I'll keep this short.
Avatar is an entertaining movie. It's flashy and it's got some impressive CGI. The casting looks okay to me and the acting was fine.
None of this precludes Avatar being as dumb as all-get-out. It is clearly a leftist propaganda movie, ripping off almost to the letter the plot of Disney's Pocahontas.
Here's the message:
NATURE = GOOD.
HUMANS = BAD.
PRIMITIVE CULTURES = GOOD.
CORPORATIONS = BAD.
BETRAYING YOUR RACE = GOOD.
US MILITARY = BAD.
And before anyone points this out, yes, I know the objections to the last one: "It's not about the US military, it's a group of mercenaries. You conservatives are overreacting!"
Blah blah. I get it. Let's give that line a moment of thought, shall we? If it's not portraying the US military in the bad light and it's a "mercenary" group, then will someone explain to me how every single soldier in the film speaks with an American accent, and employs AMERICAN expressions for everything?!
That aside, there was one character with whom I was absolutely awestruck. That character, oddly enough, was the villain that the protagonist battles in the final part of the movie. Colonel Miles Quaritch was my favorite character from that movie.
He was awesome in every way. It's odd, though, that the movie made me rooting for the side who they were clearly trying to make the "bad guys". In the end, however, I simply rooted for them all the more.
The Colonel is indeed the best thing out of this movie. He has a scar across his entire face that he said he got on the first day. On this planet, however, every human being must use a sort of gas mask to breathe the deadly atmosphere. This means that not only was he attacked by a giant wild carnivore on the first day, but his mask was removed and he still managed to fight his way out. "Badass" doesn't even come close.
On the other hand, there was also one character I absolutely hated. No, it wasn't the main character who betrays his own race for some hot "alien action". No, it wasn't any of the aliens. No, it wasn't even the businessman villain who we're supposed to hate.
It was the woman character, Trudy Chacón. She is a combat pilot in the movie and is played by Michelle Rodriguez. Her character was despicable. She sides with the aliens for NO REASON. I'm not making this up.
Her character is friendly with the other main protagonists, but that doesn't excuse her. She doesn't even have the convenient excuse of scientific curiosity or having an alien lover. She has NO reason. When she deserts her post during the assault of the alien home base, the reason she gives is "I didn't sign up for this sh*t."
Ma'am, you are a combat pilot, working for an army of mercenaries, on a hostile alien planet! Of course you signed up for it! You've been trained for it! It's your career!
What the hell did you sign up for then? What did you think the job was going to be, teaching bunny rabbits to hop? Building outhouses on Venus? Designing websites for the Red Cross? What?!
So to recap, the character is 1) stupid/naive, 2) traitorous to her own species, and 3) willing to desert her military post on a whim, thus endangering the lives of other human beings. Great. I hate the character even more, now that I've put it in list form.
Avatar has nice CGI, a dumb plot, good guys that make you want to root for the bad guys, bad guys who are cool enough anyway, and leftist stereotypes everywhere.
Am I worried about the messages being sent to people, though? No, not really, because half the audience will immediately notice the thinly veiled ideology and the other half the audience will be too impressed with the visuals to absorb any message anyway.
Avatar is an entertaining movie. It's flashy and it's got some impressive CGI. The casting looks okay to me and the acting was fine.
None of this precludes Avatar being as dumb as all-get-out. It is clearly a leftist propaganda movie, ripping off almost to the letter the plot of Disney's Pocahontas.
Here's the message:
NATURE = GOOD.
HUMANS = BAD.
PRIMITIVE CULTURES = GOOD.
CORPORATIONS = BAD.
BETRAYING YOUR RACE = GOOD.
US MILITARY = BAD.
And before anyone points this out, yes, I know the objections to the last one: "It's not about the US military, it's a group of mercenaries. You conservatives are overreacting!"
Blah blah. I get it. Let's give that line a moment of thought, shall we? If it's not portraying the US military in the bad light and it's a "mercenary" group, then will someone explain to me how every single soldier in the film speaks with an American accent, and employs AMERICAN expressions for everything?!
That aside, there was one character with whom I was absolutely awestruck. That character, oddly enough, was the villain that the protagonist battles in the final part of the movie. Colonel Miles Quaritch was my favorite character from that movie.
He was awesome in every way. It's odd, though, that the movie made me rooting for the side who they were clearly trying to make the "bad guys". In the end, however, I simply rooted for them all the more.
The Colonel is indeed the best thing out of this movie. He has a scar across his entire face that he said he got on the first day. On this planet, however, every human being must use a sort of gas mask to breathe the deadly atmosphere. This means that not only was he attacked by a giant wild carnivore on the first day, but his mask was removed and he still managed to fight his way out. "Badass" doesn't even come close.
On the other hand, there was also one character I absolutely hated. No, it wasn't the main character who betrays his own race for some hot "alien action". No, it wasn't any of the aliens. No, it wasn't even the businessman villain who we're supposed to hate.
It was the woman character, Trudy Chacón. She is a combat pilot in the movie and is played by Michelle Rodriguez. Her character was despicable. She sides with the aliens for NO REASON. I'm not making this up.
Her character is friendly with the other main protagonists, but that doesn't excuse her. She doesn't even have the convenient excuse of scientific curiosity or having an alien lover. She has NO reason. When she deserts her post during the assault of the alien home base, the reason she gives is "I didn't sign up for this sh*t."
Ma'am, you are a combat pilot, working for an army of mercenaries, on a hostile alien planet! Of course you signed up for it! You've been trained for it! It's your career!
What the hell did you sign up for then? What did you think the job was going to be, teaching bunny rabbits to hop? Building outhouses on Venus? Designing websites for the Red Cross? What?!
So to recap, the character is 1) stupid/naive, 2) traitorous to her own species, and 3) willing to desert her military post on a whim, thus endangering the lives of other human beings. Great. I hate the character even more, now that I've put it in list form.
Avatar has nice CGI, a dumb plot, good guys that make you want to root for the bad guys, bad guys who are cool enough anyway, and leftist stereotypes everywhere.
Am I worried about the messages being sent to people, though? No, not really, because half the audience will immediately notice the thinly veiled ideology and the other half the audience will be too impressed with the visuals to absorb any message anyway.
