Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, and now, Avatar - all are American film classics. From the stellar graphics and digital effects to the gripping plot and the excellent characterization, Avatar offered an excellent and poignant product to the oft-incredulous viewer (including this viewer, who saw it in 3-D).

The plot follows the exploits of Jacob Sully, a crippled marine who rediscovers life in the form of the diplomatically intended Avatar program. However, it becomes clear the the mining company (which sponsors the  Avatar project) is becoming impatient with diplomacy, and is intending to take the unobtanium deposits right from under the aliens by force.  Jacob, now a somewhat accepted member of alien tribe, eventually must re-gain the trust of the aliens and lead them against the evil mining company, with the help of Pandora’s natural world.

Just in case I have not made it clear, I love this movie. James Cameron turned hundreds of millions of dollars and the dreams of thousands of into a masterpiece of originality and gripping poignancy, which speaks to us all as Americans.

The graphics were the best in any movie ever. I could go into great lengths describing the excellence of the graphics, from the masterfully rendered fauna of Pandora to the stunning depictions of futuristic military craft. However, truly, the movie must be seen to be experienced – I will leave it at that.

Then of course there is the acting and characterization. Much of the time, science fiction does a pretty poor job of getting good actors or making proper characters (except, of course, David Lynch’s Dune). However, Avatar did a great job of making believable, dynamic characters who seem to react to an ambiguous environment in characterization which bears great similarity with (I dare say) the classic Heart of Darkness.

But no review of Avatar can be made without a mention of the message the movie sends. I can safely say that Avatar is the most biting and critical examination of  Columbian-exchange social dynamics of the decade. It takes a daring and unique approach to ideas of humility in contrast with nature, of restraint in capitalist greed, and of respect for the existence of lesser developed peoples.

We all have a great deal to learn from Avatar. Indeed, as we have seen from the Iraq conflicts and Vietnam, America still has many lessons to learn about Imperialism and dealing with nature.

I would give this movie an A++ and recommend everyone else to see it multiple times.

However, for the sake of journalistic integrity (sigh) and to make a fair and “unbiased” article, I must present the opposing viewpoint as well.

Some say that Avatar has a completely unoriginal plot ripped off from some other movie, and moreover claim that the plot has been overused and is incredibly stale. Others claim that there are gaping plot holes the likes of which have not bee seen since Michael Bay decided that robot balls were a witty joke.

Still others seem to think that the characters seemed to be largely flat and irritatingly simplistic, claiming that they are no more than vessels which the producers used to make their unsubtle and stale message.

And of course, despite the fantastic graphics, some critics claim that the movie is incredibly unoriginal – they say, despite having  a huge budget, there are no original creatures or ideas in the movie, and that the inhabitants of Pandora are entirely analogous to Earth creatures except breathing from a different place and shiny.

Definetly not a horse.

Senior Julien Crocket explained that “Seriously like the trees and stuff were just totally like those on Earth.”

And then of course the critics claim that the message of Avatar is inherently manipulating western guilt in combination with incredible graphics to create a product which completely distorts the mind and soul. Senior Jack Mulcaire elaborates:

“Well to be honest, the movie was kind of ridiculous. I mean, at some points the spears just bounced off the glass, at other times they just owned the copters glass and just destroyed them. Moreover, its like Pandora was just the same as Earth – horses, dogs, rhinos, everything. And also, when you have billions of different stars and planets in the universe with millions of species becoming somewhat intelligent based on different conditions, I would expect that the animals we see are not only RADICALLY different from Earth creatures but the intelligent animals would be different too. They were obviously just Indians but with blue skins and stuff. They have the same HUMAN reactions etc. etc. and it’s pretty stupid, I’m not gonna lie. I mean the Avatar program itself is stupid – if there were humans on Earth who were actually being controlled by aliens in an attempt to negotiate with them, the government would just be freaked the … out and it wouldn’t work.”

Picture Unrelated

But this is all a load of bunk. Have any of you ever heard of the term “suspension of disbelief”? Do any of you realize that America did do bad things to the Indians and we have to be aware of the previous crimes? Does everything that disagrees with your viewpoint HAVE to be liberal propaganda?

Ok, well thanks for reading my article. Bye.