Avatar is the corniest movie ever made about the white man’s need tolose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historicalguilt.
James Cameron’s love of technology is enough to sell Avatar to fansawaiting his first techno-feat since 1997’s Titanic. But will theyunderstand the awful thing he’s done with it? Avatar’s highly-toutedspecial effects depict an army from Earth traveling to Pandora, a moonin the Alpha Centuri-A star system, to mine rare ore from under itsinhabitants, tall, blue-skinned creatures with tails called the Na’vi.
These F/X show Cameron’s ex-Marine hero, Jake Sully (the great everymanSam Worthington), taking part in a quasi-military program where heenters the alien society via a hybrid body (an avatar) made from humanand Na’vi DNA. Cameron’s “fully immersive” 3-D technology is irritatingto watch for nearly three hours.And then there’s his underlying purpose: Avatar is the corniestmovie ever made about the white man’s need to lose his identity andassuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt.
Onlychildren—including adult-children—will see Avatar as simply anadventure film; their own love of technology has co-opted their abilityto comprehend narrative detail. Cameron offers sci-fi dazzle, yetbungles the good part: the meaning. His undeniably pretty Pandora—aphosphorescent Maxfield Parrish paradise with bird-like lizards, movingplant life and floating mountains—distracts from the inherentcontradiction of a reported $300-$500 million Hollywood enterprise that casually berates America’s industrial complex.