The Problem with Avatar

Hi there in the New Year, sorry for disappearing again, but I'm back, so let's cut to the chase. I realized, I'm an eco-fan. No, not the shoes, that's with double c anyway, but I love ecologically aware pop-cult items. Though you, my faithful readers, might already realized this after reading my footnotes on Knowing, which I've seen as a metaphor of our imminent destruction caused by our indifference to environmental problems, but check out this: Avatar is a movie about an egocentric but cute American everyday normal guy, who gets acquainted with a civilization which, paradoxically, actually lives in harmony with nature. Pandora looks like the Garden of Eden which a 24/7 gamer smoking pot would dream in a moment of high definition when all the best background images of the fantasy role play pc games he's ever had blur together, and he doesn't have to kill anyone. Short correction on that latest: he does, we do. Because, no mistake about that, the Na'vi people may grieve over the necessary kill of a fellow living being, but the audience shouldn't. With all its pacifistic and environment-concerned messages, the first part when the initiation into this wonderful world takes place is only a long-lasting prelude to the good old Cameronian mass-destructing battle. And by mass I mean masses of florescent flowers, frisbee-like butterflies, floating (is)lands and huge and unique bonsai trees which have icicle-like leaves hanging down on them. Not to mention human fatalities which don't seem to impress anyone any more.

So Avatar does work as a metaphor of our everyday life where we connect ourselves to a machine to experience "real" life, have interesting and exciting adventures in lively and colourful environments which doesn't even come close to our grey everyday places, or as a message which says we are part of our surroundings, we can only function fully if we stay in harmony with the living organisms around us, we're in the eco-system, so we are responsible for our actions towards them. Too bad that a blockbuster can't only have messages for intelligent people, it also has to put in a lot of stereotypes, clichés and blood. Cause without them, it would be a good movie, and some people might actually go out of the plaza and think about these things, not how a chopper exploded or the bad guy got his brains scattered all over the place. But we wouldn't want that now, would we?