Avatar–Piece Of Crap

Ok, obviously this has been done to death already, so let me share two links that hit upon the majority of my criticisms about the movie.

First, in terms of originality, Jersey based superstars at Hero Kids give a great synopsis on how Cameron came up with this piece of crap. I highly encourage you to enjoy that piece of genius review blogging.

Secondly, TMQ at ESPN, hands down the best DC area based sports writer today, spends a good digression talking about some of my biggest issues, namely there was nothing that could be called a “plot” and that US soldiers are murderous morons. Now ten times a day you can color me and my political views as subversively left and I’d be more than proud to take that label. That being said, Cameron portrays the US military in very unpatriotic ways, and Hollywood eats it up. Wonder why Democrats always seem weak on defense? It’s because they have that same knee jerk grin and agree that Hollywood megastars have when these kinds of depictions come up. It’s nearly as bad as when they talk about saving poor animals. Nice thought but they are intellectually incapable of understanding the argument that they are pushing. But this is getting ahead of myself.

Ahem, let’s begin again:

Avatar sucks.

Yes, I know it has some pretty effects. If that’s all you look for in movies, just stop going to them and buy video games instead. Hands down its the video game industry that really pioneers special effects, and they do it for about 10 million in production costs. Avatar probably cribbed most of its advanced effects from video games. Most people thought it was a video game. So if you are ok with crappy plots, dangerous political, social, and moral suggestions, and lots and lots of the good old ultra violence, just get an XBOX and let Cameron produce his crap there. If you like movies, please take a second and be outraged here.

Avatar is basically the latest iteration of a troubling liberal imperialist mind set that keeps us involved in stupid wars like Afghanistan. In a nut shell, it goes like this: “we must help the defenseless natives save themselves from ourselves.” If that makes no sense to you, then Obama’s Afghan policy should be similarly troubling.

Let’s get on with the plot summary first here: crippled marine takes over for his twin brother in a super secret project to peaceably remove indigenous blue aliens from valuable commodity. He is then struck by the injustice of the grand plan he is supporting, defects to the other side and in the end gives up his humanness to throw his lot in with hippy blue giants to help save the enviro-nature god of Pandora.

Immediately, there are a few problems here. Number one is the idea that the Pandorans cannot fight or advocate for themselves. For whatever reason, even though they have a traditional hierarchy, the intelligence to learn English, and familiar understanding of terrain, and perhaps commercial interests in negotiating with whatever company, government, or quasi-collaboration this evil entity that wants to mine Pandora is, they are cannot mount a defense. Instead, the conceit of this movie is that a crippled marine and some scientists gone native are the keys to the Na’vi’s survival–to the point that the greatest warrior among the Na’vi defers military leadership of his people to a wheel chair bound human who controls an “avatar” from a science trailer in an undisclosed location.

Yes, this stretches believability. What’s worse is this is the same kind of thinking behind George Bush’s democracy evangelism–the Iraqis don’t know how to overthrow a dictatorship and run a democracy, so let’s show them. Of course Cameron would never endorse this thinking, so he strips Bush’s actions of their moral justification and substitutes a mineral called “unobtanium” in their stead (Iraq is an “oil” war, any one?) while imagining that the enlightened humans would then go over to the Na’vi and help defend them against such a cynical attack on their culture and homeland.

Let’s dial this back for a minute. We’re clearly supposed to find Sully sympathetic, and be outraged for the Na’vi that humans would dare take their resources and upset the balance of Pandora’s ecology. By extension, I guess this means that if the Taleban joined Green Peace, we should fight for their control of Afghanistan? Because it seems to me that the Na’vi have a whole host of practices that most people in the US wouldn’t buy into–arranged marriage, hereditary leadership, and biotelepathic interfacing with dragons to name a few. Yet this, in a way, is not the worst part. I’m a Wilsonian–if the Na’vi want to live in a big tree house, or the Afghan tribes want to live in their traditional way, as far as I’m concerned they’re entitled to it without our interference. That doesn’t mean going native like Jake Sully or John Walker Lindh.

Of course Cameron and crew don’t trouble themselves with this kind of moral implication, because they probably never even considered it. Nope, instead they figured that an out of the box cliched nature loving tribe of blue giants are naturally too goody-goody to draw comparisons to the Taleban. That’s ignorant but not callous. What’s callous is the idea that Jake Sully and friends would (must, even!) turn upon their former friend, colleagues, and comrades to defend the Na’vi’s way of life. Not one person shows any remorse at killing humans. Excuse me, but weren’t these people you’re friends? Are you really choosing a bunch of blue giants you hardly know over the race you’ve known your entire life? Without any regret? I guess those helicopter pilots are not parents, siblings, spouses, or children to any one, just more toy soldiers to blow away in some cheap liberal wet dream. Color me speciest (or whatever) but if it were me, I’d throw my lot in with humanity, you know, the race that I owe my existence to.

But the “plot” aside, what’s really troubling about all that is the implication that humans are some how too crippled or evil to be a part of, and rather what we should aspire to is some kind of noble savage that doesn’t even exist. Make no mistake, humans have a long history of doing shitty things to each other and the planet, but we’re all we got. What this movie says is that only our complete extermination or expulsion can let the planet survive. I don’t buy that. As a people, we’ve been self critical enough to deal with some of the worst atrocities committed by the US (slavery, our genocide against the Native Americans, imperialism, racism, sexism, the oppression of workers, etc.). We’ve got a long way to go, but at least we have the capacity to be self-critical. In less than a decade, the populace of this country has come to see Iraq and Afghanistan as imperial misadventures. Unfortunately, Avatar does not seem to find that valuable.

Finally, despite the fact that 1) future humans are an evil Xe-Haliburton hybrid with an insatiable and heavy handed desire for a mineral they can’t have and 2) they must be destroyed, the only man who can do this is Jake Sully. This is the same effete white man guilt that Conrad had. Read Things Fall Apart–it’s not a great book, but at least Okonkwo can think, fight, and defend (or fail to defend) his way of life without the help of some well educated progressive to hold his hand. The only difference between the concept of a noble savage and a brutal savage is an element of self-hating superiority. The pretension of imperial all-power and all-knowledge runs through both, and that kind of paternalism is worse for native peoples of all stripes, because it robs them of self agency through deception. So as nice as this liberal white man’s burden sounds, the Mau Mau and Viet Cong did quite well for themselves without it, and movie goers can do so as well.

Post script: I’ve ranted enough, but this movie is also guilty of sexism. The folks over at Over Thinking It do a better write up on the difference between a strong character and a “strong” female character than I could hope to, so I will give a bite size analysis. Neytiri is an accomplished hunter, mystic, and heir apparent to ruling the tribe. She finds out that Jake Sully has used her to bring about the destruction of her home, expulsion of her clan, death of her father, and threat to her very way of life. Understandably, she is upset. Jake Sully tames a big dragon. By this very act of manliness (for what is more testosterone charged and virile than breaking the baddest animal to your will?) he not only earns her forgiveness but an APOLOGY for acting like a crazy woman when he ruined everything. What? As soon as Jake is accepted as a warrior in the Na’vi, Neytiri gets a strong dose of stupid disease and does nothing of note until the end of the movie when she kills Colonel Quaritch, which really shouldn’t count because she was a damsel in distress that had to be rescued by both an alien bobcat and Jake Sully before she could free herself enough to kill him. I don’t know what’s worse, the sexist implication that a woman can’t think for or defend herself, or the semi-racist/imperialist point of view that noble savages can’t save themselves from us, but this character gets the worst of both.

Updated for a variety of spelling, syntax, and content errors.

Why I Hate the Washington Times

I’ll let this picture with my drawn in comments speak for me:

Insinuation at its clumsiest!