Anna and I had a “date night” last night, and we decided to see an IMAX 3D screening of Avatar. This is about a month or so after it came out, so it’s already clear how good the movie is – people can’t stop raving about it, and to date has earned over $600 million dollars (that’s the GDP of a small country – in about 5 weeks).
The experience is phenomenal. The 3D is crisp, colors remain unaltered – it’s just incredible. It’s the closest I’ve ever seen to being in the scene itself. Of course the CG of the film is top caliber as well. There’s tons of moments where you lose track of what’s real and what’s animated. Facial expressions are so life like you often mistake the characters for actors in rubber suits.
In a nutshell, I can’t adequately describe how great the movie experience is. It’s two parts awesome to see a movie in that way, and awesome to see it with a movie like Avatar.
So what gets to me is the comment I’ve heard several times from various sources. “Avatar is just Dances with Wolves in Space.”
There’s two elements I feel are at play with this comment.
1. “I yawn at what everyone else likes.”
The appall of anything “mainstream” is one element I think that drives criticism for any artistic creation that receives too wide of an appeal. Music, art, movie and even food fans pride themselves on having a finer taste in their passion than most. When the most start liking something too quickly, the quickest way to distinguish themselves from the majority is to dislike what everyone else likes.
The part I don’t like about this sentiment is it’s not honest. It’s the notion that no good music plays on the radio, no good food is served at common restaurants, and no good movies make #1 at the Box Office. It’s why some folks will always swear Greenday used to be good, why only the first set in the Star Wars series is worth watching, and why a meal is served in a rural strip mall can’t be top notch.
Specifically the notion that Avatar is tantamount to Dances with Wolves in space is kinda like summing up the Bible as the Torah with Jesus. For one, it over simplifies a massive body of work. It’d be a meaningful statement if there were any other tie-ins from this work to it’s comparison apart from “this story is similar to that other story”, but in fact the two are in distinct genres by unique directors over two decades apart. Avatar is no different than any other movie in sharing similar story elements with preceding works; the same can be said for any work of fiction in the last two centuries.
So the heart of the sentiment is basically another way of saying “the movie was alright, but the book was better.” Or, another way of saying “sure people liked this work, but I’m well informed and know of it’s influences.” Ta da! The “book was better” crowd is generally the “my tastes are refined and are ahead of popular trends” crowd. It’s the verbal equivalent of giving yourself a big shiny gold star for being special. It’s why teenagers go Goth. Kudos, you are special.
In short, Avatar is Dances with Wolves in space? So what?! They’re two distinct movies, and this one is very good – in spite of having been released at a film festival on a $2,000 budget.
2. “I interpret a political message in this movie that I don’t like.”
This stems from the crowd that hates to see American’s – or any familiar government groups or institutions – in any way being portrayed as a ill-intentioned bad guy. If Americans are shown as, say, corrupt, greedy, or in any sort of colonizing or occupying force, certain folks read the directors message that Americans are bad, and are instantly insulted.
I personally can’t understand people with such a fragile world view that can be usurped by a premise that their country is anything other than a force of unquestionable good. These are people that love cowboy and Indian films that don’t examine anything beneath the surface of polar myths. Cowboys in white = good, native Indians = bad. Can’t everything be this presumptuous and simple?
So if a movie challenges your world view and leaves an itchy rash, complain about the concept, but leave the work itself alone. Frankly I wouldn’t be deterred if the Colonel of the movie was victorious and raped Pandora of every last mineral. It was beautifully scripted and well done. So parse what irks your preconceptions from what James Cameron crafted over 3+ years. I’m sure there’s a few good Christian family websites that can advise you on the right and wrong films to watch, ones devoid of any influence from reality.