In the scene when Jake first gets into his Avatar body they attempt to make the audience feel happy for Jake. The scene is set up to have you cheering him on as he goes against what everyone else is telling him to do, all of the doctors and everyone in the room is advising him to sit back down but he proceeds to get up and run. Usually when someone is being disobedient it is considered a negative action and does not generally make people want to be on the side of the offender. Movie makers accomplish this happy feeling by showing how overjoyed he is with his new body; he continually comments on how great it is. Then there is a strip of film right after he takes off when all you see is him running. In this part the music in the background is created through joyful, exultant sounds making the audience feel his happiness with him. His digging of his toes in the dirt is a signifier of digging one’s toes into the sand to just relax on the beach and it is associated with happiness. Then when he sees Grace and she tests his motor skills and he passes this is also a happy moment. A message that is conveyed is showing how much better things are in the fantasy world as opposed to his crippled reality. In this fantasy Avatar world he can run and jump and dig his toes into the earth. All of these things bring happiness to him and allow the audience to relate to his happiness and feel for him. The audience is also led to believe that not only are things better but the impossible can happen in the fantasy world. A paraplegic would never be able to get up and run in the real world. Overall this scene makes fantasy better than reality in even the most simple ways.
I want to go back a little to right before this scene as the transformation of human to Avatar is occurring. At first we see the screens monitoring the brain activity and then it cuts to a colorful "70s" moving swirl. It's curious that such a high tech movie chooses to resort to a technique that is seen in multiple low budget/bad technology movies. Perhaps it's saying how the transformation from human to Avatar is currently as improbable as a fairy godmother waving her wand and that there is no good way to show the transformation because we are still scientifically blind to how that would be possible. At least that's my interpretation of it.
ReplyDeleteAs Jake wakes up in his Avatar body, he seems very curious and wanting to explore. He is not listening to what he is being told and if I were in his position, I probably wouldn't want to listen either. Once he "escapes" he almost looks like a little kid running through the playground wanting to have fun and run around with friends. The way he acts and his facial expressions when he is digging his toes into the ground almost made me feel like I was experiencing something for the first time as well. He is so over joyed with emotion that nothing seems to even bother him. As he runs into the robot he seems a little startled but he puts a smile back on his face and keeps running.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he looks like a little kid, but I also think the audience would feel happy for him because he lost the use of his legs in the war. The colonel also told Jake that if he completed his mission, he would be able to get his legs back. This scene almost foreshadows that Jake wants avatar legs, not real human legs again. We obviously see this as the movie goes on and Jake starts to fall in love with the other culture. Jake probably never considered the colonel's offer after the first experience in an avatar's body. He was never more excited in the movie than when he first got to feel what it was like to run and walk again.
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