Avatar: ***** For Best Anti-sprawl Message in a Movie

[stjr]

If clear-cutting developers, road builders, land use planners and attorneys, and their assorted hired guns don't get it yet, Avatar, the sci-fi movie, hits them over the head with the negative impacts caused by over-zealous (and, in the movie, the biggest ever) bulldozers out to make the next almighty buck, world-at-large and local societies be damned.

Avatar resonates with the major themes of environment degradation and wholesale destruction not to mention that of the overriding of the American Indians and other native populations around the world by unstoppable and unscrupulous exploiters of the precious natural resources that they had the good (bad in the end?) luck to make their homes around.  With both the environment and our fellow world-occupying humans, Avatar also rings the bell on our interdependencies for survival and achieving an optimal quality of life.

Yes, the plot also plays to the oft repeated background themes of good and evil, romance, high minded science versus the lower minded realities of our world, the military-industrial complex versus the individual and little guys, the search for utopia, the possibilities for peace in the world that comes from understanding each other's cultures, etc.

See it in 3D for the stunningly lush fantasy-scapes for which this movie is getting its greatest number of kudos.  One day, unfortunately, this may be the only way our descendants will be able to visualize what we have destroyed.  My teen son noted the many similarities of the visuals, particularly the military aircraft and weaponry, to video games so we can expect an Avatar game for sure.

The plot dialogue is at the middle-school level at best which I am sure suited Cameron just fine knowing teenage boys were going to be his biggest audience.  Maybe its also sugar coated enough to penetrate the thick heads of those who lack appreciation of our God-given natural world and our interdependencies on the gifts of nature and our fellow human beings.

Adults can suffer through happily if they just take in the movie as akin to an adolescent big screen adventure they may have enjoyed in their earlier past and soak up the stunning visuals.  With its abundant spoon feeding cliches, it sure won't be hard to pick up on the above stated themes unless you are brain dead so it may provide a fertile starting point for conversation with kids of most any age and a few hard-headed adults!

JTA, FDOT, MPO, zoning officials, Paul Harden, and all public officials should have to see Avatar to hopefully receive the obvious message of the harm that stems from the seeds they sow when they promote urban sprawl through their nefarious actions in support of same  .

[BridgeTroll]

Saw this today... great flick!

Good review!

[DavidWilliams]

BT...is anti-American military as I heard in one review?

[tufsu1]

the movie never defines the military as American...in fact, they appear to be hired guns for the private company.

[Sportmotor]

This is a MUST in 3D
saw it in 2D first, the 3D again....HAVEEEEEEEE to see it in 3D

[Omarvelous09]

Seriously? you have a lot of free time bud...lol

[Sportmotor]

Went with differnt people both times.
If a movies are good I dont mind seeing them again(and again and again)

[BridgeTroll]

BT...is anti-American military as I heard in one review?

I suppose one could see it that way.  I chuckled to myself a few times when they used terms like "shock and awe" etc... The premise of a greedy corporation (Haliburton) or an expansionist powerful country (USA) and thuggish military men (US Military) attempting to move or remove a peaceful indigenous people for the material riches found on their land has been done countless times.   The political implications and intent was quite clear.  There is no doubt many would attempt to draw parallels to the American Indian story or the Native Hawaiian story or the Eskimos.  Of course on the surface these simplistic comparisons are relatively accurate... history is seldom as cut and dried as a 2.5 hour movie...

That said... it was a great movie.  Great characters, the 3-D effect was awesome, and a good plot.

[Sportmotor]

the only flaws I saw, was a rather weak story line
the bad guy who they turned into a supervillan basically


and the fact they used the sound effects from Jurassic Park for some of the creatures. Like the T-rex and the Raptors.

otherwise fan f$%^ing tastic movie.

[copperfiend]

If anything, it is anti-Blackwater.

[Captain Zissou]

The plot was ok, some of the 'spiritual' elements made me yawn, but the graphics and experience as a whole was AMAZING.

This movie is way up there on the list of movies that blew my mind as far as what can be created on screen.

Unfortunately, while watching Transformers 2 over the summer, I got to thinking how much good the $200M spent on the movie could do for the rest of the world.... I can't really watch movies or think about them the same way again.

[Shwaz]

I plan to see this over the weekend at the IMAX if possible.

I've read a few reviews that shout BRAVO to the overall environmental theme and how many viewers were moved & motivated to live a more harmonies life style putting their foot down to industrial greed.

I had to shake my head when I saw the current McDonalds toys being handed out in hundreds of thousands of happy meals around the world were avatar characters made of cheap plastic (batteries included) by children in factories across Asia   A deal brokered by James Cameron himself.