Avatar (the movie) and why I didn't like it
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Original Post
So I'm guessing that about half the people here have already seen James Cameron's "Avatar". If you haven't, I'm going to warn you right now: SPOILER ALERT!
I thought it was pretty (even if the 3D made me kind of motion-sick). That's about all I can say in the positive, though.
The racism in the movie was just SO overt, to my eyes. I couldn't get past it at all. Cameron created this beautiful world, inhabited by beautiful creatures, and then he had a stupid American military grunt white boy come in to save the day. Do we still honestly believe that earth-worshipping cultures have no strength or ingenuity, and that all invention and leadership must come from white men? Jake Sully should have died the moment he stepped into the forest, and he certainly shouldn't have been able to absorb a new culture and become an accepted tribe leader in just a few short weeks. Why couldn't a Na'vi character have been the one to tame Toruk (the big, orange flying thing) and lead the people to victory? Why was a white man's intervention required in order to get Eywa to respond and defend herself and her people?
My whole rant is posted on my blog:
domestigoth.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/avatar-the-noble-savage-and-wh...
But I really just want to start some discussion, here. And I'm not just looking for people who disliked the film -- I'm interested to hear what you enjoyed about it, too.
Posted at 7:31pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
Responses
Aw, nobody? Really?
And here I was ready to get all fired up about this one.
Posted at 7:43pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
Something Anglo-centric?
Like, for real?
Really?
Posted at 7:49pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
i think the parallel is to the native american cultures who underestimated the power and weaponry (and evil single mindedness) of their enemies.
the white man, being that he was a soldier, was the only one who had enough knowledge of the white man's abilities and intentions to guide the natives to success.
Posted at 7:50pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
I know, I really shouldn't be surprised ... everyone should have already accepted that mainstream Hollywood movies have a tendency towards being racist and America-centric.
But it's just such a HUGE hit, and I've heard barely any bad press about it at all. I feel as though it needs to be talked about, and it's not happening (or at least, it's not happening enough).
Posted at 7:52pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
Yeah, I can see your points there. I felt it was kind of just another 'romancing the military' type of movie. One one hand it was the "we got the muscle & the guns so all others must submit" & the other side was the "we all are one" part of the mother tree, blah, blah, blah. Neither works out so well for the individual in my book. I saw it more as a propaganda thing than a racist thing though.
Posted at 7:54pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
I disagree. I think he pretty much puts the white race down by showing how the majority of them are motivated only by money and greed. He clearly made the human (white in the movie) race look selfish, arrogant and metaphorically blind.
But despite all of that, he said man could be taught with the right teachers to appreciate what the world has to offer and to be able to connect to it if one really tries.
But also, their tribe had been racist by generalizing another race because they didn't come from their tribe. Yet they learned to allow someone different from them to become one of them, and then eventually to lead them.
I guess it depends on how you look at it.
Posted at 7:54pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
From that perspective, the movie was really no more than a sub-par Dances with Wolves. At least in that movie Kevin Costner mostly sticks to his ways without trying to impose them on his hosts, who mostly stick to their own. And he definitely does not become their leader-- he is always something of an outsider who does not quite fit in entirely.
On the other hand, it would have been cool if they had fought the U.S. calvary on winged dinosaurs...
Posted at 7:56pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
serena29 - that is an angle I hadn't thought about before. But I still think that the Na'vi themselves should have been the ones to tame Toruk and speak with Eywa. Having Jake do EVERYTHING himself makes him some sort of superhero, when really he's just a dumb kid who truly doesn't understand the culture he's appropriating.
Posted at 7:56pm Jan 25, 2010 EST
I think what you saw was not intentional, just an obvious result to a movie whose story is repetitive and unoriginal. He basically ripped the story off other stories, added blue people with tails (and big eyes, as big eyes can make the most evil thing out there look cute and innocent) and a half-ass attempt at making people remember that nature is important, and ripped off us poor folks who wasted almost three hours of our time on a movie whose "oh it's so PRETTY!" appeal is lost about an hour in.
Not to mention that the script was laughable.
Posted at 7:56pm Jan 25, 2010 EST