Comment:
Did you see the David Brooks column on it? (link below) He may be right. The hippies do win, as you say, but it still reinforces colonialist fantasy by perpetuating the noble savage myth and by insisting they need the white outsider to help save them from the evil invaders. I also found the anti-corporate-plunder message pretty hypocritical given the movie’s spawning of Happy Meal tie-ins, video games, action figures, etc. I dug the movie though and would kind of like to see it in 3D.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/opinion/08brooks.html
Agree completely with all you say—as Silliman says it is one of the worst of movies—the script is ludicrous and the stupidity of cultural messages entangled hopelessly etc is terrible—I hate the style of the dialogue—the assumptions etc etc—but all of that is “beside the point” at some level—it is visual fun—–of the emptiest sort —- and it is what ——-
——————–next day
we just saw it again last night, this time in 3D & not iMax—-have never liked iMax and this confirms my sense
of that. Enjoyed the movie lots all over again. For my generation it is WWII and Vietnam. Simplified to
the point of trying to mythical (like star wars).
Brooks simplifies too much too in his punditry—he neglects to talk about the white messiah Converting
completely and becoming a blue—as the commander says—”betraying your people” to become fully N’avi—
only after that transubstantion (cameron has to have irish catholic somewhere back in his genes) does
he become the hero and then of course his life is saved by his woman warrior—
but trying to parse it with pc newsinion is wholly beside the point—it is a comic book and meant to be so
I just take comfort in knowing that not one but twice I have directly helped line the coffers of good ol Rupert
Murdoch—-oh god I will burn in hell for sure for this—-
had I known it was Murdoch I would have boycotted —- nah—we learned long time ago that we are all
owned by da man no matter what move we try to make—–see Invisible Man by Ellison et al
now I am enjoying greatly The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov—talk about being trapped within the beast
I laughed at “unobtainium” but turns out Wiki says it is a word with a long and honorable history within sci-fi
But yeah, never iMax again, never again —
I loved the way Cameron orchestrated the battle scenes with the music and silences—very non typical blockbuster, very effective distancing. Won’t claim this is a great work of art or even a work of art. Surely it is Fancy and not Imagination in Coleridge’s terms, but it is artfully constructed, moreso than most movies we see. Comparisons with Inglorious Bastards anyone?
