- Avatar made me angry
- 2010-02-08: I went to see Avatar last night and came out angry.
- I thought I was going to see a beautifully imagined other world. What I saw belied an almost total lack of imagination. All that effort and resource, and all it did was reinforce how things are.
- Lean and tall are good and desirable. The American military is very powerful (underlined to the point that our hero was called "Marine" throughout). Aliens are basically like the African tribes depicted in previous Hollywood movies. The animals on another planet are those you'd see on an African safari or dinosaurs. Aliens have sex, relationships and kiss just like us.
- The innovation was all visual. There was zero innovation in sound: we had an orchestral score, the blue people made sounds like African tribes.
- The hero saves the day, and you can be a hero with a gung-ho spirit and zero training.
- Here's a weird one, let's talk about breasts. The lean and tall blue people occasionally gave us a glimpse of their rather dainty breasts but when our American heroine helicopter pilot did her work, she had a rather fuller figure and I felt semiconsciously .. "OK baby, I'm home". Body bullshit.
- This propaganda is worse than Pravda ever was. At least the Russians knew that was propaganda and read between the lines. Plus it was only ever for internal use. The Americans push this bullshit out worldwide in order to promote the American way. I think Avatar et al put us into a receptive state and while we watch the pretties the underlying messages seep in. The reality of this is worse than any scifi horror.
- Plus, it wasn't even beautiful. Want to see beautiful? Come and watch the sun rise on the beach, or walk up on the moors or through the forests anyday.
- Nothing in this film touched me. I cry easily at film, tv and ads. Avatar? Yeah, whatever. The guy next to me ate a meat pie. Texted. Went to the loo. Who cares what happens?
- The only nice idea I got from it was a God who didn't take sides but preserved the balance.
- If we're going to imagine other worlds, let's do that and play with some ideas, 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm .. I'm sure there are a million more. Give me something to think about. This didn't just waste my time, it wanted my soul. Never!
- Update: It seems John Pilger sees things similarly. I adolesced to his reports on Idi Amin in the Daily Mirror.
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