We went to see Avatar, the 3D version, as a Christmas Eve treat. It is well worthwhile. Technologically-speaking, the film takes cinema to a new level (and there are many more 3D films waiting in the wings), so hats off to big name James Cameron for blazing the path others will now surely follow. In content terms, though, I could not help but think that the greening and pacification of Hollywood is complete. The basic story line is the rape of nature by man. The plot is a good example of what Lem would argue is a fallacious anthropomorphic assumption, since the na’vi, the sapient indigeneous race mankind finds on the moon of Pandora is – wait for it – humanoid. But the mankind that does the raping is big business and gung ho military stereotypes combined – what used to be called the military-industrial complex, and the ancient trees that they destroy to get at valuable mineral deposits beneath are a collective allegory for the rain forests of Indonesia and Amazonia. Or are they a metaphor for Vietnam and/or Iraq and/or Afghanistan? Or….oh, well. Alternatively, you can just sit back and enjoy a story which is somewhere between The Jungle Book and Dances with Wolves; you got it – we’re talking about going native, big time.
If the Americans don’t see this intentionally antiAmerican movie, made by euros you know, then how do they expect anyone else to flock to this mindless hate propaganda disguised as a cinematic art piece and pushed by euro/chinese government trolls on the internet? It doesn’t seem to be working.