Avatar

I saw Avatar in 3-D a couple of weeks ago while visiting my parents in OR. I'm not usually one for seeing movies everyone else MUST SEE (with the notable exception of LOTR) but this one had enough oooohs and ahhhs in it to warrant a viewing in the multiplex after waiting in line with the mall people. Malls---oh they are terrible spaces, everything about them is manufactured for comsumption and temporary satiety. James Cameron's movies are much the same way.

Don't get the wrong idea, he's majorly talented and puts on a great show. Think of the classics he's directed: Terminators I and II, Aliens, and Titanic are enough to ensconce him in cinematic greatness for the foreseeable future. He's introduced new film technology in Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss, and he's kept Mr. Redenbacher's family in 1000 thread count sheets for generations to come. With this in mind, I gamely opened my senses to Avatar, his first full-length feature in ten years.

Suffice to say it's Dances With Wolves II, with a colorful cast of tall, lanky beings with quasi-Keane eyes and a penchant for groovy planetary fiber-optic bonding. And of course, the evil humans and their ravenous, destructive search for "unobtainium" (nice one) that will destroy the natives' sacred dwelling. There are the requisite army baddies, as well as the soft-hearted scientists exploring this new world and trying to find a way to convince the natives to leave their home so the humans can obtain the unobtainium. The title refers to the futuristic technology that allows the humans to inhabit a genetically reconstructed alien body so as to infiltrate the tribe. That's all you really need to know.

What can I say? I was SATIATED. Visually, at least. The effects are stunning and deserve to be enjoyed in 3-D in the theatre. Cameron doesn't let up with the inventive, fantastical world he's been dreaming up since the late 70s, supposedly after he saw the first Star Wars. In fact, there's so much tropical color splashed on every living thing, after a while I was transported back to the late 80s-early 90s surfer fashions that were so popular with the suburban kids (OP, Hang Ten). I was also reminded of the brief popular fascination with day-glo face paint. Radical. Tubular. Sweet.

In ten years or so, this movie will be something to snicker at, mostly due to the predictable storyline and outdated special effects (just wait). It's an important message: Our plundering of resources, our 'might makes right' mindset destroys life and cultures other than ours. But it's wrapped up in WOWS and GASPS, rendering it both more and less effective than a crying Native American guilting us into driving hybrids and recycling. Is the point to entertain or scold? Cameron clearly wants to entertain first and let the viewer decide later whether or not they feel sufficiently admonished to, say, not use their car for a few hours, or turn in their old cellphones to the local recycling center. One wonders at the amount of precious rare-earth metals used in the making and screening of Avatar. Probably, most people just want to see the pretty lights and colors again.

Before the movie started we were treated to endless commercials for the Army National Guard, for your country, for your fellow patriots, for yourself. etc etc etc
I'm not sure how many folks watching the movie compared these glowing tributes to military service with Avatar's evil (and profoundly American) army of the future, ready to blow em all up for unobtainium. Irony is so not 21st Century.