Avatar film review
James Cameron has struck box-office-gold again with Avatar. Though Cameron
is seemingly incapable of creating a movie which would run a mere hour-and-a-half, Roger Ebert calls this film an "Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation." And this film has generated a lot of conversation.
This story, set in the year 2154, revolves around a U.S. military mission to a lush, Eden-like planet called Pandora. What is the U.S. doing on this planet? Extracting a precious mineral which we need on earth in the year 2154. But the atmosphere isn't breathable for humans, and the only way we can interact with the natives (a blue, CGI animated, stately race called the Na'vi) is to use avatars—which look just like the Na'vi, except that they have been grown by scientists and are essentially mind-controlled by humans on board a ship/base through a virtual-reality unit.
Jake Sully, the film's protagonist, is chosen for the mission to Pandora because he is a genetic match for his twin brother, who has passed away, and only Jake can control the expensive government-funded avatar—thus not wasting the tax expenditure. When Jake links up to the avatar, he IS the avatar—his mind is in it's body—and he is walking. Walking is important to Jake because he is a paraplegic Marine who has been promised an operation to ‘get his legs back' if he completes his mission.
Jake's mission is to interact with the Na'vi via the avatar and convince them to move their whole civilization from the top of the mineral source—or else. But the Na'vi live in a place they call "home tree," their cultural, spiritual, and geographic center, and would never consider moving. Thus Jake's new mission is to become ingratiated into the Na'vi society and work out their acquiescence to the move as an inside-man—a double agent pretending to be on the Na'vi side—before the military blows the Na'vi away. (James Cameron is not afraid of making a political statement) Jake "goes native" after having his life saved by a beautiful Na'vi named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who teaches Jake the Na'vi way. Now he's not so sure about the U.S. foreign policy of guns, explosives and removal of local peoples for material gain. Jake Sully throws his loyalty to the Na'vi and all-out war ensues.
However, aside from the obvious political allegory, the plot line is eerily reminiscent of the U.S. treatment of Native Americans, so perhaps this is a statement-within-a-statement.
What is most striking about Avatar is not it's cinematically stunning CGI-birthed from the technological breakthroughs granted by a $300 million budget—what is most striking about Avatar is it's stark religious statements.
‘Statements' are pretty much the point of any communication art form, but viewers may want to know up front that Avatar is a message movie—and this message is not merely a "be good to our earth" or "stop the war" message. It is an ideological hodgepodge of pantheism, new-ageism, and noble-savage romantic worldviews. In fact, New York Times' op-ed columnist Ross Douthat called Avatar "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism."
Pantheism is the view that God and nature are the same thing—they are one. Nature is God, God is nature. Pantheism also calls its "believers" to live in harmony with nature. The Na'vi espouse this belief, and even have the ability to physically connect with the beasts of Pandora; to feel what they feel, think what they think. They "see" others—recognizing the divinity of all things. They worship Eywa , the "all mother", a goddess who is inactive and neutral for nearly all of the movie, yet is called to and appeased by chants and séance-like activities. Allusions to Christianity come when Jake Sully's character takes the Christ-figure role, becoming a Na'vi and acting as advocate and savior—adding a nod to humanism, as well.
Although Avatar is certainly not the first hit movie to hold with pantheistic principles (Star Wars, Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, Fern Gully), the question must be asked—especially in science fiction, when so much of science denies the existence of God (or any sort of higher power)—why do we have deities in Sci-fi? Why look for what you don't believe is there? Perhaps we want something to be there—and if you want box office money, you've got to go deeper than cool CGI graphics and explosions to get it.
Though Pandora is no Eden, the film's success showcases that the human longing for an unfallen world is alive and well, even in Hollywood—if those viewing Avatar and racking up the box office ratings are to be trusted, that is. But Christians who go to see this film ought to note outright that other worldviews will be in play—this is by no means a neutral Lone-Ranger-saves-the-day film.
 | Angela McPherson | Angela McPherson writes book and film reviews for Adventist Today. She loves God, humanity, pop-culture, and quality music. She is a Junior Mass Communications major at Southern Adventist University, and longs to write a great and mighty literary work about how much God likes us-really likes us. She preaches at every available opportunity, and adores multisyllabic words, avocado eggrolls, and talking incessantly about Jesus Christ. |
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Re: Avatar film review
Excellent review, Angela. The plot of "Avatar" was basically Dances with Smurfs, as Trey Parker has pointed out. The movie glorifies primitive spiritual concepts likes pantheism and animism, and also idealizes and grossly over-estimates the culture that primitive societies are able to produce. There is a long tradition in this country of idealizing the native people, of which "Avatar" is just the latest installment.
But to me, what made the plot of Avatar so silly and unreal was not the idealization of primitive spirituality and culture, but the depiction of our civilization as frankly villainous and without any redeeming virtue whatsoever. The humans (who were a rather obvious stand-in for us Americans) were aggressively immoral and immorally aggressive. The humans' sole narrative purpose was to be the black hats, the bad guys, for the audience to root against when the time came. The humans were essentially the "Aliens" from James Cameron's earlier movie: ugly, frightening, monstrous, and something to kill, if you were lucky enough to be able to kill it. By the end of the movie, even Jake Sully is referring to the humans as "the aliens."
I've often thought about how incredibly anti-American Hollywood (and, more generally, elite liberal opinion) is. They're usually more subtle than this, but then nobody's ever accused James Cameron of subtlety.
Re: Avatar film review
Hee Hee. There are 9-foot tall blue aliens that ride giant alien birds and live in trees, and the disappointingly "unrealistic" portion of the film (because we were looking for realism in this movie in the first place) is that it portrays humans as innately immoral and aggressive.
Well, in my life experience, human nature tends to fall on the side of immorality and aggression. As individuals, we tend to look after our own self interest, and we're driven mostly by a desire to achieve wealth/power, and most who achieve those goals seem to then revert to being driven by sex (see Tiger Woods...) If our country at large, or the world in general for that matter, is driven by other motives, I haven't seen the evidence yet. The only thing worse than our individual behavior seems to be our behavior in groups, hence the term "mob mentality."
It is sadly a very human characteristic that we're willing to chop down a forest for financial gain with little regard, if any, for the delicate ecosystem within. It is very much a corporate characteristic, in that a corporation has no moral obligation outside of returning value to its shareholders. This evil corporation theme, much more so than an anti-American theme, was very present within Avatar. One only need look at the work of the coal companies in West Virginia, the post-Exxon Valdez ocean, and the rain forests of Central and South America to see the often devastating effects of corporate profiteering. In fact, the anti-corporate theme was so strong in Avatar that I found it to be more Erin Brockovich than Dances with Wolves.
I loved Dances with Wolves, aside from Kevin Costner's wooden acting. The CGI fireworks and trickery of Avatar don't really improve on that performance. I guess I might be in the minority, in that I believe Dances with Wolves and Jake Sully are the ultimate American characters, rather than Anti-American villains. They stand up for the underdogs at great personal peril, much like we did as a nation in World War II, Vietnam, and to a certain extent, in Afghanistan and other theaters. Our stands have often been driven by a passion and a desire to do what is right.
America and Americans have often stood on the same moral team along side Jake Sully, Dances with Wolves, and Pocahontas. We've also made many missteps as a nation. We should take pride as we celebrate our moral victories as well as humbly apologize for our moral failings. If you identify yourself and your nation more with the villains in these movies, perhaps you should re-examine your personal view of your country, rather than castigate the directors or writers for their work.
Re: Avatar film review
I have seen bits and pieces of the movie Avatar but recognize that since it has sold over 2 Billion dollars worth of tickets that people liked the movie. What I have seen indicates clearly, to me that Avatar has reached the spiritual experience of people. As a result of this movie people are reminded that they long for their Eden home, that God has promised to all who seek Him.
The primary problem with Avatar is that the movies does not give people an avenue to get to Jesus so that they can go home to Eden. It is our job to help them to find Jesus so that the chords of the heart that Avatar has plucked can be fulfilled in Jesus.
I have started a blog and will address all of the SDA doctrines in the context of Avatar and hopefully help others to find Jesus.
The blog address is: http://avatarsgardenofpandora.blogspot.com/2010/02/avatar-movie.html