Avalon
by Mamoru Oshii
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DVD details
Actor: Bartlomiej Swiderski, Dariusz Biskupski, Jerzy Gudejko, Malgorzata Foremniak, Wladyslaw KowalskiDirector: Mamoru Oshii
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Polish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-12-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
DVD Reviews of Avalon
DVD Review: Do We Create Our Reality?
Summary: 5 Stars
"Avalon," directed by Mamoru Oshii (director of Ghost in the Shell & Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence). The main character is named Ash, an expert at a virtual game called Avalon, and she discovers that there are blurry lines between game and reality (her dog goes missing and shows up in the game, e.g.). More properly, the film argues that reality is constructed by her individual perspective and possibly by her choices (she sees the same statue once with its head and once headless). This is one of the best video game movies since Tron (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition) & eXistenZ. Like in The Ultimate Matrix Collection (The Matrix/ The Matrix Reloaded/ The Matrix Revolutions/ The Animatrix), it asks whether virtual reality is better or worse than reality.
Oshii sticks with his trademark theme as in "Ghost in the Shell": a lot of action takes place in a "borderline" realm (his phrase), i.e. in a virtual 'reality'. This time, however, the virtual reality is instantiated into a video game world and not an external memory system (an internet) or a person's memory system as in the "Ghost in the Shell" movies. "Avalon", though, seems very original. This is the third time I have ever really loved a movie based on a video game (here, of course, as in the case of Tron & eXistenZ, I think the video game is make-believe).
Much of Oshii's past work was with mature anime and CG films. "Avalon" has a lot of anime and CG in it, but only in the same way that a typical Star Wars movie does. "Avalon" breaks with the director's tradition and goes with actual human actors, real tanks, real city locations (filmed on location in Poland, but some scenes are done with actors against a blue screen and computers filling in the set later). And some of the other elements, such as the helicopters, are done by special effects people.
The story follows a heroine, Ash (her player name), in her love and addiction to playing video game (some reviewer's describe her as sullen, but she did not look like that to me). Game portals are stationed in game rooms at a decaying, back alley building. She gets plugged into the game by sitting in a dentist-like chair and pulling on a metal helmet (with wires dangling everywhere). She looks lifeless as she sits in the chair, and she seems exhausted when she awakes from playing -- sometimes players never awake and run the risk of becoming brain dead vegetables. Ash is not afraid of the risk; she is very courageous and driven. She is one of the top players on the game. It is a virtual reality game with multiple players. It shares the same feature with "The Matrix" in that some programs she meets in the game will be other players and some will be purely digital programs, however; one doesn't die when one dies in the game (but one does run the risk of becoming brain dead, but actually by the end of the movie this risk is lower and more secretive and difficult to access than what is initially said about it).
The actual video game is revealed to us in very small bits of information. At first it just looks like a first person war game (which would be dreadfully boring for me) in which one walks around shooting tanks, helicopters, and other players. But the more you watch, the more the game gets interesting. The game players can have different types of classes: warrior (like Ash), thief, mage, and bishop. The addition of classes of players makes it more like a game in the tradition of Diablo II or Baldur's Gate, except in a war setting. One can also form teams with other players. Ash plays alone, for the most part, and she seems to make some money playing the game. Players get paid depending on how well they play. They also have to pay-to-play, and this restricts them in certain ways: we hear that Ash cannot switch to bishop class without playing so much that she would probably run out of money (which is odd given that she seems to make a good amount of money in the process of playing).
The plot gets a lot deeper into some philosophical questions, which I'll mostly pass over here. But some plot points to remember: the game seems to be never-ending, and Ash hears about a secret level in which one can either beat the game or get a heck of a lot of skill points. To get to the secret level, Ash has to find a ghost and shoot it, so she teams up with a bishop and gets help to try to enter the secret level.
The secret level is a simulated real world, just like in "The Matrix," and Ash has to kill someone to complete her mission. Rules: she can only leave the level if she completes her mission, so she becomes brain dead on earth if she fails her mission; she only gets one clip of bullets, one hand gun, and some vague directions. But she seems to know just where to go, luckily, because it looks like she has a whole city to navigate.
Some who get to the secret level like it so much that they decide to never leave, on purpose. Ash faces the same choice: succeed and go back to reality or stay in the borderline world forever. Apparently the mission is actually pretty easy to complete. She has to kill a human-like target, who previously decided to remain in the secret level and let his body (outside the game) go vegetable-like. The only difficulty is that many players do not want to complete it, because they do not want to leave. I thought the opposite: I thought the level would be really challenging and action packed like the ending to "The Matrix". I suppose it might have been possible that some targets would be dangerous, but not in this mission - no dramatic shootout endings to this story, instead Oshii wants to leave the audience thinking.
The secret level seems realistic to the point that one would wonder whether she would ethically want to walk up to the target and shoot him, a normal looking person, but she is smart, she knows it's just a game and no one can `really' die. But is this true? Do people who choose to stay there (and let their bodies go brain dead) die when they get killed in the game? It seems like it may be no to me, for their virtual existence is something important enough to them to choose to stay in the game forever and it still exists in the game (in the secret level), but their body is unplugged and over at a hospital. Ash has to possibly murder a person in order to fulfill her mission, that is, if she has to kill another player who went brain dead, then that player's mind and only existing identity is destroyed for good, which she seems to have no ethical problems with. (Do you?)
Overall, I thought its overall scenery was startling and the dialogue was thoughtful. It is nearly as good as the "Ghost in the Shell" movies. However, I did think one part was quite strange. It involves the problem of dualism: if a player decides to go to the secret level and stay (in Avalon the game), leaving his body a vegetable outside the game and his mind forever in the secret level, then his vegetable-like body -- at the same time -- can be transported to a hospital and is completely unplugged from the game. Therefore, we find that players that went brain dead are still floating around in the game while at the same time they have their bodies disconnected from the game. I found this feature of the story lacking in explanation and exploration.
The color scheme also adds much to the film. It was first shot in full color, but it was purposely digitized and redone so that each shot was edited into mostly black and white in various degrees and shades, with some color mixed in here and there by choice, for example the computer text is in sepia (orange looking to me), a ghost has blue streaks, a hologram is rainbow colored, and the end of the film is in full color. In one scene all the green was edited out from an outside hospital set to represent its lifelessness. Apparently, the original cut did not have an orange tint to the whole frame like the American release does.
It shares a few similarities with artistic films with its great beauty and care taken to get the director's vision on screen. Another typical trait of art films is long pauses for effect (as in "2001" and "Solaris"), and "Avalon" does have parts that dwell on the action and situation, but for good effect and good reasons (for the most part, that is, except I could have done without even an extra second of a certain scene watching someone eat in a disgusting way!). For example, we hear a classical opera piece twice, and we hear it almost all the way through both times. The first time the piece is translated for us and we are given information about the city environment, but the second time the song is not translated and the information is a little less; I felt it could have been trimmed a little the second time or used as background with some more scenes added to tell us more about the secret level. However, I thought the movie moved along at a solid pace and it never went long without giving important information. But if you don't love intricate video games, then you might discount the information!
Description of Avalon
From Mamoru Oshii, the acclaimed director of GHOST IN THE SHELL, AVALON is a mesmerizing sci-fi thriller with explosive action and state-of-the-art visual effects in the stunning style of THE MATRIX! In the not-so-distant future, desperate young people risk everything to play "Avalon" -- an illegal and potentially lethal virtual war game where addicted combatants earn points and wealth. For one of the game?s greatest warriors, the "noble soldier" Ash, the search for Avalon?s legendary game stage Class Real will either lead to an entirely higher level of existence -- or be a journey from which she will never return! With awe-inspiring visuals and an intriguing futuristic story, lose yourself in the excitement of this amazing cinematic adventure!Bestsellers in DVD
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