Re: Avatar Extended Edition

Nice summary, thanks.  IM looking forward to see the extended version.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of pcg
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 9:33 AM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: [DADL-OT] Avatar Extended Edition

Just a few scattered thoughts on the new extended cut of Avatar:

1) If you're a fan of the film, you'll like it. This cut nicely rounds
out a lot of a smaller moments and and contextualizes some things that
felt abbreviated in the theatrical version, but it doesn't make any
drastic changes to the narrative the way "The Abyss" or "Aliens"
extended versions did. If you don't like the film, this cut isn't
going to change your mind about it.

2) There's a new opening sequence which gives us a few glimpses of
life on Earth, but it doesn't add much. I was hoping this extended
setup would give the Jake Sully character a little more meat, but no
dice. We don't get to see where he lives, who his friends are, how he
spends his days, etc. There's a brief moment in a bar where he stands
up (uh, figuratively speaking) for a woman who is being bullied by her
boyfriend, which underlines his habit of sticking up for underdogs,
but it's not necessary. Overall, it's nice, but there's nothing here
that wasn't neatly summarized in the theatrical version.

3) The biggest and most satisfying addition is the story of Grace,
whose history with the Na'vi is kinda glossed over in the theatrical
version. Here we get a liberal sprinkling of new scenes which deal
with the abandoned school, and Neytiri's history there, and the
tragedy that ended the whole experiment. These scenes shine a new
light on Grace, as well as Neytiri, and include a nice piece of acting
from Weaver. They also lend a lot more context to the larger conflict.
Her budding friendship with Jake is also nicely fleshed out.

4) There's a new sequence where the Na'vi respond violently to the
dozing of their prayer tree, which escalates the conflict and makes
more sense of Selfridge's decision to let fly the dogs of war. His
decision to let Quaritch destroy the Hometree makes more sense now.

5) The "sex scene" is insignificant. If I didn't know there was some
additional footage, I wouldn't have noticed it.

6) Tsu-tey gets an extended death scene here. In the theatrical
version, he simply falls to his death from one of the helicopters,
never to be heard from again. In this cut, he survives the fall, at
least long enough see the Na'vi victory, at which point he officially
passes the baton of leadership to Jake, and asks Jake to ceremonially
kill him. Jake refuses, but Tsu-tey insists, making some comment about
how this is the way it's done, etc. It's a nice finish for the
character, who kinda felt shortchanged in the theatrical cut.

Some things I was hoping for that didn't make the cut:

1) More Trudy. Her death always felt pointless to me. Dramatically, it
wasn't given the weight it deserved, and she gets nothing more here.

2) More Selfridge. His character technically has a few more seconds of
footage, but I was hoping his character might get more screen time.
This is a character I feel is misunderstood by an audience who wants
to see him as a less-complex version of Carter Burke, which is all
wrong. Burke is a halfway relatable character who turns into an
unforgivable prick, where Selfridge is a prick who turns into a
halfway-relatable character. I like the actor, and I like the
character, and I would've liked to see more of his journey.

3) More Norm. I like this character, but I still can't figure out why
he's in the movie.

4) An earlier version of the script included a guy whose avatar was
killed while he was driving it, and the experience drove him mad. I
love this idea, and was hoping it was shot, and would make the cut,
but it's not here.

Overall, this is probably the sixth or seventh time I've seen the
movie, and I still love it. The sequence where they take Jake to the
flying mountains to claim his dragon perfectly encapsulates the
experience for me. The spectacular alien vista, the characters running
across precarious bridges over impossible depths, leaping to swinging
vines, tramping through waterfalls and scurrying through mysterious
caves, all while the music soars, and deadly, noble dragons swoop
dangerously around them -- it resurrects my inner twelve-year-old and
makes me so happy to be a fan of this stuff. :)

--
-pcg
 [email protected]

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