Let me first get my complaints out of the way because there are so few. THIS POST IS ALL SPOILERS:
-The hammerhead creature: when Jake encounters this rhino, there is an angled profile shot of it stomping and growling. It looks out of place because it looks like something you’d see in a museum-produced documentary.
-20 mil a kilo: Selfridge explaining to Grace the reason they are on Pandora. It sounds like an info dump for us made more apparent because she’d already know the reason for the party.
-Last Shadow: Neytiri tells Jake that they nickname the greater banshee Last Shadow, and he follows up with “cuz it’s the last shadow you’ll ever see.” Seems like an unnecessary line since we already know this particular kind of banshee is king predator of the sky.
-Rally Call: wasn’t feeling Jake or Quaritch’s call to arms.
Now let’s start the love:
+Playful flying: my favorite scene is the sequence following Jake bonding with his banshee, particularly when him and Neytiri are diving full speed along the mountainside.
+Badass: the scene where Quaritch is escaping from the exploding Dragon, and when it crashes behind him when he lands. In the hands of a lesser director, the display of badassery would be Quaritch walking away tall from the explosion. Instead we get a cut to a close up of a cut up Quaritch, mad as fuck at Jake.
+Hometree collapse: very Titanic.
+The cut from the cremation of Jake’s brother to the shuttle diving through the clouds of Pandora.
+Concussive forces: the missiles that fire from the Scorpions, I love how the people and environment react. Bad special effects is when the only reaction from the actor is simply turning away. Explosions are not just fire. There is a violent rush of air. Not only do the Navi get thrown, debris gets blown outward also.
+The first time Jake runs in his Avatar. Awesome.
+The first time seeing Grace in her Avatar. Sexy.
+Neytiri has her hair loose in the mating scene. Awesome sexy.
+You’re like a child: and then those seedlings float towards Jake, who flicks one away. Neytiri grabs his hand. Jake then uses his free hand to smack another away. And later as he follows her, he smacks those bioluminescent petals.
+When Jake falls off the horse for the first time, his expression when Tsutey gallops in.
+When Wes Studi (forget his char’s name) has Jake and Grace bound. The scene ends with Jake closing his eyes, the Navi hollering because they are going to attack the sky people and show them how much damage a Navi war party can deal. And then it cuts to a squadron of Scorpions and Samsons led by the Dragon.
+Jake-Grace relationship: I like how she keeps having to force him to eat because all he wants to do is run around in his avatar. whoo whee hee.
+AMP design: the last movie I saw that got this concept right was Aliens.
+Hold your breath: during the final fight, Jake wakes up in the pod because the research base has a hull breach. He struggles to hold his breath. He finally closes his eyes, but before the camera cuts to Jake’s avatar, there is a quick cut to the tunnel of light that indicates transfer.
+The fact this movie doesn’t have a moment where the damsel is in distress. Sure you could say Jake saved Neytiri when the thanator is killed, but the moment is never drawn out long enough for it to matter. Actually, Jake is probably the one who could be labeled the damsel since Neytiri saves him more than he saves her.
+Zoe Saldana is fucking fantastic. Her expressions: when she meets up with Jake when he’s about to bond with a banshee; her wide-eyed relief after she and Jake escape from the Last Shadow; her mixture of anger and defeat when she decides to take on the chorus line of soldiers and AMPs; her petulant growl when her mother orders her to teach Jake the ways of her people.
ooh, just thought of a complaint: where’s Bill Paxton?
