Generally speaking, participating in the zero-point premiere of a movie is more of a social frenzy in the fan circle, but at the moment when the epidemic situation is changing, the zero-point premiere of "Avatar: The Way of Water" is more like a heroic fan movie ceremony. Uncrowded crowd, quiet and graceful atmosphere, most of the audience present are paying tribute to James Cameron, the most legendary filmmaker of our time, with highly rational enthusiasm.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" poster
All the rules and criteria of the film industry are meaningless to this person, only he can make the audiences all over the world wait twelve years later ("Titanic" to "Titanic" Avatar "), followed by another thirteen years of anticipation: Can reason explain James Cameron? The actuaries who thought that "Titanic" was bound to lose money were stunned at the weird curve of the North American premiere weekend box office of 20 million US dollars but ended up with 600 million US dollars, and felt that "Avatar" was just an "alien version of Critics of "Dances With Wolves" eventually had to accept that the eccentric blue Ne'vi had indeed conquered audiences around the world. On the one hand, Cameron is a niche genius with unique aesthetics. He was inspired by "Star Wars" to enter the film industry. The theme of "B-grade film", his obsession with technological progress, diving photography, avoiding exposure, staying behind closed doors, and making a movie takes more than ten years of excellence, all of which fit people's "lonely genius" like the stereotype "Definition.
On the other hand, this genius shoots the most watched movies in the world, and he can always transform his personal ultimate artistic pursuit into a true "public" meaning that transcends the logic of the "circle" of modern business general success. How did he make audiences all over the world, regardless of nationality, value concept and social class, fall in love with his movies and become interested in a purely fictional Pandora planet ? This is unbelievable. From an ideological point of view, Cameron is almost a symbol of universal humanity and the common concept of mankind-his movies always seem to be the greatest common divisor of human ideology, and it is also the global ideology around the 21st century. best commentary on globalization trends. So, thirteen years later, can "Avatar: The Way of Water" reproduce Cameron's glorious legend of "King of the World"?
A relatively regressive post-human writing
Twelve years ago, "Avatar" expanded the traditional western film "colonizer/indigenous" structural framework, and created a classic that audiences all over the world applauded loudly in front of the screen "humanity has suffered a crushing defeat" The spectacle of "post-human" and "anti-anthropocentrism". As the prologue of the story, "Avatar" has successfully completed the transformation of the audience's perspective from human beings to Na'vi people through a steady and solid narrative rhythm. The portrayal of human images with Jack Sally as the main line is actually the audience's transformation from " The explorer's self-discovery as a metaphor for the penitent psychology of the 'colonizer'. Jack Sally gave up his human identity and led the Na'vi people to defeat humans and drive them out of Pandora. The "post-human" landscape was quite advanced in 2009-at this time, the audience empathized with the Na'vi people, not just Some comments say that "Na'vi people are more human than human beings" because the logic of ecology represented by the mother of "Ava" on Pandora planet has made a real impact on "anthropocentrism": although there are inevitably There is a sense of sight of primitive human tribes, but the lifestyle of the Na'vi people in the video does provide another possibility of life.
However, it is a pity that "Avatar: The Way of Water" thirteen years later seems to have lost its edge on the topic of post-humanity, showing a relatively conservative retrogression. Although, the narrative perspective of "The Way of Water" is always that of the Na'vi people and "post-human". The name has become the opposite of the other; however, this otherness is established by the previous work, and it cannot bring a sense of subversion in this work. The audience's emotional anchor is innately placed on the Na'vi people where Jack Sully is. One side——At this time, the natural "empathy" filter on the human characters in the previous film disappeared, and Cameron didn't seem to make more polish on the human characters: So far, the "Way of Water" The human characters in this book have completely become hateful and evil villains, and the image is further laid out in the classic American conservative "red neck" style, which is not cute, even if the "tough girl"The images are also deliberately performed to be disgusting, echoing the irony of the "American spirit" that is common in European and American film and television creations today. It seems to uglify human beings, but it is actually an expression of a classic liberal standpoint. The shaping of
simplifies the complex position of "human" in this "post-human" story, and seems to lead to an extreme "anti-anthropocentrism": the human motives in "The Way of Water" are naked " The earth is about to end, and we want Pandora to be our new home." The second is purely personal grievances against Jack Sally. The human camp is just the "caricature" villain of the film, just synonymous with evil, greed, shamelessness, and incompetence. A group of "human crumbs" who only resort to kidnapping threats at critical moments. Therefore, at the end of the film, the "spider" and the father's rescue of each other, these attempts to give the human camp roles arc and emotional complexity, seem abrupt, "sacred" and unconvincing-in fact, It is the "post-human" perspective that needs to do a more profound reflective writing on the "human beings" who have been decentralized by , such as "spider", which is set as the human "other" living among the Na'vi people The role of , should have been an important breakthrough in depicting how human beings understand self-identity, but unfortunately in the film, it was more overwhelmed by the actors' comical and exaggerated performances.
In fact, the negative and mediocre human images in "The Way of Water" are probably more of the "post-human" guise used to cover up its conservativeness after the entire film returned to "human nature writing". Compared with the serious discussion of the racial issue of "superhuman" in the first part, "The Way of Water" fell into the traditional human race in order to enrich and expand the "non-human" world view of Pandora. Learn the pattern. If the presentation of the planet Pandora in the first part is still partial, giving us enough room for imagination, then the presentation of the "Ocean Tribe" in the second part is unremarkable, and because of its exquisiteness and comprehensiveness, it will The Pandora planet has pulled back the earth ecology we are familiar with from the heterogeneous existence of "superhumans". Some viewers on Douban joked that the movie is from "Zhangjiagang to Maldives ". However, the Hallelujah Mountain in the first part is a "floating mountain" Zhangjiagang beyond the established imagination, but the marine ecology in the second part is just from the Maldives. Just copy it as it is-this is of course because we have seen many unparalleled "spectacles" in the fields of fantasy movies and video games in the past thirteen years, and we are no longer "unseen" as before, but Cameron is after all. Cameron, he failed to bring us something beyond imagination again, it is always disappointing.
What makes this Pandora planet return to the anthropological stereotype is that when the camera is really aimed at the living conditions of the Na'vi people, the creators are finally unable to break through the shallow imagination based on the primitive human tribal ecology. The more detailed the description of the life of the forest tribe and the ocean tribe, the more it loses the unique aura of Pandora. The three-hour film length of "The Way of Water" is clearly divided into three acts. The second act specifically deduces the whole process of the Sally family learning the marine lifestyle and integrating into the tribal people after they came to the ocean tribe. The outstanding underwater scenery shows Cameron's diving photography skills that have been experimented for many years, but these beautiful scenery are by no means unique-we have seen similar magnificent scenes in too many eco-documents, and it seems that the creators ignored the audience A priori presupposition problem in my impression: We are very familiar with forests and animals on land, so the large number of heterogeneous alien creatures in the first part have created countless "shocks" for us; however, we are already familiar with the ecology of the seabed Relatively unfamiliar, the underwater creatures are objectively attractive in appearance and quite "alien". Therefore, all kinds of original underwater creatures in "The Way of Water", even the huge "tu Kun", are strange to the audience anyway. Yes, but they are all familiar with it, without any sense of surprise—"strangeness" exists only in familiarity, and seeking "strangeness" in "strangeness" will in turn fall back to the mundane world.
"The Way of Water" is not satisfactory either in its description of the "other" of human characters, or in the writing of the heterogeneity of the natural environment of the Na'vi people and the planet Pandora, and even presents an old-school "anthropocentric". The outdated taste of "ism" science fiction: "The Way of Water" has the familiar ecological environment and human primitive tribal civilization, as well as the flat and inhuman villains. We seem to be watching "Starship Troopers" 20 years ago, where the same show The human technological civilization we are very familiar with, and the alien "Zerg" villain who has no character creation at all. "The Way of Water" almost releasedAbandoning the "post-human" writing, completely lost the narrative and image charm brought by the carefully crafted perspective conversion of the first film, and completely brought the topic of "human/non-human" back to the theory of human nature itself. We no longer feel that Pandora is a future existence beyond the human worldview, but just a natural ecological park on the earth: the transcendent imagination of the future has been pulled to the ground by the gravity of the earth.
from the identity politics of the 21st century but not too 21st century
Let’s see: When we really talk about the plot and character creation of "The Way of Water", we hardly need to talk about "post-human" The concept is—because "The Way of Water" is just a rotten family drama that integrates identity politics and content. It is a pure expression of common human values. It is a "Modern Family" on the planet Pandora. The expression of diversity is even less than that. Cameron once said that the planning of the "Avatar" five-part series was inspired by the "Godfather" series. He attached great importance to the theme of Jack Sally's family inheritance. The reason for the arrangement of four children.
"The Way of Water" devotes a lot of space to the growth process of the four children and the way parents educate the children, but this "Growing Pains" on Pandora lacks both wisdom and humor. Jack Sally implemented standard militarized management over his children, especially his two sons, requiring his sons to obey his words, even calling him "yes, sir" every day, and rarely really listening to his sons' inner appeals. The way problems are handled often gives people the impression of "unreasonable". Judging from the performance of the film alone, it is difficult to see that Jack’s education of his sons is successful: except for a little wit who asked in private, “Have you won the opponent?” The sons bring more fear, alienation, and a patricide urge to prove themselves. Throughout the film, the eldest son, Natia, is always a "tool man" who implements his father's will, and was forced to arrange lunch by the screenwriter in the end; the youngest son, Roark, has a complete growth line and character arc, but he is in harmony with It was completed in the interaction between the peers of the Ocean Tribe and Tukun Payakan, in which Jack even played a negative role.
The growth content of the two daughters is also in an "unfinished" state at first: the youngest daughter Tuke is still too young, and the script is only used as a breakthrough for the villain, and the representational image is not prominent; the mixed-race daughter Chia has an important role The plot clues also arrange a lot of personal growth scenes, but this growth is connected with her real mother, Dr. Grace and Pandora's "Eva" mother, and basically has nothing to do with the "mother" Neytiri who raised her. What's interesting is that Neytiri's character arc in "The Way of Water" played by Zoe Saldana seems to be a "warrior who became a failed mother, and finally became a warrior". The pleasing setting not only makes no contribution to children's education, but the interaction with Jack is not speculative and does not promote the plot. At the end of the film, it falls into the classic male narrative cliché of "a mother who breaks out to protect her children". One of the film's worst failures.
Maybe the absence of Jack and Neytiri as parents in the script is serving the film's identity politics motif. In the film, the growth of the four children is closely integrated with the process of their integration into the ocean tribe. In particular, many of the growth scenes of the youngest son, Loak, are completed simultaneously during his integration and interaction with his peers in the ocean tribe. "The Way of Water" reinterprets the common identity motifs in today's European and American film and television works in a relatively conventional way, and focuses on showing the process of the aboriginals of the ocean tribe gradually turning from strangeness, hostility, and discrimination to recognition and acceptance of the Sally family. However, the whole process of acceptance and integration seems to be a bit deliberate: the Ocean Tribe has no willingness to actively request integration with the Sally family, and the high priest has always remained hostile, and decisively chose to cut the seat when the villain pointed out that "only Jack is alone"; The Sally family headed by Jack has always adopted a passive attitude of tolerance and compromise, lacking a truly equal exchange with the ocean tribe.
The interesting detail is that the plot of Roark's disappearance and return several times has turned to a direction that is difficult for the audience to understand: the characters' growth in Roark and the responsibility for causing Loark to be in danger are issues that the audience pays close attention to. I didn't care about anything, but repeated "Dad won't let you go out" tirelessly, as if observing this family rule was the most important thing for the whole family, as if toThe only way to achieve the fusion and peaceful coexistence of different identities is tolerance and "not causing trouble". In all fairness, Cameron and his co-screenwriter did spend a lot of thought on writing about the growth of children and the motif of identity politics. Their superb narrative techniques make these dramas quite watchable, but these narratives are still unconvincing. It even makes the audience reject or even loathe these characters: after the audience has just enjoyed a little enjoyment in the visual spectacle, they will face Jack Sally when he turns around because "Daddy won't let you out". is catastrophic.
But in the final analysis, the above clichéd plot writing only relatively deteriorated Jack Sully’s characterization, pulling him from one failure to another—because of Cameron’s plot planning for "The Way of Water" itself It is devastating to the character of Jack: viewers who have experienced a 192-minute marathon-like viewing process may still find it difficult to understand Jack's self-positioning and life choices in this film: he is the one who led the entire planet in the previous film. The hero of human victory, but in this movie, he was disheartened without any major failure. He gave up resistance and just wanted to protect his family. He left his responsibility and hid like a lost dog. After 192 minutes of futile retreat, he was still stared at by the villain. After bringing war to the planet on Earth, he finally came to his senses: he can't escape, he still has to fight—didn't he think that he would still be caught up after all when he fled to the ocean tribe? Did he really think he could rely on running and hiding to protect his family? To be honest, it is rare to see such a protagonist in the second part of a Hollywood series that completely uses the well-crafted character design of the first part as a consumable.
"Way of Water" shows the most common value consensus in European and American film and television in the 21st century in terms of plot writing and character creation: equality of multiple identities and family centralism. However, in such a future-themed "post-human" fantasy work, such Its values are too un-21st century. If the bad portrayal of human villains and the lack of heterogeneity in the display of natural ecology have brought this series back to the earth, then this plot writing that is most in line with the greatest common divisor of common human values, such a deliberate theme of identity politics, will completely destroy This movie pushes into the abyss of anthropocentrism in the opposite direction, from a bold post-human vision to a scene of human obscenity that feels good about itself: if the bold attempt of "Avatar" leads all mankind, and "The Way of Water" "But it seems to be a kind of pandering that Cameron once dismissed.
Is this Cameron's personal heroism?
So far, it seems that they are all very unkind and bad reviews of "The Way of Water"-however, these words written after carefully reviewing the details of the film actually deviate from the emotional tone of the movie: "Water "The Way" undoubtedly lives up to Cameron's name. It is another wonderful visual feast he contributed to the audience after 13 years, and it is also a moving love letter to nature and ecology. Cameron has always had the talent to make the most clichéd plots "good-looking" with the most delicate and solid narrative ability. The 192-minute length of the film is relaxed and has few shortcomings. It won't distract the viewer; "The Way of Water," like Cameron's other works, remains the most suitable movie on the planet for all audiences, and any audience will feel that the trip is worthwhile. My favorite part of the whole
is the scene where the villains hunt Tukun with their kun-hunting boats. This is a heinous and evil act of destroying the ecology, but Cameron did not criticize the evil of these human villains with an emotional eye, but showed it with calm and tireless technical details, and captured the image with a documentary texture. Kun's cruel methods are intuitively exposed to the audience. The whole scene was quiet and only showed a little sharpness in the Japanese-labeled shot of the bow of the kun-catching ship (it was very obvious what Cameron was metaphorizing), which also paved the way for the ocean tribe's attack on the kun-catching ship. Emotional thickness that touches the power. Combined with what Cameron said in the interview, the motivation for shooting the "Avatar" series is just to remind people to protect the natural ecology, so maybe all the dissatisfaction with "The Way of Water" before is actually because Cameron is too legendary, which leads to Our expectations of him have surpassed what a filmmaker can do. When technology and humanistic theories are still inexplicably confused about the "post-human" issue, how can we be so demanding of Cameron to be a prophet and a prophet? , Philosophers, bring us truly "non-human" transcendent content? In the final analysis, his thoughts on Pandora and the Na'vi peopleThe imagery, unparalleled world view construction and immersive visual enjoyment are all for the "people" themselves: this is a slightly disappointing, but also warm answer.
In fact, when I walked out of the theater, I was still sighing, how long has it been since we have seen such an "old-school" commercial blockbuster with such a tough bridge on the screen? This kind of "old school" not only lies in solid technical expression, fine production level and easy-to-understand, audience-friendly narrative ability, but also in that Cameron is still adhering to the common values generally shared by human beings in the last era. Sally's male chauvinism shows us the beauty of human nature, the extraordinary charm of nature, the identity politics of peaceful coexistence, the maintenance of the most traditional family values, and the promotion of ecological environmentalism, ultimately pointing to the gold of globalization The ideal of great harmony among human beings in the era - we will feel that these things are a bit outdated, or in this era, if we want to achieve the ideal of great harmony beyond the stratosphere of all classes and nationalities, these things are no longer useful, and Cameron is still there There's something clumsy about selling all this in the film.
Our world is heading towards the collapse of the stratosphere, and the long-awaited "Way of Water" did not bring such disruptive innovations as the 3D technology in the first part, but it has been planned to be the fifth part , Cameron, who decided to devote all the rest of his life to the planet Pandora, can still create miracles? Compared with " Dune " directed by Villanueva last year, which closely resonated with the spirit of the times and seemed to represent the future of human movies, "Avatar: The Way of Water" is more like an immersive exploration of a future that has disappeared. Video elegy, at this time Cameron is like a lone hero who is still maintaining the greatest common divisor of the ideology of the past golden age.
But he is James Cameron, he is "King of the World", as long as he insists on something, as long as he is still making movies, audiences all over the world will flock to movie theaters, and they will remember us once again In the future, there are so many beautiful, naive, and shattered dreams about the world. He has surpassed reason, business, and all constraints more than once. He has conquered the world and changed the times. Maybe he will succeed this time , isn't it? After all,
has never failed in changing the times.
