So, I went to see it in what I consider to be the best film theatre of Paris (Max Linder), in English, full 3D, THX sound, etc...
How could I describe my reaction?
Well, the 3D technique is very interesting, and indeed I think this may be the future of movies.
BUT. I'm sorry if I may disappoint people here, but my opinion on that film might be very harsh.
The first 30 minutes are bearable. Barely. Just while you're discovering the plot and the context.
But after that, you have understood it, and the intrigue become very, very long. The scenario is incredibly dull, predictable... and well... boring.
But what shocked me the most was the aesthetics of the film:
It is insanely UGLY.
It was a shock to discover how much bad taste could be displayed on a single screen.
The people who designed this...
thing seem to have been severely limited in their imagination. They only use half-baked ideas, ridiculous cliches. The so-called aliens are just blue cat people... and that's all!
Even a child could have pictured something better.
And it's the same for the fauna and the flora. Cliches, cliches, cliches. Hoards of cliches.
NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING has been "invented". No brand new designs, no new invention at all.
Believe me, a real equatorial forest is far more interesting and complex than this animated crap for extreme daltonians.
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Of course, I'm also a great SF fan. But like somebody already wote, this is not SF. During the whole film, I was just amazingly disappointed to notice how totally incoherent Pandora was, especially when you have the slightest notion of physics and biology.
Unlike what Cameron imagined, the atmosphere CANNOT contain even traces of HCN and NH3, it's chemically impossible, since these molecules react with oxygene and water, and would necessitate a huge source of methane (another molecule that cannot coexist with oxygene).
Plus, a moon like this is supposed to be tidally locked with its Gas Giant (which is by the way far too smaller to make this believable). And let's not forget the probable effect of the magnetotail of Polyphemus, and the great geologic unstability of moons orbiting in a binary system... etc...
And biologically, it's even worse, since we have here a perfect exemple of non-darwinian evolution. But if you believe in Intelligent Design well...
The colours we see everywhere are nonsense. In such an hostile environment, camouflage would quickly become a necessary evolutionary asset. But once again, nothing really fits. Cameron needed those brilliant colours because of the 3D. There's no other explanation to it, it's as stupid and as mundane as that.
Yellow irises aren't suited to that kind of light (but once again, Na'vis are just cat people, don't look for any further meaning or sense of realism).
And hexapods... well, this is even more ridiculous in a jungle with lighter gravity. The designers just looked for an original idea to make their horses, their wolves and dinosaurs more alien looking. Unfortunately, it's was a wrong one.
And so on, and so on...
I spent all my time in front of the screen wondering at the incredible number of scientific mistakes and
deux ex machina, predictable events and flawed designs.
The whole movie could have been conceived by a 11 years old kid.
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So overall, when I think of the incredible budget Cameron had (the GNP of a small country!), I'd say it's an INCREDIBLE WASTEFULNESS. It's a formidable opportunity wasted. I can't recount the number of ways this movie could have been improved, everywhere, everywhere...
(Plus
"Dancing with Wolves" was far better)
The truth is that this movie has been optimised for one single purpose:
TO MAKE MONEY. And that's all.
It won't leave a mark in history, it just makes you feel empty and frustrated.
No message. No reflexion. No show.
It has been optimised for the general public, hence the incredible bad taste of the scenes (because unfortunately, it's a well known fact that the general public has absolutely no taste and if left alone will enjoy kitsch monstruosities -
"goût de chiotte" en français-, hence the purpose of the avant-garde).
So, overall, when you are both a trained scientist and a designer like me, this movie is a professional nightmare.
Once again, I prefer the real world, by far. The canopies of tropical rainforests are richer, more magical, and more beautiful. And they are no ersatz of reality, they are reality itself, even if men are currently destroying them.
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