Avatar: James Cameron
Apologizes
Movie Review
Robleh Wais 3/19/10
I went to see Avatar not because I was interested in
the story itself, but I had never seen a 3-D film, and since the media hype was
touting it as being such a wonderful display of technical elegance in 2010, I
felt I had to experience 3-D. This 3-D
thing is not so great to me. I was not
as impressed as I should have been. Of
course the close-up shots do give a viewer a sense of depth perception, but
that very sensation fades when panoramic scenes are displayed. I didn't think that tacking on $3.00 to the
ticket price was worth it. Besides, I
had a problem buying the 3-D effect whenever I scratched my eyebrow or had to
clear something from my eye. You do have
a minimal impression of looking through a window at the actors in real
dimensional space, but not much better than the stereoscopic projection from
the 19th century. That's how
it appeared to me. However, this review
not to deride 3-D special effects. What
makes this a film one I can't recommend is the story itself.
James Cameron uses this film
to put forth his take on European world domination or to be more specific, the
near genocidal ravage of native peoples in America. The resemblance to native peoples on the
American continent is unmistakable, in the animated characters. He mimics everything from the chants and war
cries, to facial structure and hair texture of Native Americans. He does this quite intentionally. He wants the audience to be reminded of
American Indians (I know this term is incorrect, but it's well-known and used
by native peoples themselves). So,
here's the plan in short. Cameron
couldn't make a film indicting European invaders to the lands of Earthly
peoples and seeking to exploit them for their resources--oh no!I mean what Hollywood producer or
multinational firm would finance such a project? In fact, even a Japanese film making company
like Sony wouldn't support that, they make money from the American
movie viewers too. Besides their
people did a some invading native people's lands too, so their hands aren't clean. No topic too socio-political they'd say. So, Jimmy baby comes up with the idea of
depicting the same pillage, ravage and destruction story that happened in the
making of the American nation, but cleverly puts it in on another PLANET!With blue-skinned natives not brown
ones! And and, get this, there will be a
happy ending where the conquered peoples take their revenge and the invading
peoples go back to their world.What is
it that we Americans say: Gimme a break.
Who would buy that load of --excuse me. We
all know what really happened to the Indians in this hemisphere and still is
going on in places like Brazil and Columbia.
They were ravaged, pillaged, near exterminated and in the end completely
conquered. So, that happy ending finale
was purely to satisfy his producers, I imagine.
It was clear from the
opening sequences of Avatar, that
Cameron had an agenda to follow and a moralistic message to deliver through
it. I was just amused and a little
amazed it was so ostentatious. What he
wants to say through the blockbuster action and veiled love story of this film
is the following:
See what we
power-craving, depraved, murderous white people did to an innocent, nature-loving brown people on this our dear
Earth?Aren't we some heartless, cruel,
psychotic bastards? Let's hang our
collective heads in shame for our worldwide crime against our human siblings.
Being a proud man of color (I think that's current
phrase for anybody not of European stock), you'd think I could actually get a
charge out of this kind of bleeding heart apologist stuff. Well, I don't! It sickens me more than the racist
movie-making of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and succeeding decades.It is a little psychotherapy directed at a
white audience, and the cinematic equivalent of affirmative action (AA). Remember how AA was and still is, white
America saying to itself, damn we were some sonabitches to black and brown
peoples and some of those other non-white peoples too. But, this was when we were drunk with racist
power, we've sobered up these days, so let's give them a chance now. Let's do penance, hire more of them and
educate more of them, even get more of them into business and politics,
etc. Well, Cameron is doing the same
thing cinematically. He's trying to get
the white American movie-going public to do penance. I just haven't figured out what their penance is to be? He wants them to see how cruel, racist, vile
and genocidal they were in the tragic story of conquering this country. He
does it by proxy as to not really offend his target audience. I can almost see the guy's mind at work. During a phase in the movie when the
muscle-bound Colonel decides to launch an all out military attack on those
blue-skinned savages, he has a BLACK actor shout loudest his agreement. Thereby reinforcing in the audience's mind,
this isn't a whites against well in this case blues thing. It's we Earthlings invading another world
repeating what we did on Earth. Oh boy, no don''t gimme a break, let me break
his scrawny little neck! He never
stopped to think what a Native American would think of this film.Ironically, he didn't because far fewer of
them would see it than their white counterparts. This is not the first time Native American
peoples have been casted in a romantic noble vein, only to be used to assuage the
guilt felt on the part of their conquerors.
If all this moralizing
wasn't enough to make you roll your eyes, the story is so predictable; I saw
everything he threw coming 5 minutes in advance. So, there is no real suspense in the
movie. I care so little about the
content of this film I won't even bother to name the actors. Who couldn't tell that Muscles the colonel
and the projected Avatar for the Wheelchair guy were going to have a final
duel? Doesn't every Hollywood
blockbuster have this?You need
examples: Neo and Agent Smith, Superman and God knows who not, Spiderman and
several, the Hulk and several. Who
didn't see that blue-woman native was going save blue-man native from the vicious
dog pack?Wasn't it clear that the
animals that were impervious to metal projectiles would have a role to play
later, since invasion by an formidable human army was hinted at over and over?
This film should
be quickly forgotten. One definite thumbs down for this trash.
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