Why do I like Avatar? Because it helps me sleep at night.

i wouldn't say "trite" i would say "appealing to a wide audience spectrum" or "accessible"

Did you happen to notice it was a war movie, or are you completely desensitized to war and killing like most Americans?

nice, suggestive themes will change the planet. no, people with real life experiences will continue to be the most radical environmentalists (only experience can motivate someone to truly act). piggy american consumers like u and i will sit in front of our computers and and talk about the finer points of Avatar and speculate on how it will change the world. good job choirtramp, you're making a positive difference, one Current comment at a time.

you really gonna blame the world's problems all on white ppl?

No, but James Cameron sure does. Although I guess he's not saying "white people are evil" as much as he's saying "Americans are evil"

how so? i never saw a single american flag flown by any of the baddies, and the main character even alluded to the marines as being honorable, whereas the contractors were scum working for the highest bidder.

I wrote an extensive analysis as to why I think this movie is heavy-handed derivative B.S. here - http://unrelatedcontemplations.blogspot.com/2009/12/avatar-critical-review.html but no one wants to read all that so I'll summarize based on the responses.

@Nephwrack - if you think this movie wasn't a broad critique of American history and current foreign policy, you've missed the movie's true subtext. The Na'vi were Native Americans. Not allegories for Native Americans, not metaphors - they WERE Native Americans. Which makes the oppressors Americans. That and they more or less say the entire operation is American by saying the military are former Americans. And if the Native American thing didn't convince you, then the poorly disguised Iraq war critique will. Forget for a moment that it's a story about a corporate run military-industrial complex invading a 3rd world civilization in order to take all of their industrial resources. Forget that all the characters are obviously caricatures of Americans. Cameron doesn't even try to disguise it with lines like, "shock and awe campaign", "winning hearts and minds", "our only security lies in pre-emptive attack”, and "fight terror with terror". Yeah, you're right, this has nothing to do with America. Not to mention our current war was mostly fought by Blackwater mercenaries. You know, 'scum working for the highest bidder'.

@Choirtramps23 - that's exactly how white guilt works. White people feel bad about all the horrible things we've done, in this case to Native Americans and the environment. When we go to see a movie where white people are uncompromisingly evil and the dark-skinned natives are uncompromisingly good we feel better when we side against the evil white people. We feel good about ourselves because we're so sympathetic towards the non-whites and we loathe the white villains so much. Alleviating white guilt is all about siding against the evil white people and rooting for the dark skinned heroes (or blue skinned, since giving the Na'vi dark Native American skin would be pushing it even for Cameron).

lionheart, i see this more as a criticism of corporate greed. which is rampant in america, i will be the first to admit. but in creating sympathy for the natives and the environment i would say the story does a pretty good job of having a positive message. if some of the viewers walk away with a more positive attitude regarding environmentalism, then yes, overall the film is a good thing. and of course the genocide of the native people of north america was a heinous crime! at what point did i say the our country could do no wrong? i dont agree with the war in iraq, i think it is illegal and was solely for the enrichment of it's corporate sponsors, halliburton and smith and KBR and the carlyle group.

i thought they were pretty clear about that... oh he's planning on making a trilogy , or so it is rumored.

zactly.

lol "even before my grandchildren die". your pessimism and naivete are laughable. so apocalypse will come sometime before YOUR grandchildren die? LOL. i love people like you, reminds me of how i used to be when i was younger. "oh this planet's going to sh!t isn't it?" NO it actually isn't. so guess what? go get a job, make money, get a girlfriend, bang her everyday, smoke drugs if you want. its not going to change the fact that the world is not ending anytime soon. technology (and green technologies) WILL in fact save us. are you forgetting the fact that 15 years ago, you wouldn't be as intelligent as you are now with ideas as diverse and sophisticated as we have today? the internet (something alluded to in the movie though weakly; "ohhh i can hear their voices" good one...) has changed humanity and continues to change it in a big way. try thinking about that for a little while. the total knowledge humanity is acquiring/exchanging through the internet (whether intentionally or passively) through widely diverse news sources, informational sites, etc. affects how we vote, what our tastes and priorities are, and is inevitably going to affect the future of humanity and the planet. if you look outside everyday, you may see smog and pollution but you're also going to see more clean(er) vehicles, solar panels, permaculture gardens, etc, etc, etc. than ever before in humanity's history. AGAIN, don't rely on movies to teach you everything you know, go outside and experience, go outside and see reality and your predictions (like they matter really) won't be so dark.

Seeing how your whole comment is based off "so apocalypse will come sometime before YOUR grandchildren die?", something I never said or even suggested makes whatever point you were trying to make moot. If you would read my comment you would see that I said chances are things would not get better or MAY even get worse before I die or MAYBE even before my grandchildren die. The only thing I'm guilty of is maybe being pessimistic but what you call a pessimistic point of view I call a realistic one.

Don't get me wrong, I truely do hope that I am absofuckinglutely wrong and I truely do hope to see things get better before I die.

i wouldn't say you are wrong on any of these points. i simply:
1. don't like the way the article is written
2. am tired of hearing people glorify movies in this way. they should go out and experience what you experienced to truly changed their minds about the environment and our impact. i'm complaining about the lack of real experiences and reliance on art to convey their meaning to people.

You are....twelve?

or how about stop glorifying/relying on movies to teach us life lessons, get off our fatasses and learn on our own the way people have for thousands of years?

"or how about stop glorifying/relying on movies to teach us life lessons, get off our fatasses and learn on our own the way people have for thousands of years?"

"learn on our own the way people have for thousands of years"

We don't learn anything on our own. One dude figures something out then tells everyone they know. That IS how it has been for thousands of years.

How to make fire, cook food, grow crops, medicine, the light bulb was not discovered over and over by each individual until everyone knew it. And that is not how learning that human decisions can have damaging consequences for other life will happen.

One guy figures it out then trys to tell everyone which is what Cameron tries to do with this film.

And I think humans along with countless other species will be extinct by the time everyone figures it out with your "wait until each individual by themselves gets it" idea.

Judging these comments? Judge not lest yee be judged. Methinks you have poor judgment. So anyone who questions that the film is anything other than 100% beauty is somehow yelling or talking it down?

Did it occur to you that the film can be both beautiful and have aspects that are quite offensive. It glorifies war. That it does this while being beautiful makes it dangerously subversive as a film that lures you into thinking war is beautiful in some way, if only by having the beauty and love happening as a result and in conjunction with war.

wow i've lost so much respect for you jonraymond.

yet more assumption! exactly what was it that i considered beautiful about this movie jonraymond? please enlighten us all with your telepathy!

You're right. I can't get past the war and killing to feel the beauty. Why don't you enlighten the world on how war, death, destruction and killing, can make a beautiful film, or perhaps how you are capable of ignoring this horror to see only beauty. I suppose you also vacation in Afghanistan.

lolz

But it can be generalized into an imperialism movie.. and that eventually leads to war.

then show me... jr... show me.

i suppose the natives were supposed to grab their ankles and just take it?

obviously you didn't see the movie. The technology actually does more to bring you into the avatar world and than for the special effects of war. Most of the movie isn't fighting but building up to a battle. Lets just say that the film makes the imaginative world more real if that is possible. p.s what world do you live in that doesn't have war or imperialism still going on in it? It's kind of the point of the movie.

"Lets just say that the film makes the imaginative world more real if that is possible. p.s what world do you live in that doesn't have war or imperialism still going on in it? It's kind of the point of the movie."

I thought the point of the movie was a fantasy world where people are in touch with nature, a world beyond our world of perpetual war. So then the earth people bring war to these nature people. But lo and behold, war is mysteriously familiar to them as are warpaint and bows and arrows.

If it remained true to form the nature people would find a way to defeat the warmongers without stooping to their level of sadistic killing. Yeah, maybe with their advanced technology of nature communication touching their ankles would do the trick.

But that would require having a screenwriter that actually knows how to write a good movie, and producers interested in something beyond a fast buck and military recruitment ads.

or a movie that lasts 10 minutes: scene 1, invaders intro, scene 2, Na'vi control trees and crush humans. THE END.

how are you so certain everyone sees the same moral/environmental message as you? you're assuming alot. what if the only message i got from the movie is that Pandora is a pretty sweet planet with loads of sweet new plants to smoke? that has nothing to do with Earth in 2010. go do something artistic like making chalk pictures on your sidewalk

perhaps you should have paid attention, or to use your words, not dropped acid.

"you're like a 5-year-old. CAN'T HEAR YOU, LA LA LA LA LA"

maybe you should hear your own words. this person is glad that the movie might change some minds about the environment, and you trash her post for it? you're the one who sounds like a five year old.

and yet you assume about me! what in the hell are you talking about? "they kill John Lennon?" i don't think any rock stars are going to be killed over avatar, my friend.

choirtramps23: "Didn't register the implied environmental ethics of Avatar"? Implied Environmental Ethics of Avatar? What is that a book i should have read before watching the film? Don't ever think that the way you word things is anything more than shit. shut up.

nephwrack: you see? out of the 37 comments, everyone had a different impression of the film's overall message. maybe the movie had too many? perhaps they were too subtle? or maybe we just shouldn't rely on art to be the way we get most of our "information" or perspectives (not that anyone should anymore today after the advent of the internet). people should already understand that change needs to occur. if they don't, they're either too young or too old; the young become more aware of reality more quickly today and the old are soon to die. Someday in the future, World Wars I-II will be known as the beginning of the Great Transition, or the period of time humanity quenched its blood lust and gave up fighting mass war. All conflict in future ages will be as it has been since the World Wars. As time progresses from the end of World War II and into the future, wars will become more technologically advanced and as a result, more precise. This continuing modernization of warfare results in less casualties in every ensuing conflict. These wars will be fought primarily by the American corporate/bureaucratic empire against non-english speaking nations. As nations begin to dissolve in the unification of humanity, areas of land rich in resources will continue to be the centers of the colonization of the planet or The Great Pavemented Planet. The centuries after the Cold War will be known someday as The Awakening (in whatever language is spoken). As time progresses, people will become more differentiated due to differences in tastes (like colors, this includes information from around the globe transmitted through the internet or news. In this period of time, humanity will overcome many of the universe's greatest challenges including: ending world hunger, a more unified understanding of purpose; of people, of love, of sex, of drugs, of life.

at what point did i say everyone should come away with the same msg from this movie? you again assume too much! i have nothing to do with your concept of the "white man" ... yet another assumption on your part...you are obviously new to this website. welcome.
so. to the original point... everyone had a different viewpoint. i'm willing to bet that al ot of ppl would think it foolish to ridicule someone's beleif in hope for the world. and a lot more would believe that your "she's just trying to sound clever" comment was downright backward.

this dude doesn't know, or doesn't care about SHIT! i could pull a more deeply thinking turd outta my cats ass.

lmfao...ok "choir tramp", you win...

lol ur sentence would have been more correct this way, "usually, i do"....but its ok, you're learning...

when the environment suffers, people suffer along with it. ever try to drink from a polluted river? or have to stay on the beach because of signs about the effing ocean being toxic because of sewage dumped in it? that shit will give you some anxiety, no matter who you are.

i'm not denying that "humans are Earth's infection", i'm probably more radical than you in that sense (i mean that lightheartedly). all i'm saying is that the author of this post is glorifying the movie too much. you know what happens when people start doing that? they kill john lennon.

riight.

Considering that the suggest daily intake of water is 2L per day per person, the amount you suggest, Imisslaura, is quite impressive! How does one come about that conclusion?

i think she's just trying to sound clever

it is my opinion that you both are blind. try reading the article.

don't introduce your opinion next time. we assume its yours because you're typing it!

of course it's mine. i just cant stand when people refuse to see what is right in front of them every day. the rainforests are being leveled, the skies are no longer clear, and it's because of US.

maybe the reason we don't do anything is because its not RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. you must live in the amazon jungle. alot of things make sense now...

so luis... you live on another effing planet?

i may not agree that the environmental movement is a complete scam. if there weren't radical environmentalists, who would influence politicians to tax pollution? obviously there's a place for everyone (Planet Earth is filling up though!) but my original point that started this silly debate is that i just don't like the way this article is written. it is a perfect example of why i don't watch movies anymore. people take them waaay too seriously and as a result, make predictions that MOVIES can change the world. that's silly. the world is changing no matter what. technology is making it better everyday. we don't all need to go back to being farmers. we just need to wait a little while and before we know it, someday we'll all have clean energy. but we'll still have to work which is gay, that's china's fault and the topic of another thread...