|
|
|
Blue In the Face
|
Reviews; Posted on: 2009-12-17 15:38:06 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
|
Avatar is the corniest movie ever made about the white man’s need to
lose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historical
guilt.
James Cameron’s love of technology is enough to sell Avatar to fans
awaiting his first techno-feat since 1997’s Titanic. But will they
understand the awful thing he’s done with it? Avatar’s highly-touted
special effects depict an army from Earth traveling to Pandora, a moon
in the Alpha Centuri-A star system, to mine rare ore from under its
inhabitants, tall, blue-skinned creatures with tails called the Na’vi.
These F/X show Cameron’s ex-Marine hero, Jake Sully (the great everyman
Sam Worthington), taking part in a quasi-military program where he
enters the alien society via a hybrid body (an avatar) made from human
and Na’vi DNA. Cameron’s “fully immersive” 3-D technology is irritating
to watch for nearly three hours.
And then there’s his underlying purpose: Avatar is the corniest
movie ever made about the white man’s need to lose his identity and
assuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt.
Only
children—including adult-children—will see Avatar as simply an
adventure film; their own love of technology has co-opted their ability
to comprehend narrative detail. Cameron offers sci-fi dazzle, yet
bungles the good part: the meaning. His undeniably pretty Pandora—a
phosphorescent Maxfield Parrish paradise with bird-like lizards, moving
plant life and floating mountains—distracts from the inherent
contradiction of a reported $300-$500 million Hollywood enterprise that casually berates America’s industrial complex.
Continue....
|
|
News Source: ny press
|
|
