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Showing posts from April, 2010

BRD: Avatar

In one sentence: Remarkably beautiful, incredibly brain dead, and if it were any more touchy feely I would have felt molested. Now, in a few more sentences: Taking place in 2154, Avatar tells the story of Jake Sully and his journey to Pandora, a moon around a distant solar system. (It’s supposed to be the planet Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system, but I’m darned if I can remember that being in the film.) Sully is there to remote-pilot a cloned alien body, his “avatar” of the title. His publicized mission is to provide security for scientific recons; his covert mission is to infiltrate the natives, learn their weaknesses, and advise military command. The entire necessity for an avatar is the toxic and hostile nature of Pandora. It is presented as a planet custom-made to eliminate human life. Animals will kill you on sight, and if they fail the atmosphere will do the job, so for goodness sake, don’t breathe! More than a few times I found myself wondering whether Harry Harr