Posted on 01/09/2010 2:43:32 PM PST by MindBender26
Anti-American "Avatar" – A Movie To Miss
We saw Avatar last night, and it is an amazing motion picture in two ways.
Technologically, it is brilliant. It breaks all previous barriers between live actors, animation and computer-generated graphics. Each scene on the distant moon Pandora is more beautiful than the next. The alien animals and foliage are markedly different from what we see on Earth, but not so different as to be impossible to accept. Even the 3-D effects are used brilliantly. There are no flaming arrows or cannon balls shot at the audience as was the norm when 3-D was first introduced into action pictures 50 years ago. When it’s appropriate for a butterfly-like creature to appear floating in the foreground, seemingly so close you could touch it, it quietly appears, then floats off screen.
Avatar is so technically perfect it is impossible to visually differentiate between the live actors and the computer generated characters. You can’t tell the difference between what a camera actually saw and what existed only in the minds of the producers… and on some Hollywood hard drive.
But, pardon the pun, the story is another story.
It is simply another horribly boring and predictable repetition of a story the far-leftist Hollywood crowd loves to tell again and again. American industrialists oppress beautiful but poor 3d World (in this case, 1573d World) natives in order to line their pockets with obscenely obtained riches, while they destroy the indigenous people and their glorious environment.
It’s Apocalypse Now, Syriana, Aliens, Michael Clayton, Alien, The Good Sheppard, The Borne Identity-Supremacy-Ultimatum, and a hundred other contemporary Blame America First movies all over again. It has all the overused stereotypical characters, with no attempt to disguise them.
First we have Jake Sully, the former Marine. Has to be a real red-blooded American with a name like “Jake,” doesn’t he? In case you might forget he was Marine, he wears his Eagle, Globe and Anchor t-shirt everywhere. Jake is the uneducated combat-wounded paraplegic brought to the distant moon Pandora to establish sort of a telepathic link with the wonderful natives, the Na’vi People. The only reason dumb Jake is there is because he has the DNA of his accidentally killed Ph.D. twin brother.
Jake and the other exploiters from Intergalactic Mining purpose on Pandora is to destroy the environment while mining all the $20,000,000 per kilo Unattainium. Yes, they actually called it that. Oscar-winner Al Gore probably wanted them to name the rare raw mineral Bushium, but he can’t have everything.
The Pandorian natives, the iridescent blue Na’vi, are simply wonderful in every possible way They run through the forest nearly naked, fly on the backs of giant birds, are armed only with bows and arrows, say prayers for the game they kill to eat, and they all live in a huge tree two miles tall.
Even better, the Na’vi have a telepathic link to all living things on Pandora. They have some sort of Mr. Spock Vulcan Mind-meld thing going with the trees. Whenever someone is going to die, a 1000 creatures that look like a cross between butterflies, pine cones and jellyfish float down to take their departing spirits up to the Big Retirement Village in the Sky.
Among the Na’vi characters, there are, of course, the wise old father-chief of the tribe; mom who doubles as the head shaman; the young warrior, heir to the Chiefdom who is betrothed to the female lead but loses her to our Marine. Of course, the young warrior sees the errors of his aggressive ways and dies trying to save his people, with a few verses of the Na’vi version of Kumbaya on his blue lips. It’s Little Big Man, The Last Samurai, and Dances with Wolves all over again.
Of course, the Na’vi are all beautiful, as beautiful as blue humanoids can be, and to help with the graphics, are always 9/10 naked.
Just to ensure complete compliance with the anti-American story line, the villain is a retired American Colonel, complete with a buzz cut, scars and a bad attitude. In the climaxial scene, the Bad American Colonel leads his flying saucer forces against the peaceful Na’vi, burning down the two mile tall tree house in the process.
Why? Because the tree sits over the mother lode of Unattanium. Even Stevie Wonder could see that coming.
Entirely predictably as well, Jake rallies to save the Na’vi, almost dies, and of course, is saved by the shaman, gets the blue girl… and a couple million dollars when the movie moves into reruns on TV.
There is so much more that is so bad, but it hurts to go on. It was three hours, $15, and a whole lot of bad temper wasted.
Great Unwashed Obama Voters will see it as a civics lesson. They will love it.
If anyone is winning to give me good odds, I’ll bet, that within 24 months, at least two dozen people will rename themselves the Na’vi, paint themselves blue, and establish a commune in Northern California, within driving distance of Nancy Pelosi’s district.
And of course, they will apply for Stimulus Money as an oppressed minority.
I’ve heard varying opinions about this movie from very conservative friends. Some loved it, some hated it. I guess it just depends on how you interpret it.
I think it looks stupid and don’t plan to waste my money.
When are we going to stop acting amazed at computer animation. This is nothing more than Buck Rogers in 2010....and the flamboyant comic books of my youth.
I watched the movie, amazing movie, but I was deeply offended and irritated by the blatant attack on white males. Every killing scene involved white males killing others. This troubled me and was very intentional.
The two best movies I’ve seen recently could have been made with a camcorder and a budget of a few hundred dollars, i.e. Slumdog Millionaire, and Gran Torino. Hollywood must really hate that sort of thing.
Yes, it's wonderful film making and visually stunning.-- but the writing is hackneyed, tree-hugging liberal crap.
At the end, I was waiting for the humans to "nuke the site from orbit, just to be sure."
The first time, the hokey, anti-capitalist storyline was disappointing and annoying.
However, I decided to look at it a different way. I thought of the "corporation" as liberal, environmental wackos trying to force themselves on the natives, and the Na'Vi trying to uphold their land from eminent domain.
Think of it this way; the bulldozers represent the government and the Na'Vi as the good people of Kelo, Conn.
Anyway, it worked for me, and it was great in 3-D.
If I am not mistaken the movie is doing better abroad than here in the US
It’s a movie for goodness sakes.
“Dances with Wolves in Space” or what ever. Of course all the reviews about the deeper meaning are true.
But it deserves to be viewed on the big screen in 3D, and is worth the price. Getting it from the rental shop or Red Box months from now just ain’t going to cut it.
So get a big buttered popcorn, a drink, kick back, let your mind drift and enjoy a good popcorn crunchin’ movie.
That’s the way I saw it the first time... The government/corporate provision of everyone’s needs made me think more of an Obama government and corporate hangers on as responsible.
I was actually giving some thought to seeing the movie or at least buying the disc until I read this. But it sounds like its simplistic beat to death Politically Corewrecked storyline would be a overwhelming annoyance.
Technically superb, but a huge circle-jerk for the Grievance Elite.
America bad, technology bad, military bad...natives good.
Tech lovers welcome, thinking man be gone.
I don’t give my money to be brain-washed by Hollywood. I was born there but that’s about it.
I like to enjoy a movie every once in a while but I’m really, really picky.
Star Trek was quite satisfying, so was the recent Sherlock Holmes movie. But Julia/Julie was bittersweet - enjoyed the movie until it started bashing Senator Joe McCarthy and Republicans. Nora Ephron produced the movie and couldn’t help herself from turning a movie about mastering French cooking into a political statement, which turned me off.
I'll never understand the torture people put themselves through.
Now excuse me, I'm going Ice Fishing.
Loved the animation, hated the story.
I figured this sequel wouldn’t be very good without Robin Williams reprising his role as “Batty”.
Underdog triumph is always more engaging. Do you expect a movie about a native population embracing an invasion by another planet because the alien earthlings are so “humanitarian”? To be fair, the movie pitted military vs. respectful cultural scientists, and the military had to irresponsibly attack because otherwise a fantastic battle scene could not occur.
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