This movie is still so fresh in my mind, that’s how much I enjoyed it. At first, I wasn’t interested in seeing Avatar because I assumed it was one of those movies that are so sci-fi that I would get bored. But, after seeing the commercials and hearing everyone talk about it, I became extremely curious.
I walked into the theater with my 3-D glasses in my left hand, curiosity in the other. I remember watching the previews leading up to the movie and feeling a minor panic. I was thinking ‘what if this movie is too advanced for me to follow?’
But it wasn’t- I was able to follow along with the main plot: paralyzed man takes his deceased brothers place in the service, flies 5 years away to another planet named Pandora, and is now the replacement as the driver of this long haired, dark blue Avatar.
Something so simple as laying down in a chamber, closing your eyes and waking up in another land being able to run and walk was heartwarming to me.
What’s not heartwarming are the comments that this movie was racist. Shoot, people were telling me the same thing about ‘The Princess and The Frog’ when they hadn’t even seen it yet. All they knew was the princess eventually turned into a frog and THAT to THEM was racist. They weren’t even paying attention to the fact that we’re in the day and age that we can have a Disney Princess be black.
Yes, the Avatar’s WERE dark blue, and lived in a jungle, but where does that make you think black person or Africa? If anything, they are closer in resemblence to an animal, not a human. I don’t remember, but someone said that the character in the movie who ran the whole operation called the species ‘Blue Monkeys’, but he looks at them as enemies without knowing any better. That’s ignorance, but I don’t see it as racism. Some black people hear the word ‘monkey’ and all hell breaks loose. In my opinion, you can’t even call the species a minority because that is THEIR land, THEIR ancestors talking through THEIR sacred tree, and THEIR home! If anything, the humans are the intruders and the minorities.
I definitely see a reference to American and foreign countries fighting over oil in the movie. Those countries have something that makes us a lot of money and the only way to get it is to go over there.
And let’s be real, the reason we’re at war now
