What's My Problem with "Avatar" - Introduction

I managed to catch "The Boy in the Iceberg" on television last night, and you know what? It's better than I remember. It has the same flaws that would ultimately undo the series (for me), but unlike those latter episodes, "The Boy in the Iceberg" is quieter, more inviting, had many moments of fantastic animation, and, surprisingly, sets up its story very, very well. A common criticism of mine is that the writers don't know how to plausibly set up situations, but they're brilliant at paying them off. "Iceberg" does the job well enough that one can be forgiven for not picking up on, or maybe even flat out ignoring, the messy elements and continue to watch for what happens next.

Unfortunately, as the story gets deeper and better, these flaws become more apparent and annoying. Since I've set myself up as an enemy within these here parks, my nitpicks will be the main focus. There are plenty of good things in this episode outside of its set-up, but they are mostly technical (and then some of the technical things aren't even that good).

Here's how these posts will work. In each thread, I will focus on one element at a time, so that debates don't become too chaotic. Maybe, I'm not sure, whole episodes will be the subject of debate. The topics will range from technical to artistic, from contemporary to historical. Hopefully, such debate will pinpoint exactly where I'm coming from and why I feel the need to remake this series, and, hopefully, allow you more chances to fix me straight and stop all this nonsense. I'll tell you what, though: after watching some featurettes on Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull and how personally the project came about, my passion to remake Avatar is greater than ever.


P.S. These posts will also be on Avatar's IMDb message board page so that debate among fans can ensue, hopefully so they'll convince me of how wrong I am.