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[twichie]

So, went to see this movie last night. Figured that my husband and I were probably the only two on the planet who hadn't seen it yet and since everyone's talking about it - yeah. I should go

Comments

[zarniwhooper]

There is no doubt that “Avatar” portrays its military contractor characters as barbarous mercenaries, willing - even eager - to wipe out innocent natives in their pursuit of Pandora’s precious resources. It almost feels as if Cameron is drawing parallels, not only to the Iraq war, but to Vietnam, where the military found itself in the nihilistic position of destroying villages just to save them. Even the New Yorker’s David Denby, hardly a die-hard conservative, found himself in awe of the film’s “anti-imperialist spectacle.” But while Hollywood often makes antiwar movies, “Avatar” is something different - a peaceful warrior film, celebrating the newly aroused consciousness of a Marine turned defender of a higher faith

[greenfish]

I agree with your comments, too. I can't say it made me lose my enjoyment of the film entirely, because I went into the film, not necessarily knowing about its message, but already having heard the story was "eh." The romance part I actually really enjoyed but the military v. science / nature aspect annoyed me, and all of your points were solid. I just wanted to roll my eyes when they made the comment about sending the humans back to their (paraphrased) "almost ruined" planet, as if suggesting we're going to ruin our planet in the next 40 years. Please.

Still, the imagery was amazing. I also loved the fact that in the crowd scenes, or the meeting scenes where you were in the room, you actually felt like you were in that room. You could really feel and see the depth of the room. That was amazing to me. There were a few moments where I wanted to duck, but he didn't go for the 3-D jugular quite like I expected. He just made it seem that much more real. I was impressed by the subtle realness of it all. I'm curious to see what

[bannie]

Good review Twich. Good points. But... I am Aussie (as you know) and I truly saw it as humans vs. aliens. I did note that everyone was American and stuff and I was really annoyed that ONCE AGAIN an Australian actor has to give up his own accent and pretend to be American. Why can't we ever just be who we are? But it still didn't make me thing that it was US military vs. aliens. It was, to my mind, humans. vs aliens.

[anonymous]

Thanks for the great feedback on the movie. The things you point out anger me, as well. I haven't seen it yet and am still debating whether I will or not. I don't want to pay my money to condone that type of message, but at the same time I'd like to learn from the visuals and things that made the movie so good. I'm a writer and plan to branch into the screenwriting field soon, so I am trying to learn as much as I can about how to write a selling movie...

So...still torn on whether to see it or not.
Amy Michelle Wiley

RE: The Review

[anonymous]

So I read this review and for a moment I am beginning to think, "YES!! Finally a movie for me!!!" After all, I am a Christian, Anglo Male. I can only offend, I cannot be offended...yet here is a movie that I can actually take offense to. Oh, I'm sure that Cameron would say something like, "I didn't portray, or intend to portray the military in that light." No, probably not...but having many of my comments to female, African-American, Hispanic....friends being misinterpreted and being seen as "insensitive" at best, I'm glad to see someone else falling victim to that same trap..especially when they tend to be so self-righteous about it. (Sorry...Hollywood has this self-righteous thing down so well...while attacking people like me for being self-righteous