch; the world building, on the other hand, was piss-poor and nonsensical. According to his review, the Na’vi shouldn’t be living in Stone Age conditions because
1. They are physically capable.
2. They are very intelligent.
3. They are aware of their environment/have access to many natural resources.
4. They are well-nourished, healthy, omnivorous, adaptive, and inventive.
5. They have domesticated animals.
6. They are troubled by few serious natural predators.
7. They can live in different environments.
8. They can communicate over and travel long distances.
9. They have regular access to a global supercomputer.
And he concludes: “The Na’vi are too capable and live in an environment that is far too pregnant with technological possibility to be stuck in the Stone Age. Plot-wise it’s convenient for them to be the way they are, but the Na’vi really should have been more technologically advanced than the Earthlings, not only capable of easily repelling any attack from Captain Ironpants but able to keep the mining company from landing on the moon in the first place.”
My response is thus:
Nope. Nope nope nope. Wrong on almost every count. And here’s why.