Cliché's Rebellion

[footnotefetish]

My second-to-last entry contained an error: Avatar was not based on a comic book. I think I got that impression because of the buzz it was generating among comic book aficionados. It's also a very derivative story (obvious even from trailer and synopses), so it doesn't give one the impression of being an entirely original creative work

Comments

[calcuttahart]

although of course there were problems with avatar (white man saving the natives, stereotypical roles, etc), i thought it was really good in the respect that it did challenge U.S. military policies. you could relate the plot to violence happening all over the world today over things that will make a few people/corporations rich (the iraq war's oil vs. that silver floating rock they wanted in avatar :) and see how fucked up it is to destroy people's lives and beautiful things in the world so some people (not even the soldiers, who you could see were brainwashed) can make money. maybe some of the things in the movie will help more people realize how the military can/does abuse its power to manipulate "good" people into committing genocide against other peoples. i mean, of course a lot of us already know this stuff without the blockbuster "special effects" of avatar, but i think it is good that such a mainstream movie includes commentary on our military because the ethics of our defense policies should be part of a relevant discussion

[footnotefetish]

Another thing that was nice about the movie was that it showed this guy who had sacrificed his own health--his own ability to walk--in his military service. He's surrounded by obscene wealth, which is being put to the use of pursuing more obscene wealth, and no one is interested in fixing his disability until he sacrifices more. The technology exists to fix his legs (robotic prosthetics perhaps, but they don't really explain it in the movie), but he's not getting them fixed--not yet. So it also shows that injustice; even humans from our own country are just cannon fodder in the pursuit of wealth. The greater injustice is obviously done to the nations we invade, but the people we send suffer their own injustices.

Ultimately I find more good than bad in the movie, so I'm with you in liking it. I'm also with you in thinking that the applause the movie got was not because of special effects, but because of who won in the end.

[themselves]

There's more reality in Avatar than there is in their criticism of Avatar.

Hahaha!