Avatar: The Way of Water

When Avatar: The Way of Water began I was initially confused.

It looked like it was going to focus primarily on revenge and reconstruct the devastating antagonisms that dominated the first film.

Of course these films are cinematic endeavours not nature documentaries, and I have to remind myself to concentrate on the difference at times to avoid sounding even more antiquated.

I was hoping the second film would expand the world presented in the original nevertheless (I didn't know anything about this film going in), and provide more insights into Pandora itself, and I was happy to see that that's what happened, as Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their family go into hiding.

They hide amongst people of the water or a tribe as knowledgeable of the sea as they are of the forest (the Metkayina), just writing that reminds me of how cool these films are, and how amazing it is that blockbusters are genuinely championing nature (I swear there's a dialogue here between Avatar and Ghibli, Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) anyways[wish I could write that essay]).

The water people are super intense and highly critical and dismissive of those who don't know their ways, the gauntlet immediate and challenging and demanding as the new recruits adjust to their newfound codes.

The Way of Water may not be a nature documentary but it does excel as it examines tulkan and human relations, the tulkan closely resembling whales back home, I couldn't make it to Tadoussac again this summer, this film went a long ways to compensate. 

It primarily concerns a rogue tulkan who made the forbidden decision to fight back against his hunters, his kind absolutely devoted to peace and unconditionally opposed to taking a life.

Extreme hardship drove him to fight back however and members of his pod were killed in the battle, he survived but was banished forthwith for having fought back against his oppressors. 

He forms a tight bond with Jake and Neytiri's son Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) who also has trouble following rules, and who brings his case to the Metkayina who are none too fond of the outcast.

Later in the film, it's like the coolest moment ever presented in blockbuster cinema, Payakan (the outcast tulkan) joins the concluding battle between the inhabitants of Pandora and the colonizers, and makes a definitive impact.

It isn't over in 30 seconds either, it keeps going and going and going. Scene after scene of nature fighting back. So much thought, time, and care sincerely went into it.

I tell people that the best possible world would be one where there is no war and violence (what people were fighting for for most of my life before Trump), where our social structures are so cohesive that someone like Putin would never arise.

But Hitler's rise in the 1930s makes me worry about such possibilities, i.e, if someone like that does arise and no country has an army to fight them, they could effectively blitzkrieg most of Europe, and leave civilization in bitter ruins.

Thus, I advocate for the creation of potent defensive armies and their continual existence in case of such a development, Putin having proven their unfortunate need, to be kept out of the hands of bloodthirsty tyrants.

Democracy prevailed for many a decade and kept the despotic autocrats at bay.

The rise of the internet has seen them prosper again nonetheless.

These are difficult times.

I suppose that without a defensive army you could wager assimilation might eventually win back your country, like the Chinese used to do with the Mongols (Sinicization), although it takes a lot of frustration and generations to possibly work, and, imagine having to listen to those people for generations (not the Chinese, the fascist colonizers).

Geez Louise, this became far too heavy, note that I really loved Avatar: The Way of Water.

It's a really cool universe and I'm glad it's popular.

Can't wait for my next whale watching excursion. 

*It would be cool to see an Avatar film that was focused primarily on the different interrelations between the inhabitants of Pandora, like an Olympics or something, with less of a focus on colonization. 😎

The Abyss

Undercover underwater exploration yields illuminated booty, as the navy teams up with rig workers in search of a lost submarine.

The navy's more concerned with the whereabouts of a noxious radical however, which may lead to mass destruction if acquired by belligerent ambition.

But as they're searching intent deep down they're freely greeted by a burst of light, accompanied by frisky cognizance and inquisitive concerned awareness.

The lifeforms initially remain aloof solely presenting themselves with hesitance, but they're crystal clearly lucidly detected as a feisty doc curiously ventures forth (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Lindsey Brigman).

Her feisty husband doubts the provenance of what she earnestly claims she's seen (Ed Harris as Bud Brigman), their upcoming divorce complicating things further as a storm approaches high above.

The aliens eventually appear for most of the crew in aqueous form, possessing the ability to transform water into a conscious mobile thermocline. 

But they get too close to the nuke and one of the navy personnel goes psycho (Michael Biehn as Lt. Coffey).

Deciding it's time to nuke them.

They were just trying to make new friends.

Severely critiquing warlike ambition while fluidly celebrating animate life, The Abyss problematizes piqued peculiars with maddening flush improvised contention.

It was made with concern for particular individualistic collegial resonance, so multiple characters alertly express themselves throughout both the merriment and the malevolence.

What's to be found deep down in the ocean's an enigmatic imaginative catalyst, I'm surprised these kind of films don't show up more often, so much submerged terrain remains unexplored.

Recall the episode of Star Trek: The Original Series where they survey the pleasure planet (Shore Leave plus Once Upon a Planet in Star Trek: The Animated Series), to fathom unpredictable eccentricities resolutely emergent in manifold epochs.

Could this idea have been ethereally transmitted by mischievous immortals living far below, equipped with an evolutionary laboratory hellbent on nourishing life?

The balance of nature is somewhat awe-inspiring in its multilateral environmental harmonies.

The omnivorous bear, the speed of the cheetah.

How do plants evolve to mimic their surroundings?

While that idea's rather ridiculous I can't deny I like television and film.

How does something mimic without consciousness?

An ethereal level unilaterally imperceptible.

*With Chris Elliot (Bendix).

Avatar

James Cameron's Avatar is a science fiction treat for both environmentalists and epic film lovers alike. On the far off planet of Pandora, a greedy corporation is mining a precious mineral known as unobtainium, many deposits of which lie beneath sacred portions of the planet's lush forest. The indigenous Na'vi take none to kindly to the intrusion but have learned to live somewhat peacefully with their militaristic human neighbours. Until those neighbours decide it's time to destroy their revered Hometree, a scurrilous act which unites the Na'vi tribes for a final showdown around their venerated Tree of Souls. Leading them is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine who, thanks to a remarkable scientific development, is able to inhabit and navigate a Na'vi body while sleeping in a special tank. Is his leadership divine? Has he been chosen by Eywa, the Na'vi's most prominent deity, to restore balance to the planet? Will his relationship with Na'vi beauty Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) bear forbidden fruit? Or will Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and his bombastic military commando sidekick Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephan Lang) wipe out the Na'vi and have their way with Pandora's plunder?

The ending appealed to me although it's somewhat frustrating insofar as it's only a movie. It's a lot of fun and I probably would have rated it much higher if I was still fourteen. Nothing really that new presented and honestly, I preferred Avatar's prototype, Dune. Solid reimagining of Herbert's classic novel, nonetheless, which should find a massive, enthusiastic audience.