Avatar (film)/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Quaritch. Pretty much every morally questionable action he makes can be seen in more than one light: A murderous, racist Complete Monster, a Badass War Hero who will stop at nothing to protect humanity or someone who believes their actions are completely justifiable means to an end, combined with no small amount of stress.
  • Is Jake a genuinely good guy, or is he a Manipulative Bastard that selfishly used everyone from the Marines/Avatar program to the Na'vi tribes themselves for his own gain?
  • Are the Na'vi people compassionate to all life, or are they xenophobic jerks? Or both?
  • Are the RDA troops fantastical space racists or veterans of endless corporate wars recruited to protect tree-hugging scientists on an alien deathworld, where their enemy is picking off their friends one by one while company PR keeps them from retaliating, forcing them into a no-win scenario where they must sacrifice themselves to protect people who show them utter contempt, and can only take refuge in bleak and crude humor. (Exceptions notwithstanding)
• Award Snub: Many consider that The Hurt Locker winning out over Avatar in the 2010 Oscars and the BAFTAs was in a magnitude comparable to Annie Hall winning out over Star Wars back in 1977. There was a running joke among both fans and haters that voters supported The Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow as an explicit means of snubbing James Cameron. Talk about a Take That.
• Anvilicious, may or may not overlap with Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped depending on your mileage.
• Broken Aesop: Very much depends on whether or not you interpret the film as being anti-technology:
  • On the "yes, it IS anti-technology" end, there's the troublesome (and not all that subtle) implication that the Na'vi's ability to live in technological simplicity and harmony with nature is an example mankind should learn from...despite the fact that they're a warrior culture and seem to have easy, naturally supplied access to a lot of things humans had to develop complicated technologies for (domesticated animals, medicine, shelter, etc.).
    • Not to mention the medium itself, where themes like the beauty of nature, simplicity, and forsaking technology are being presented to us in an enormous budget film whose marketing was largely centered around a technical gimmick.
  • In the "no, it's NOT anti-technology" corner, there's the fact that the scientists in the film are portrayed in a positive light, that bit about Trudy aiding the protagonists by using some of the military's advanced technology against them, and the general Technology Porn nature of numerous scenes. To this camp, the general consensus seems to be that the film is less a critique of technologically advanced lifestyles than it is of militarism, imperialism, and out-of-control capitalism.
• Complaining About Shows You Don't Like: Let's just say that Avatar's usage of tropes has polarized This Wiki quite a bit to say the least. Not as much as Twilight, Justin Bieber, and Michael Bay, but still plenty.
• Dancing Bear: The whole fuss about the technological achievements necessary to pull this movie off: 3D digital film cameras, motion capture refinements, etc. Arguably the never-fully-disclosed but definitely astronomical budget and the marketing-induced hype.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Quaritch is not the main character of this movie. He is, in fact, a villain. The villain. Yet his is the longest and first section on the character sheet. Not to mention the only character to get his own listing. All the other characters are grouped together.
  • Grace, the compassionate doctor who taught the Na'vi English, played by Sigourney Weaver. Probably the movie's most genuinely sympathetic and noble character. Her avatar has got to be the single most incredible achievement in CGI technology ever. Sadly, she's also the designated casualty meant to pull at our heartstrings. But at least she becomes one with Eywa, a truly worthy final fate for her.
• Evil Is Cool: Quaritch. Has a large fandom who admire him for being such an ultimate Colonel Badass.
• Fan Dumb:
  • The popularity of Avatar has given rise to Na'vikin (a portmanteau of Na'vi and Otherkin), who believe that they are humans with the souls of Na'vi inside of them. Yes, you read that right, and yes, it's exactly as sad as it sounds.
  • There's someone who wants to form an actual Na'vi tribe in Florida (he has nominated himself Tsahik already), speaking of things like future government structure, organization of councils with other tribes, having "an identity card with photo, signature, barcode, hologram and other features", seeking international recognition as a new ethnic group... Oh, and to go and speak at Native Americans events.
  • "Avatar Depression Syndrome:" Suicidal thoughts brought on by a hope of being reincarnated as a Na'vi. Despair brought on because they will never get to experience the glory of the beautiful utopian world that is Pandora. Good thing about this one, it's self-correcting.
  • Most recent example is the rage of rabid fans after the Oscars. Many did a 180° turn from "Avatar will rake the Awards" to "Academy Awards are meaningless", and they use the movie's stellar box office numbers as their only argument about its quality. Some called to go and watch the movie any single day (or buy tickets for it even if they have no time to actually watch it) to further increase its earnings and "teach the Academy a lesson". But the absolute worst are people calling to destroy DVDs of The Hurt Locker if they see them in any shop.
• Gannon Banned: Calling anyone in the film "Avatar", or calling the Na'vi "Avatars".
• Growing the Beard: For the 3D Movie trend; this movie may mark the turning point where 3D versions are no longer just a gimmick to charge movie-goers extra.
• Hate Dumb: While the Fan Dumb of this title is quite bad, the Hate Dumb surely isn't any better. This is perhaps one of the largest examples of this trope as just simply putting this film on your favorites list or speaking positive about this film will make haters bash your taste in movies and you'll be lucky to make it out alive. As can be seen in the page history section, the discussion section, this page, and even the main page, they even exist on this very wiki!!
  • It wouldn't be so bad if some haters stuck to the actual flaws the film has instead of making stuff up because the RDA is kewler. For example, blaming the entire third act on Jake because he slept with Neytiri—who he fell in love with—instead of negotiating a surrender. They somehow forget the part where Jake says the Na'vi are never going to leave Hometree. Even if he was going to give it one last shot, Quaritch already had 'dozers clearing a path to Hometree. It was screwed either way.
  • Speaking of Hate Dumb, a number of them were fans started to hate the movie because of the Fan Dumb, notably /tv/ which utterly hates Avatar now because of one annoying fan. Funny considering that they themselves are the same way.
  • This coincides with It's Popular, Now It Sucks. Quite a few of the fandom were repeatedly praising The Hurt Locker and Bigalow for making a "Tropeless Tale" (and ignoring its flaws) while picking apart the flaws of Avatar with no mercy. Ironically soon after the Oscars, many of these same fans began to trash and pick apart The Hurt Locker for all it's worth, thus proving their worth as "true movie fans".
• Hilarious in Hindsight: One of Stephen Lang's (Quaritch) earlier roles was in Tall Tale, where he played a farmer standing-up to a mining company from developing a fertile valley.
  • Before the Memetic Badass Quaritch became Lang's most notable role, his previous famous role was Ike Clanton, who is the flipside of Quaritch as a completely cowardly villain.
• Internet Backdraft: A discussion on if Avatar was snubbed for the Best Picture award by the Oscars in favor of The Hurt Locker will spark a big one. Also, arguing that this movie has any depth at all will spark a flame war in some quarters (This Very Wiki included), and don't try to say that the Na'vi might've been right after all, or make any comparisons to real life events. Especially The War on Terror.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks: See the trope entry in that page for more ^[1]. Considering that this is the highest grossing film of all time, its flaws have been emphasized much more than most other titles. ^[2]
• Misaimed Fandom: Quaritch is understandably subject to this, being an example of both Evil Is Cool and Colonel Badass. It is when people try to defend destroying the Na'vi home and killing several Na'vi in the process that the extent of said fandom gets disturbing.
• Motive Decay: Over the course of the movie, Quaritch goes from being paid to keep people alive to a psychopathic and genocidal quest for revenge.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The scene of Hometree being burned and brought to the ground. It's heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time, especially since it's inevitable that many Na'vi, including children, were killed.
  • The Colonel stabbing the Thanator got a bit... violent.
  • Banshees and Thanators and Viperwolves... oh, my!
  • When the Na'vi are shown losing the battle... that flaming direhorse...
  • What happened to Norm's Avatar. What really makes it freaky is when he's forced out of his chamber, clutching his heart, shuddering and breathing...
    • A deleted scene reveals that Wainfleet walks up to him and shoots him at point blank range with that massive gun of his. Imagine the outcome of that...
• Older Than They Think:
  • People would accuse Avatar of being a ripoff of something fairly recent when James Cameron had publicly stated that he had been inspired by something far older. Oddly enough, no one would have said John Carter of Mars. Though it does not contain the environmentalism aspects Avatar has. (Cameron also reportedly said the film was sort of a sci-fi King Lear.) The script also predates many of the stories that people complain are 'too similar'.
  • Strugatsky Brothers' Noon Universe had a similar planet, complete with wildlife and the native tribes. The planet's name was... Pandora! Russian readers have drawn much attention to this, and Boris eventually commented: "The americans have borrowed our idea. That's quite unpleasant, but we wouldn't sue them for that, now would we?"
• Rooting for the Empire: Being that the villains are humanity, a number of viewers found themselves rooting for the RDA.
• Tainted by the Preview: The anticipation, to date, went something like this: "A new movie by James Cameron? The guy who directed Aliens? All very hush-hush? It could be anyth--oh the teaser trailer's out? It's Space Marines vs. Native American alien cat people? That's it? Screw you, James Cameron, screw you." When some people have seen the ads on Cartoon Network, they're convinced that it'll be too kiddish for them. Then the movie came out, and the preview turned out to be a fairly complete plot summary.
• Uncanny Valley: Many say Cameron has averted this by making the Na'vi look human and likeable, but just shy of creeping into uncomfortable territory. Specifically their eyes. Cameron noted that CGI humanoids tended to have "dead eyes" so he took extra care in filming the actors' eyes during motion-capture filming. He may have gone too far in the other direction.

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Back to Avatar (film)

1. ↑ It's in the James Cameron section in the Film folder on that page
2. ↑ Heck, even the flaws of The Hurt Locker were largely ignored until after the 2010 Oscars.