Avatar
The art of storytelling is as old as the human race… we pass down stories of heroes and villains and the stories get greater and more fantastic with every telling. Not
Avatar
long ago storytelling required a measure of imagination and creativity… both on the part of the teller and the listener. But today movies tell us stories, and I have to admit that it is a bittersweet thing to see movies take the forefront of storytelling and the older ancient art of weaving tales in the moment fades away.
Bitter… because any change is hard to accept…. and it seems so wrong to let such an art disappear, yet we have no time- no patience- in the “Information Age” to wait for stories…
Sweet because if we must move forward it should be with stories like Avatar that go so far beyond our lack of imagination that it simply forces us to reconnect the neurons that we somehow lost when we decided to grow up and become the mindless drones that society has formed us into.
Avatar is a visually awe inspiring buffet of mammoth proportions. The seamless blending of traditional film and computer generated animation along with the stunning clarity and depth of the IMAX 3D experience makes Avatar an absolute masterpiece in my opinion. James Cameron has successfully brought storytelling into the future.
I generally tend to spend a fair amount of time after watching a good movie thinking about the ideas, archetypes, and going beyond the basic story to think about what the storyteller wanted to say. Avatar was no different… many reviews of the movie mentioned that the story was predictable and somewhat shallow… truthfully on the surface… all stories are somewhat predictable and shallow… it gives us an easy entry point to deeper thoughts. Parables, Fables, Legends… All simple stories that convey deep truths.
For me the story of Avatar opened up some really interesting ideas (spoiler alert ahead) the idea that we could vicariously live another life and return to our own is not a new idea… but the spiritual tones of the story were unmistakable. I found myself wrapped up in this mysterious planet of Pandora where everything was interconnected by a spiritual-biological link where life was universally respected by the Navi. I felt drawn to the idea of being connected to all life and finding pleasure in the pursuit of understanding the wonders of Pandora. There was a feeling of life and passion as Jake Sully underwent the rites of passage that were so important to the Navi culture… There was the un-mistakable feeling that everything was going to be at the realization that Jake would be able to become Navi. I completely understood his desire… to become something different… to be himself… to be free of all of his prior handicaps… but more than that to be free in his spirit.
After a bit of contemplation I realized that all of those things that make the story of Avatar so important… the things that we empathize and feel so strongly about are all the things that we have removed from our society… from our faiths… from our reality,
Our planet is an amazing world, and it pulses with a spiritual energy that connects all life together – YAWEH… There are still marvels of creation being discovered everyday… but we have lost our “rites of passage” we no longer respect life as a society… we no longer take the time to “SEE” as Neytiri often stated… ” you are like a baby” We have lost discernment… and our fight or flight response is so tuned up by our high stress lifestyle that we long to “Unplug” and live our lives in a simpler time… but we can’t unplug because we just jack out of our reality and into the next reality… realities such as Avatar… where we dream and hope and live vicariously through the story… but we never just say… enough… and turn it all off and realize… that Pandora is around us… and its being destroyed… and the motives are the same… the story is similar… unfortunately our story is more like the Matrix than Avatar… We seem to be at most times victims of our reality… caught in a never ending quest to experience reality… but satisfied with a near miss.
So what about you … any thoughts on Avatar?
I found Avatar to be a leftist propaganda piece. The 'evil' corporations and military of our world are destroying the planet and its resources, so they must invade a peaceful, pantheistic society to steal their planet's resources.
This movie brings out three messages:
1) We're destroying our planet.
2) Business and military are inherently bad.
3) Socialism is our salvation.
All three are wild assumptions based in absolutely no fact.
1) Global temperatures are falling (when you look at all of the data – not just a fork of it) and new resources are being created each day.
2) Business and military CAN be bad – but are not inherently.
3) Socialism is evil, anti-God, anti-innovation… and overall negative for all aspects of society.
Avatar is a propaganda movie that pushes communistic socialism, global warming fear, pantheism, and a hatred of industry. None of these is good.
The visual effects of Avatar are superb. As a VFX artist, even I can appreciate the immense work and dedication that goes into visuals of such quality.
But the story and its derived messages overshadow the good.
By the way, nice blog.
Hey thanks for the comment… I have to ask though… do you really think that the movie is rife with propaganda? All of these themes have been at issue historically since the industrial revolution and even before then… I am of the persuasion that Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism all have the same basic flaw Greed… I understand that it is a somewhat overly simplistic view but I think it generally holds true.
Regardless it is a bit naive after the last 2 years of financial history to believe that Capitalism is without its flaws… but further… lets just state the facts…
as a global society we are choosing progress without regard to the damaging effects… there is no doubt we are destroying the planet…species are becoming extinct… entire forests lost… I am not going all activist on you just saying… this is a pretty fair statement.
Business and Military do one thing well.. maintain sterility… in a capitalistic society the only thing that truly matters in business or military strategies is domination. Ask any warm blooded American what we should do to anybody that even tries to make a move on the US…. and they will promptly respond… Kick their everlovin A**! it doesn't matter why they did it… just maintain dominance… we live our lives that way… look at corporate growth… companies merge, the employees are stripped of benefits and/or laid off, shareholders reap the benefits and everybody moves on… Don't get me wrong… I understand the necessary evils of growth.. but are they always truly necessary? Again I am no leftist activist.. I am just stating things as I see them.
… on point 3… I don't really see socialism being pushed… but mebby I was too wrapped up in the other aspects of the movie…
Again thanks for the great comment and I always welcome more!
Jason..[polldaddy 2440254 http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2440254/ polldaddy]
great blog, Jason, and very thoughtful. I will refrain from making comment on the above person's posting, and just say that this story resonates with me, at my deepest core. I wish to return to my real Self in my real World where purity and respect for Life is the way I live my life. Pandora is within each of our hearts.
Thanks Debz, great comment and I agree!
I think Sir. James was confused about what audience he wanted the movie to be geared for. At one point I felt like I was watching a children’s movie the next extremely adult themes. i give the movie a solid "ah it was alright"
I have to say I never really considered this to be a movie for children… however these days the lines seem to be blurred… when children watch things like southpark and other animated crap on a reel as regular fare it is really hard to determine your target audience age… with regular TV spouting male enhancement, feminine products and sexuality on all channels…where do you draw the line in a movie? I know if It was me making the movie… I would do it how I wanted … and let the rest of the world decide who the target audience was… if the story is good… then its good… I have to ask though… did you see it in IMAX 3D? I would say that there was a significant difference to me from a normal screen… but that’s just me