Watching Avatar, Dreaming of Tron

So this week I went to see Avatar with a couple of friends (yes, I have those—human ones). I knew the movie would be heavy on tech; and geek that I am, I was not disappointed in that regard. The tech is awesome. But as I sat in the theater, head pounding from wearing those oversized Elvis Costello 3D glasses, I realized something important. I was not engaged.

Sure, Cameron spent 10 years perfecting his blue people. The Na’vi looked cool. The environment is gorgeous. And Cameron’s achievement is inspiring in terms of getting us to think outside the proverbial CGI box in many respects. But the stakes are higher now. For me, good tech is not enough. And it should not be enough. You also need:

• a compelling narrative. The most disappointing aspect of Avatar is the narrative. We have a rich store available to us; I fear Cameron, having hunkered down to focus on the tech, missed out on 10 years’ worth of great discourse. Almost any book on colonial and/or post-colonial narratives could have helped. I could point to the rehashed Pocahontas-meets-kinda-Braveheart storyline (er, both starring Mel Gibson, btw, with a little trail of tears thrown in) as one problem with the film, but that commentary has been made ad nauseam since the movie's release;
• great subtext. Unobtanium? Really? "Sully"? I get it;
• address the WTF?! Factor. Blue "people." Giant trees. Unobtanium (Dude, that’s not even trying). “Going native.” Kill, kill, destroy. I nearly appreciated the nod to Conrad, but that’s too easy as well;
• human characters that are not caricatures;
• dialogue that I cannot anticipate—or even if I can anticipate it (because I’m old and I’ve heard a lot of…stuff), it should engage me. And at the risk of sounding a bit like Ezra Pound lost in a post-toasty world, dammit, “Make it new!”;
• great talent that is not wasted. I’m pretty sure I saw Giovanni Ribisi cringe as he uttered some of his lines. I know I did. Awesome actor, bad fit. Cameron could have called Paul Reiser off the bench for this role.

Midway through Avatar, though, I swear I drifted off.

I was dreaming of Tron. Compelling narrative: check. Great subtext: check. Cool tech (at the time): check. Decent characters and development: check. It may not have had the sweeping narrative of white atonement in the form of a paralyzed, impotent Marine (which reminds me of another line of literary inquiry…but I digress); however, Tron was the film that got me thinking about some of the things I now teach in my writing course, "Technology and Identities."

Apparently the film, Tron Legacy, is expected to be released in 2010, with tie-in video game, Tron Evolution, to follow later in the year. Although the summary I've read emphasizes the common "young man in search of father" narrative, I'm still looking forward to seeing whether  Boxleitner and Bridges still have it. Hey, it's got YaYa DaCosta (of Top Model fame), so it can't be all bad, right?  Right? Don't disappoint me, guys.

*Image via Wikipedia

Tags: 3D, Arts, Avatar, Braveheart, Ezra Pound, films, Giovanni Ribisi, James Cameron, Movies, Na'vi, narratives, post-colonial, technology, Tron, Tron Legacy

This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under blog, media // culture, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.