Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Have you seen Avatar?
Any opinions about this? We saw it in 3D (and in English) on Friday. The effects are stunning, the 3D draws you into the action so well that you duck when objects fly towards you. Some interesting ideas in the story, purging of guilt about Vietnam, Iraq, treatment of indigenous peoples... BUT also an unfortunate message (imo) that the only way to defeat violence is with even greater violence. The innocent have to lose their innocence or their lives. Hmmmm. I also bought the DVD of the film 'Gandhi' recently. Maybe not a fair comparison, but there was a man with a different strategy, which he learned from 'guess who?'
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So, here's a fun debate that Marius and I and the others had on the way back from the cinema. Is Avatar racist?
ReplyDeleteI thought so, it's borrowing of the Pocahontas story was a bit too obvious and came with all the cultural attachments etc.
A lot of the commentators thought so too the whole 'it takes a white man in a blue body to save the indigenous'.
Anyway, regardless, it's poignant to note that Avatar's estimated value (including the games franchise that will inevitably follow) is about half that of Haiti's GDP last year.
Are they actually saved or just corrupted beyond recognition? And yes, very sad how much money they make and whose pockets it ends up in.
ReplyDeleteMy inclination is to say that it was a fun film with brilliant computer generated graphics and the 3D enhanced it, but... just as you did, Ashley, when you commented about the Twilight series, you have made me see things differently...I do agree, it was very violent and the ultimate message was that violence is the only answer.
ReplyDeleteIt's Pads actually, Ash really enjoyed the movie and disagrees with the perception of racism. Thanks though!
ReplyDeleteEmotionally is the film just great, I really enjoyed a tour into amazing 3D world of Pandora planet, I felt sorry for the artificial nature. Great job done in the studios. BUT philosophically as far as the plot, depth of main characters and motives are concerned the film is very poor, more or less it's fairytale, like many other Hollywood films. You can find there reminiscence of colonization of America (with only difference that in this case the native people won) or from the movie world it's inspired by Dances with Wolves, The Matrix, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Beside used technology there's no revolution happening. I don't see there any racism at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts Deric. Maybe we should lower our expectations of what to expect from a big budget Hollywood movie - just accept it for what it is; light entertainment. Finally watched Gandhi today. Also big budget but a different era. Seemed like an honest portrayal of a great man and his values. But could a movie like this be made today?
ReplyDeletethis is quite funny (and also sad): http://i.imgur.com/JmRmb.jpg
ReplyDelete