I saw Avatar last week. Ill do a pseudo review and then talk about a few reactions people had.
First off its a great movie. The 3D is mind blowing and even saying that doesn’t do it justice. Its a groundbreaking film in that it makes 3D something very very cool but it also breaks the CG barrier as well. For instance, the faces on the Navi look incredible. The facial detail is absolutely mind blowing.
I thought the story was a bit heavy handed at times. I thought the movie could have been more subtle in terms of its presentation of ideas. But it wasn’t and that doesn’t make it a bad movie. Its just not a very subtle one.
First source. (Warning Chrome seems to think this site hosts malware. Seriously.)
“The glee with which the American Marines participate in this massacre is appalling and does not show the true feelings and concerns of the real United States Military. James Cameron should apologize to the American Military and should make a statement that he does not truly feel this way about them. He should also apologize to the American public for painting our young men and women that defend this country as cold-blooded killers.”
Sweet lord where do I start. OK first off, the “space marines” presented are ex Marines that are now being employed by a large corporation. Second off does the United States exist in Avatar? I hadn’t heard it did in the movie. Cameron is presenting good and evil in the context of big corporate machines VS the environment or naturalism or whatever you want to call it. War and violence is part of that struggle. Are the Marines wearing United States flags? No. Are they chanting “for freedom?” No. Are the primarally white and speak with English voices? Yes.
The biggest thing I saw in the “space marines” is that they are pretty much 100% taken from Aliens, another Cameron movie. In fact the big corporate interest in Aliens and Avatar seem nearly identical. Was there a backlash from that movie? No. Then again they were hunting the bad guys, but still.
My final point on this topic is that one man in particular, the leader of the “space marines” is the only one that shows “glee with which the American Marines participate in this massacre.” Seems like during the speech he gives they are energized, but I don’t see them giddy or anything. Save the main bad guy character but he is a stereotype of a kind of ideal.
“AVATAR has an abhorrent New Age, pagan, anti-capitalist worldview that promotes goddess worship and the destruction of the human race.”
“For hundreds of years, the pagan, communist ideas expressed in this movie circulated among a threadbare group of outcasts with dirty fingernails and greasy hair, who shared their obtuse, occult ideas amongst themselves with manic, alienated glee. Now James Cameron has made these insane views the major bulwark of a very spectacular movie, but the spectacle does not make the views any more coherent, rational, or uplifting.”
I think when someone uses a word like “new age” they are pretty much admitting they don’t understand what they are talking about. Or put another way, they are a member of a very popular religion in the United States that doesn’t care to note the differences between other religions so they lump them into one bucket called “new age.” But thats just my first impression here.
I have no idea how this movie “promotes the destruction of the human race.” Its not that it doesn’t show a version of the future where the human race is suffering for its actions. But the quote said Avatar promotes it. Which is utterly absurd. Does “I am Legend”, “Zombieland,” and “Mad Max” promote the destruction of the human race? No, they simply show a future where our actions led to the human race mostly dying off. That is leaps and bounds different than promoting it. If they did they do a bad job because my first response to it isnt “Hey wow, lets keep on this path so we can all die off, how cool would that be. Wow!” Does the Bible promote the destruction of the human race because it talks about it in detail?
The second paragraph is so rife with insults and ignorance I won’t really comment on it much. Save that I am not sure the author knows what communism is. The Navi display a brand of governance similar to Native Americans and thats not communism.
In closing, the movie was good but if you want all your movies to display a certain kind of moral or religious belief that is Judao-Christian OR ProCorporateGreed then this movie won’t be for you. Because in the end this movie is about corporate greed gone horribly wrong. It is a bit heavy handed ill admit but then again so are some Sunday Sermons ive gone too.