(Above: Some audience members are blue because they can’t live on Pandora)
I was interviewed this week by a Palm Beach Post reporter about my reactions to Avatar. The James Cameron film, on course to becoming the top grossing film of all time, is one of those cinematic cultural phenomenons that hasn’t happened maybe since, well, Cameron’s last film, Titanic over ten years ago. The article tries to find out just why the film has such broad appeal. My remarks were used for indicating there’s a contingent of the audience who didn’t like it the film so if you follow the link to the article, I’m in the second half.
Amidst all the film’s buzz, there’s even discussion now of what you could call “post-Avatar depression,” reported by people who are, well, bluer than a Pandoran native after seeing the film’s immersive fantasy world. This sounds rather sad since the best fantasy is parabolic; first it draws us into a convincing evocation of an imagined world, and then sends us back into the real world encouraged to appreciate the wonder of creation and to better understand life. The words of some of the people quoted here makes it sound as if Cameron’s art is so good in simulating its wondrous jungle planet that these audiences members are disgusted by humanity and their own mundane existence. After all, the film tells us that humans will destroy the earth with our high energy use and then proceed to to exploit other planets–especially to an adolescent mind, this is a despairing vision. My views on the film were stated earlier here and http://theculturebeat.com/2010/01/01/avatar-vs-district-9/, so I won’t dig into that again. I’m just more perplexed than depressed at the film’s success.
Golden Globes! I think this film has gained so much audience appeal, some of my friends that are not into sci-fi type of films were actually pleased by this film and some even got so caught up by emotions, which is why this film is so eye-worthy. I see an Oscar win for best picture, if not, then for screenplay. Now Cameron is set to direct two more sequels!!!
Comment by Joey AJ — January 23, 2010 @ 12:08 am |