Avitar Decoded

Watched Avatar tonight. It’s an entertaining production with dazzling special effects and decent acting, well, for ‘creatures’ from another world. Rated PG, so the violence had to be toned down from the Lord of the Rings variety, but it was still gripping. The PG rating was probably a good idea since it seems to be setting new box office records in its first 2 weeks. A mildly interesting storyline, Avatar is a thinly veiled metaphor for US raping and looting of Native American happy hunting grounds. Or, if you like, US colonization of other lands through its merciless war machines. Please. Hand me a Kleenex and a flower.

The Avatarians (or whatever they are called) are clearly the victims in this story. They are the perfect beings, in harmony with nature and the life force of all things, ‘seeing’ all that is around them in a perfect yoga-like commune of oneness. One can imagine birds and crickets who sound like Enya.

The evil marines, by contrast, are murdering thugs bent on the destruction of all that is good and pure. They are sponsored by even more evil money grubbing capitalists who care only about the planet’s natural supply of unobtanium (a term stolen from The Core with Hillary Swank). The main character is Jake Scully, an evil marine who turns good guy and fights for truth, beauty and John Lennon songs after a 3 month indoctrination with the Indians, er, Avatarians. The marines are so blatantly evil that it’s easy to get caught up in the wave of vengeful indignation, especially when Jake gives his Braveheart speech to the troops to defend their land. It’s a classic liberal minded black-versus-white script: life, harmony and goodness are pitted against death, greed and evil. Golly, who should we cheer for?

But a more pertinent question for the Avatarians would be “Why can’t you find a way to cooperate with these people”? We don’t know what unobtainum is used for, but we’re sure it’s for pure greedy capitalistic purposes, nothing worth while like curing cancer, cold fusion, eliminating world hunger, neutralizing nuclear weapons, etc. We do know that the Avatarians are incredibly technology challenged compared to their nemesis, which is evidenced by the ass-kicking they get from the bulldozers and light firepower that moves in halfway through the story. We also know that Avatarians die, so we have to think there might be some medical advances they might learn from the “evil invaders” that might improve their quality and length of life. They could also analyze their climate and atmosphere; maybe even learn to domesticate the animals that devour a good portion of them each year. They could learn communication methods that will let them share information with the other clans, which will help them develop better as a community. Maybe they could even exchange ambassadors to trade knowledge and culture with other civilizations, making them better world citizens instead of being possessive hermits in their own little rock in the galaxy.

And how much ‘oneness’ the Avatarians have if their whole culture and society can be destroyed by one tree getting bulldozed? If we have learned anything about cultures and societies, it’s that the good ones are resilient; they find a way to adapt and survive. A society is not a place or thing, but a philosophy, a collection of values that transcends circumstances and surroundings. Tragedies come and go: hurricanes, world wars, economic depressions, plagues, bad leaders… but the strong persevere.

And who is to say that the unobtanium ‘belongs to Avatar” anyway? Aren’t we all citizens of the same universe? How do we know the Avatarians didn’t take the planet over from somebody else 2 centuries earlier? Shouldn’t they own the stuff?

Liberal logic is so half-baked. It would be funny if not so tragic.