#34572 - 01/25/10 10:00 PM
Re: Avatar
[Re: GillesdeRais]
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Michael A.Aquino
veteran member
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 1247
Loc: San Francisco, CA, USA
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What I said about Avatar in one of the Temple of Set's forums:
The situation of the Na'vi in Avatar is much like that of the Quendi (Elves) in the Morlindalë: They are attuned to & harmonious with nature (Pandora or Arda), but for the same reason are bounded and limited by it. Within that environment they are masterful and regenerative. But they are constitutionally unable to perceive or even survive beyond it.
Within Egyptian metaphysics they would be like initiates of all of the neteru except Set. Setians recognize themselves to be distinct from and outside of nature, which is, as we know, at once a blessing and a curse. It dashes from our lips the Cup of Lethe and offers instead the Grail of the Psyche. It is the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the acceptance of the Fire of Prometheus, the Black Flame, the Spear of Odin, the Fire of She, and the One Ring.
Setians can never again lose themselves in nature; they can intelligently coexist with it, use it either constructively or harmfully. They can improve it by stopping forest fires and healing injured or sick animals, or they can devastate it [as dramatized in Avatar]. That choice is unavoidably the responsibility, the ethics, of each individual Setian; and it is an endless confrontation of choices. The Setian can never stop, never go back, except by willful Self-annihilation: the drinking of the Kheft.
In this ultimate sense, Avatar is a morality epic about nonSetians and Setians. It portrays nonSetians most blissfully and Setians most viciously: gods initiating Ragnarök for the sheer nihilistic wantonness of it. It is a graphic illustration of the danger of the Gift of Set, the Id-Monster of Forbidden Planet remanifesting through war-technology.
Finally, of course, Avatar is but the latest and most lavish illustration of this dilemma, which has been held up to conscious humanity over and over again since the first man-ape touched the Monolith. For noninitiated viewers, this film offers a simple message: that immersion in nature is better than transcendence of it. [That is the same message offered by conventional religions/the RHP, though all that they can really deliver is the illusion of it.] The Setian, I think, will emerge from the theater with a much more complex paradigm in mind: that the Gift of Set can be, and has all too often been, loathsomely abused by humanity. We, its sacred guardians, must always aspire to its purification, not degradation. If Setians visited Pandora, the Na'vi would have no reason to hate and fear us - though we would be as incomprehensible to them as the Asgard of Stargate SG-1 or the aforementioned 2001 Monolith.
More than a few viewers have commented about the replayed theme of the "White Messiah" (Jake) who seems indispensable to lead/rescue ignorant natives. It doesn't work out well all the time, as for instance in Apocalypse Now, wherein the WM Colonel Kurtz became psychotic and suicidal. Lawrence of Arabia didn't work out very well either, nor did Khartoum.
One of the curious aspects of such films is the theme of the WM "going native" to gain their trust, as though merely coming in as a charismatic outsider is not sufficient. Avatar carries this to a sci-fi extreme with not only a behavioral "going native" but a complete physical robot/cyborg impersonation as well. This theme originated most famously in Metropolis, in which the oppressed-class leader Maria is imaged into a malevolent robotrix for the purpose of leading her trusting followers to their doom. Look familiar?
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Michael A. Aquino
[On Ignore: Dan_Dread, 6Satan6Archist6, Caladrius, MindFux]
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#34903 - 02/01/10 02:44 AM
Re: Avatar
[Re: 111Cal]
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ThinkingCap
stranger
Registered: 09/11/09
Posts: 11
Loc: Tennessee
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Maybe its because I saw the 2-D version (sorry but my head just cant take 3-D for more than a few minutes!)
Normally I'd be with you on this one, can't seem to escape from a headache when I watch normal 3-D films. But Avatar used different technology to get the 3-D effect which made it so that I could watch it for almost three hours without having to take the glasses off because my head hurt too much.
See, before filmmakers would just take the original film, double it up, and overlay the two sets so that when you put the glasses on it would look 3-D. Avatar used two separate cameras though, set a little ways apart, to film the entire thing. When those images were put together, a much more natural 3-D comes out. That is what made me fall in love with the movie.
Here's a little article on it. Not that extensive, but you get the point. So you may want to give it a shot, the effect it created was astounding and they didn't exploit it with cheap shots of things randomly flying at the screen.
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#37106 - 03/28/10 01:18 PM
3D TV
[Re: Arianwen Seren]
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Michael A.Aquino
veteran member
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 1247
Loc: San Francisco, CA, USA
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Just as an aside, if you enjoy 3D, this actually works very well (albeit a bit pricy), and the three movies are fun & well designed to make maximum use of 3D with being slapstick about it (e.g. Comin' at Ya).
Other 3D DVDs, which just use the old red/blue glasses, don't seem to work very well with television. Too bad, because there are many '50s films such as House of Wax & Revenge of the Creature that were enhanced by it.
Surprising the number of films using this technology today. Sooner or later some geek genius will probably figure out a computer program to 3D old 2D movies. They can start with The Rocketeer, Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, & Stargate. 
_________________________
Michael A. Aquino
[On Ignore: Dan_Dread, 6Satan6Archist6, Caladrius, MindFux]
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#37107 - 03/28/10 02:49 PM
Re: 3D TV
[Re: Michael A.Aquino]
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Jake999
senior member
Registered: 11/02/08
Posts: 2174
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I'm waiting for the even geekier technology of holographic entertainment. Was at the Werby "chalet" for his daughter's wedding party long ago and as you walked into the foyer, there was a life size headshot of Don Werby that puffed on his ever-present cigar and blew out the smoke. It had the typical "green tinge" look of the holograms in the 80's but even so, it was quite impressive. He said that it was a hell of a production to manufacture it and very expensive at the time.
A more aestheticly acceptable depiction of the thing I'm referencing would be the diagnostic hologram they use in the TV program BONES.
BUT,,, the only problem I have with 3D today is the glasses. Regular glasses are of course too expensive to use in movie theaters, but the paper ones are awful, usually fall apart half way through the movie and you have to hold the stupid red and green plastic up, so you can't grab some popcorn, and if you DO, your plastic gets so smeared that it looks like getting cataracts.
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Bury your dead, pick up your weapon and soldier on.
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