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gesternchen · 3 years

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7 Details You May Have Missed in Avatar (2009)

Avatar is undeniably one of the most beautiful, colorful, and immersive movies in cinematography, made with a lot of work put into details and backgrounds. In this short post I’d like to touch upon a couple of details that the audience and I myself may have missed when watching the movie for the first time or even rewatching it later on. If you noticed any of them before or could come up with some other, then let me know, it’d be entertaining to read what you guys think. Just a tiny disclamer: a couple of the details were found within the scenes from the extended cut, so make sure you’re familiar with it.

Number 1: Logo on Jake’s Shirt

The bar scene was initially edited out from the original cut, but was later added in the director’s one. Here we can spot Jake wearing a shirt with a logo, which anyone would barely notice. What this logo is about, is the Harley-Davidson Motor Company primarily renowned for manufacturing internationally worshiped motorbikes. Besides it supplied the U. S. Army during World War II. Marines used HD motorbikes with great pleasure back then. The company itself survived a long story of ups and downs, so it’s nice to see it still exists in 2148. The fact that Jake wears this shirt suggests that he may keep it as a piece of merch. It‘s also possible that he was keen on bikes when he was younger (God knows, maybe he still is), namely iconic Harley-Davidson‘s ones. Or he may have even ridden one.

Number 2: Sign of Jake’s Further Employment Behind the Agents’ Backs

Okay, I know it’s just a good timing, but believe me or not, it fits the moment really perfectly. The words 'work contract' emerging behind the agents’ backs almost forecast Jake being offered to sign a contract allowing him to join the Avatar Program.

Number 3: Omaticaya Are Actually Weaving

Over the years Omaticaya have been reproached with not having weaved enough. Partly, I agree, they don’t weave enough in the movie, since it’s a clan of WEAVERS producing one of a kind textiles (even 11 years after it feels like a joke that Grace Augustine portrayed by Sigourney Weaver formed the strongest bonds with the Omaticaya). Still, some footage of the clan members engaged in this activity was provided in the scene when Grace is back to the tribe after a while to meet her students. The scene also features the prominent giant loom of the clan!

Number 4: A Hexapede’s Skull?

Ever noticed a skull over Grace’s and Jake’s heads? Me too, but the question is, what animal does it belong to? The only closest one I can think of is hexapede — the skull’s shape is pretty similar. But guess what, hexapede doesn’t seem to have horns! Were the bones taken from another animal and then tied to the skull? Are these giant fangs? Claws? Pandorapedia doesn’t seem to have given us the answer yet.

Number 5: Grace is Picked Up by the Same Kids She Taught in School

One of the most heartwarming moments of the entire movie for me. Of course, it would be hard for you to come to such a conclusion by identifying the kids’ faces if you haven’t watched the extended cut, as the scene of Grace chatting with her students has been edited out from the original movie. What is also significant about this scene is the fact that five of them survived the fall of the Hometree except for only one, and it makes me sad. They must have found Grace right after the tragic event and suggested that she should stick to them and follow them on the way from the burning site.

Number 6: Golf Ball Display Case in Parker’s Office??

It seems like there are more trophies on the wall in Parker’s administration than we got to know before. Obviously, he’s got a bow, a necklace, and a couple of arrows, all taken from a certain clan. What they mean to him and RDA is a bit of a mystery: the items may symbolize the connection of the RDA Science Department to the indigenous people of Pandora or have been taken by force. If we checked other pieces on the shelves behind Parker’s back, we’d spot some interesting stuff there: plenty of awards, a certificate, and a weird ball-like model in a case next to it. What for the certificate, it’s clear that it marks the accomplishments of RDA as the pioneer space development company (I can guess by the letters in bold very much resembing the logo of the corporation). But the use of the model still remains unknown. Is it just a model of Earth? Or it is a model of Pandora moon? What if it’s a silver golf ball trophy in a display case? This could make a very nice assumption. It would tell us a bit more about Parker’s background before he became RDA’s official or about his achievements in golf on Earth in course of running his business. This would explain him being more passionate about the game, rather than serving as another cliche character.

Number 7: Jake Wearing Tsu’Tey’s Attire

Don’t you guys find this detail concerning? I mean, nothing is clearly wrong about that, we know Jake was meant to lead the clan. The thing is, how come he put on Tsu’Tey’s attire so fast? The clan’s former leader seems to have passed out just a couple of days ago, is it okay for Jake to claim himself Olo’eyktan this quickly? Would Neytiri approve such initiative? Too many questions, very few answers. Of course, I assume that Jake may wear this festive attire in honor of Tsu’Tey, who actually himself delegated leadership duties to Jake. Still, all of this happening way more rapidly than I’d prefer it to happen bothers me a bit.

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gesternchen · 3 years

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Just randomly reviewing scenes from the movies no one remembers now. This week: Avatar (2009).

It’s not like everyone forgot James Cameron’s Avatar. Since we’re still getting some footage from behind the scenes of the sequel and news about the cast, at least someone takes pains to remind themselves of this cinematic experience from the year of 2009. It’s already been 84 (just kidding, 11) years and I’m still looking forward to at least watching the teaser (fun fact: I was 11 when Avatar came out, I’m 22 now). I even bought the Darkhorse comic book on Tsu’Tey’s backstory to, you know, investigate one of my favorite characters a little bit better (spoiler: the backstory wasn’t very much eventful but I noticed a nice detail there which I may talk about briefly a bit later).

Throughout the years Avatar has received a lot of backlash and more or less justified criticism, mainly for the plot and its problematic packaging. I believe, it depends on the perspective one watches a movie from. Of course, I wouldn’t call it an absolute gem of exciting storytelling, even though I truly enjoy it, as in majority its twists are undeniably predictable. However, I always disagreed with people saying relations in Avatar aren’t deep at all. Well, romance between Jake and Neytiri, which, let’s be honest, except for the scene of telling the truth, went too smoothly, and this is why I strongly believe clash of interests is inevitable in sequels. Their interaction remained the key one for the whole movie, and nothing is bad about that, people enjoy a nice lovestory, so do I. But 11 years after I’d like to focus on the disturbing conflict everyone prefers to ignore for some reason when recalling Avatar. For me it’s always been Jake versus Colonel Quaritch.

You guys may have already guessed which scenes I wanna talk about. Those really important ones that I consider climactic to the pace of narration. And what is more about them, they give us crucial details in character development and actors’ play to think through. The main message: Quaritch knew it was coming.

Let me firstly touch upon the scene of short conversation between Jake and Quaritch prior to Sully presumably leaving Pandora. While Jake is awating Quaritch in a large empty hall, he hardly seems to be calm about the talk, every nerve in his body is trembling, but why?

The way Jake’s drumming his fingers on the table makes me wonder if he’s okay.

Then Colonel enters the hall, grabs a chair and reminds that it had been more than two weeks since he got the latest report on how the misson was going. He knows, Sully is questioning reality, and no, he’s not ‘doubting his resolve’. He knows, the right moment to ‘terminate the mission’ is missed. He knows, he lost Jake. He knows, he’s talking to the deserter. Yet Quaritch speaks indifferent. He praises Jake’s effort and rewards him for that. With real legs he promised to him when they first talked. Quaritch hoped they’d trigger the realization in Jake. Which doesn’t happen. How sad he looks when Jake openly refuses to accept the reward.

In just one sequence Stephen’s face demonstrates the shift of all four feelings Quaritch goes through: dissatisfaction, melancholy, shame, disgust.

Quaritch sensed the moment when Jake expressed superiority to the mankind. Jake grasped that Quaritch knew everything, he played with fire, and that’s why he felt anxiety. And it lasted all the way until Quaritch stepped back for leaving the hall. But did Colonel really surrender? I doubt that.

The tension between them both feels electric, so it’s explainable why Jake’s transient smile is so awkward. Sam then heavily staring straight at Colonel's back suggests that up until now Jake regarded Quaritch as his enemy. The enemy he knew he would not be able to defeat.

I remember when watching this scene, I couldn’t get myself the answer to one question. The question was: which report did Quaritch refer to? ‘That report from two weeks ago’, but such information wasn’t satisfactory for me. To be honest, this small discovery became the actual reason why I decided to type this study. Let’s assume that this particular report which Quaritch mentioned was the videolog where Jake confessed that Omaticaya wouldn’t leave the Hometree. Here’s why.

The general audience is used to perceiving Quaritch as a cruel short-tempered military man who just waits for the starting pistol’s shot to destroy everything in sight. Again, nothing is wrong about this, the fact that his character was simply meant to be a generic personification of such type doesn’t leave us with any alternative impression of him. Let’s say, if he was given the order to ignite the operation of the Hometree’s destruction to screw the tribe out of the site, he would absolutely go for it (and so he does). He’s a man of his word after all. Let’s also say, if he was pissed off by Jake’s betrayal, he would transport himself to the mountain site in a blink of an eye, turn off the link and put Jake in jail right after the talk in the hall. Instead, Quaritch decided to wait and give Jake the last chance. Jake preffered unearthly wings to those more tangible, so Quaritch chose not to cut them so abruptly.

We’re moving to the next scene, taking place right before a toned down fight between Tsu’Tey and Jake (I’m saying so, because it’s actually one of the deleted scenes that got edited out of the final cut, and believe me, the pressure between two rivals there is way too intense). Quaritch is watching the record of Jake destroying bulldozer’s lenses with a stone. After that Jake’s face is zoomed and we watch Selfridge get frustrated, Quaritch looks pretty annoyed as well but doesn’t seem to be much surprised. What he’s feeling, is bitter disappointment in himself and knowing that he totally failed to persuade Jake to change his mind.

Just observe Stephen Lang’s performance here. He absolutely nails cold-eyed look, the fire burning slow inside of him is so palpable, and guess what, in a flash he flies off the handle.

Now, shall we check the ultimate scene, preceding the destruction of the Hometree. Though Grace versus Parker juxtaposition is central to this scene, the last time Quaritch confronting Jake face to face in his human body is essential to consider for making things clear.

When it comes to revealing to Selfridge the vainness of further negotiations with Omaticaya, isn’t it just interesting how fast Quaritch manages to find the correct videolog? It literally takes him not more than a couple of swipes to produce the proof. Here is why: he’s already watched the record and is completely aware of the Jake’s values having deteriorated.

You can tell, Jake knew he was under control, but he would rather like to ingnore this fact. His pathetic glance at Quaritch, who’s almost impending above his head, causes to think Jake would guess that Colonel could have watched this videolog. Rather, it was a mutual secret between the two of them until a turning point. But the moment of truth came, and Jake didn’t change his mind. Quaritch made sure of that and finally it was his time to triumph.

So how was it even possible to assume Quaritch may have watched the videolog I’ve been talking about for so long? Well, my explanation may be too easy to believe, but still: we can tell by Jake’s appearance and the date of the record that it is the vlog we need.

This telltale videolog was recorded 16 minutes after the another one, when Jake says that he’s uncertain, who he is anymore (LST abbreviation stands for Local Standard Time). Jake might have suddenly felt depressed and hopeless and got back to the camera while being too emotionally instable, and so must have forgotten to delete the final record.

I have one more note for you. If you check the videolog library Quaritch is swiping through, you’ll see that the latest important record, which he actually needs, is made in the interior of the mountain site block and dates back to August, 13. Other recent vlogs’ covers look nothing like Site 26 sequence. Jake may not have done any of these records at the mountain site. I still wonder though where those three or four ensuing videologs were recorded, the location seems to be red lighted, which means it isn’t blue lighting at Site 26. I may even assume he recorded some pieces at Hell’s Gate. Why would I think so? Probably because in those two scenes (dialog with Quaritch and confession at Parker’s office) Jake looks ten times better than before, he gained some weight at least and doesn’t resemble a living sceleton.

Selfridge gave Jake an hour to relocate the tribe, while gunships led by Colonel’s Dragon were already on full alert. Quaritch had no doubt that Jake’s peacekeeping mission would fail. He knew it from the beginning. Hence he sounds so sarcastic seeing Sully’s avatar tied.

Now Quaritch sipping his villain’s morning coffee tasting like fresh genocide doesn’t feel so cringy: he’s celebrating his victory over Jake (still I should agree with critisism on this point, it really is a stupid cliche and wasn’t intended to carry a deep meaning).

Now I should admit, it’s been a long journey to run this investigation and bring it to light by finally posting it. It took me around a day to collect my thoughts and express them by means of more or less readable English. Just would like to make a little side note: English is not my native, so I promise I did my best! Thanks to James Cameron for making a movie, which woke me up in the middle of the night to start reflecting, and to all the fans out there who still exist and remember this movie and so can read this essay. @avatarmovies I found your blog not so long ago and you guys say you enjoy headcanons (and movie reviews probably?..), so it would be nice if you reblogged this but I’m not insisting!!

#avatar #james cameron #james cameron avatar #movie reviews #avatar movies #colonel quaritch #jake sully #characters in conflict #gesternchen reviews

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