Avatar – Individual Acting Performances -Col Guarlich

The most impressive performance of Avatar is the Colonel, played by Stephen Lang. He’s a one-man recruiting performance for the Marines. He reminded me more of a no-nonsense Chief Master Sergeant, but the rank of Colonel works fine for the movie. From his first in-brief for the newbies on Pandora to the moment he’s shot with arrows “dipped in a neurotoxin that can stop your heart in one minute,” he is the most committed, forceful personality in the movie. He is mission-focused, forceful, tough, and clearly earth-o-centric, until the moment he tells Grace, “I can do that,” in response to her question, “Ranger Rick, what are you going to do? Shoot me?” At that point, glib becomes lack of care, which we do not expect from a committed Marine. He also takes over from the corporate CEO, but the original movie does not show that. You learn that from a deleted scene where the CEO is trying to stop the use of daisy-cutters on the Pandorans’ religious site. After that, the Colonel is ruthless, cavalier, and cruel. Continue reading “Avatar – Individual Acting Performances -Col Guarlich”

July 21, 2017July 10, 2017

Avatar – post 8 – Individual Acting Performance – Neytiri

Avatar – Individual Acting Performance – Neytiri

One of the best performances in this movie is that of Natyri, who is excellently portrayed by Zoe Saldana. She truly comes off as a native woman. She is believable as a native female who knows her forest; she may not know about much else in the universe, but she knows the forest well. And, her teaching to Jake is alternately frustrating and patient. She does a great job at the initial meeting with Jake when divine intervention not only prevents her from killing Jake but causes her to bring him before the tribe. Their initial meeting is believable in the sense of her portrayal of a woman fighter, who has lost her sister to the humans, is stopped from killing Jake by “divine” intervention, and must somehow explain to Jake, without getting too close, that his blundering in the forest is ignorant and shows he doesn’t belong there. Of course, a 2nd “divine” intervention by Eywa causes her to bring Jake to the tribe.

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June 21, 2017May 28, 2017

Avatar – post 1

Don’t focus on the obvious bait for conservatives in Avatar

The danger in discussing Avatar is to concentrate on the negatives, political, religious, military justice. There are so many. While I’d like to touch on some of those things, lest people think I endorse all of the movie’s messages, I want to concentrate on that which comes through sometimes unintentionally, sometimes subtly, and which can teach us about living biblically. I’d like to get the negative out of the way by the following basic statements and questions.

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