More (random) Avatar thoughts

No matter what you think about Avatar, it’s everywhere right now.

I guess there’s been a minor outcry online about the overly really simplistic anti-capitalistic, anti-military “let’s all go hug a tree” themes in the movie, not to mention the fact that the hero is basically john walker lindh, but that kind of ignores, well, just about EVERY OTHER CAMERON MOVIE except maybe True Lies (can’t really remember the theme, if there was one, but Arnold worked for the US gov, I think, and so it was a bit more “rah-rah, USA” in that way) and Titanic (which is somewhat anti-corporate if my hazy memory serves me right, but there’s really no military at all):

Aliens: evil corporate power gets colonized earth peoples killed by space invaders, sends in dumbass marines to save samples of the killer species for weapons development. Game over, man.

Terminator/T2: out-of-control technology becomes self-sufficient, sparks a nuclear holocaust to kill off pesky life forms, ragtag bunches of human terrorists fight overwhelming odds in the slight chance they can defeat unkillable machines, lone human savior born in the past must be kept alive to save humanity.

The Abyss: underwater aliens who hate nuclear weapons and can control water threaten all the landlubbers with certain death by drowning unless world peace is achieved; one man fights for the survival not just of his crew but of his marriage. Avatar is kind of this movie x10, but with less emotional weight.

Sensing a bit of a theme here, bad dialogue and all? You’re not alone.

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Moving away from Cameron, I wonder what the reaction would be like if the original Star Wars was released in this country today instead of in 1977: kick-ass special effects bolster a rudimentary story with pretty crappy dialogue about a backwoods white boy who’s taught to use a silly thing called “the force” so he can save the universe from the evil empire and the black-cloaked leader of that empire (very subtle, that) by, um, blowing up the largest man-made building ever seen and everyone in it. Hmm, and he’s guided by an old bearded dude with a funny-sounding name who wears robes and lives in a cave and introduces him to special very powerful weapons. Said old dude used to work for the establishment but turned away from it when he felt that it was corrupted…  sounds like terrorist propaganda to me!

Paraphrasing what Yoda says in Empire, the only SW movie that really holds up today*, people are obviously bringing their own preconceived notions to Avatar, which we do with everything, of course, though it’s much easier to do when the story’s more straightforward and simplistic. Though I do find it amusing that the more conservative interpretation reads an anti-US/military bias into something like this: so they’re saying that in this story, we (as in the remaining Earth peoples) should be allowed to go to distant planets and just wipe out indigenous cultures willy-nilly in order to spread our destruction of our own planet (again, in the movie, it’s mentioned that earth is basically a husk of lifelessness at this point) throughout the universe? Really, that’s how you want the future to be? You wouldn’t rather see this as a cautionary tale about how might doesn’t always equal right and maybe we should start thinking about different ways to maintain our survival in the far future? Okay then.

*I hope this can be related to Avatar as well: it’s not genius by anything other than a technical standard, but if I was a kid who just saw it, my mind would be totally blown and it would probably be my favorite movie ever — especially since the “simplistic” redundant story would still be new to me. But as an adult, now that the world has been established, I’m pretty hopeful that the sequel will be the thing that really kicks some ass. And then film three can feature cutesy CGI teddy bears and ruin everything that the second one built… not that I don’t love me some Jedi, just sayin’.

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I also found a couple of opposing views on the racial/political meaning behind Avatar that are totally fascinating. Here’s one, and here’s an opposing view. Again, just the fact that this is being discussed in relation to a huge blockbuster is pretty great.

I really like this piece by Ta-Nehesi Coates, too, as this is the impression I got from Dances with Wolves and is paralleled/ripped off in some respects in Avatar. In the new space movie, not only do the natives (and the planet even) save the day when all is lost no matter what the “hero” might do –  and the hereo, who, not entirely coincidentally, since one of Cameron’s strengths is his approach to female characters, is rescued by his damsel rather than the other way around — but Worthington’s character actually completely rejects his given body to truly become fully native in a way that Costner’s white man never could.

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On another note, it appears that both detractors and admirers of Cameron’s new epic are using the term “Avatards” to refer to people who like this movie, which, well, whatever. It’s an easy play on words, I guess, and can hardly be avoided. Ponceman got in on this action, and on the opposing side, a couple of dipshits recut the trailer with audio making fun of people like Ponce and Archer, but I’m not going to link to that — the really distressing thing about that is, 1, why anyone would take the time to do it, and, 2, how in the world anyone finds it amusing (’cause it’s just really unfunny… if there was any wit to it at all, I would try to get up in arms about it, but it’s too ridiculous to even bother with it.)

This post by Ponce and SAP kicks much ass, by the way. A small taste:

Treat people like people, regardless of their handicap, disease, sex, race, food preference, musical likings… the only people who deserve intolerance are the intolerant. A-holes don’t need your attention. They are the way they are because they are starved for that attention. So starve them completely. Spend your energy learning about the things you don’t understand, like Down Syndrome.

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As a final thought, on my scale of Cameron movies, if I were to rate them, Avatar would be close to the bottom, probably, with Aliens and The Abyss as 1 and 2, though we’ll have to see how it ages a bit. And if Archer likes it as much as I think he will whenever we watch it together, I’m sure that’ll raise its value to me at least a little bit.