Avatar

[M S]

In 1999, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid series' creator, used a specific
term to describe the fact that several medium are merging together; video
games + films + japanimation; to create a new way of expression/narration.

Matrix is a good example. Avatar, as well.

Michael
http://wildgrounds.com


On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 12:49 PM, <drainer at mpinet.net> wrote:

>
> I think you bring up two good points here: I'd argue that the "natural"
> itself is based on conventions that span beyond merely Miyazaki''s work. One
> could make the case that the film is based on disparate conventions drawn up
> from anime (Cameron is a self confessed nerd, though press material suggests
> his influences would come from more "serious" technology based anime,
> something beyond the scope of Miyazaki), video games (as you mentioned,
> online RPGs--World of Warcraft came immediately to mind while I watched--not
> just the art, but also certain camera angles, especially during flying
> scenes. At times the influence was almost blatant, and drastically different
> from anime), and the broader genre of sci-fi, which Cameron has played an
> important role in, again, usually focusing on technology.
>
> The film has a multitude of influences, which is why I feel it is
> problematic to say "...this is Miyazaki's world," or to peg the style to any
> specific auteur, really. If anything, we have to analyze it from a
> postmodern framework and recognize its decentered influences, conventions,
> queues.
>
> The second point regarding the ideological celebration of nature is spot
> on, and I think the lack of depth there is fairly evident, not by accident,
> but perhaps even on purpose, given the target audience. "How can we provide
> a political message about the environment without making the audience
> think?" It's almost that the producers wanted general audiences to dismiss
> what you described as the incorporation of new technology in order to
> glorify the premodern "noble" society, world, etc...
>
> I won't go into the arguments about colonialism/Orientalism and fantasy,
> though that's the discussion people should have about this film...
>
> By the way did you watch it in 3-D?
> I watched it at Toho cinemas and aside from the seating (I like empty
> cinemas) everything else was perfect.
>
> Did you notice the audience reaction? This is something I am particularly
> interested in, as it seems that Japanese audiences are reacting differently
> than American audiences. As I mentioned earlier, the majority of theater
> patrons left immediately at the beginning of the credits. I also did not
> hear too much praise, and, again, unusual to Japan, I noticed quite a few
> people talking during the screening. I wonder if the movie about the dog
> (forgot the name) would have been better. Though of course, the 3D here was
> great, it was Captain EO on steroids.
>
>
>
> -daniel
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Gerow" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
> To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 11:38 PM
> Subject: Re: Avatar
>
>
>
>  Just a quick response:
>>
>> When you look at it, the similarities with Miyazaki are there: the  image
>> of the forest, the non-human world, of flying, etc. But I do  wonder if this
>> film doesn't have a very different vision of nature.  Miyazaki's paean to
>> natural forces is not unrelated to his insistence  on sticking to some
>> analog animation techniques, but Cameron's film  falls into the
>> contradiction that many cinematic celebrations of  nature do: they praise
>> the premodern, pre-technological world using  the most advanced technology
>> there is. Avatar, I think, tries to avoid  this, but only by radically
>> re-defining nature in a way I doubt  Miyazaki would approve. Many can of
>> course see that the narrative  situation of Avatar is essentially that of
>> video games, especially  online RPG where you, immobile at your station, get
>> to roam the world,  kill people, and get the girl via your avatar. Avatar
>> plays off the  discontent with modern technological reality by offering the
>> fantasy  of really abandoning one's body for the game world. But the trick
>> here  is that the Avatar planet, with its database of souls and memories, of
>>  creatures with Firewire plugs, of trees that allow one access to the
>>  network, is essentially the Internet rendered into a Gaia-like deity.  In
>> other words, I think Avatar tries to have its ideological cake and  eat it
>> too by spouting a critique of industrial technological  capitalism (mining
>> and machines) and praising a natural, premodern  society, while all the
>> while defining that society as precisely the  new media technological
>> capitalism that we have today. I very much doubt Miyazaki, regardless of all
>> his own ideological ambiguities,  would buy this.
>>
>> That was my initial reaction upon seeing the film (albeit at a theater  in
>> Japan with a bunch of technological glitches--quite appropriate, I  might
>> add!).
>>
>> Aaron Gerow
>> Associate Professor
>> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
>> Yale University
>> 53 Wall Street, Room 316
>> PO Box 208363
>> New Haven, CT 06520-8363
>> USA
>> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
>> Fax: 1-203-432-6764
>> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
>> site: www.aarongerow.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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