Caitlin is off at quilting school tonight, while Nefarious and I went straight from Montessori school to the theatre where we saw Avatar in digital 3D (not IMAX), the third time I’ve seen it — still enjoying it just as much — and the first for her. She’s been independently asking to see it, which at first I thought was because of classmates, but it turns out none of them have seen it so I think she was basing the desire on Caitlin’s and my conversations about the film. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be too much for her at nearly three hours, but the story is simple and idealistic like a fairy tale, and there’s extremely little profanity, no sexual content, and no inappropriate or gratuitous violence, so I figured it couldn’t hurt.
I was very happy that she was glued to the screen and its rich and creative visuals — surprised at the end of the movie at the length, saying it had seemed so short — and as we walked out of the exit she loudly and excitedly proclaimed, “this is the best movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life!” (which is saying a lot, due to the lack of stereotypical Disney characters) and we talked about it in detail all the way home. It made it easy for me to explain my forehead tattoo to her in some more detail, because the movie discusses the same idea… in short, that we are all connected.
On that subject of Avatar, I was interested to hear from Caitlin that some of her boardmembers at the Atheist Nexus were complaining that the movie was too “religious”, I suppose makiung the shallow assumption that it’s some sort of primitive animist faith. This misses the point entirely, because the thing about the Na’vi, to me, is that they’re essentially atheists. Their “god” character is not some illusory figure — it’s an actual emergent super-entity that they are all a part of due to the biologically networked nature of the planet’s lifeforms. A real “deity”, not a supernatural one. I passionately hope that it turns out that something similar exists in reality, some sort of macro-consciousness that is superimposed on us.
That would be a god I could understand.
A silly face as always, helped by the 3D glasses…
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The guy was also complaining about the chanting and ‘bouncing’ when they were changing humans to na’vi, that was also too religey for him. Sheesh.
You guys are great.
I took it as their god is the internet. Every Na’vi (and seemingly every remotely self aware creature) has an ethernet cable. Mostly ad-hock networks, but every so often someone gets onto Level3
Pandora is a nice Skynet
I loved Avatar, especially the language created for the Na’vi. Hopefully they’ll be able to release more details on that later.
The most reasonable criticism of the movie that I’ve seen is that the “white guy joins the Noble Savage culture and becomes its most awesome member” theme is kind of racially imperialistic, albeit in a more subtle way than usual. But I’m not sure if that’s the best analysis given the finer details of the plot.
there was a whole alien sex scene.
but I really did like the movie, although I thought the plot wasn’t as good as it could of been. But what else could you expect from james cameron
i loved avatar and like some say the story wasn’t really all that but visually it was the best i’ve seen, the first thing i was thinking after jake followed neytiri “omg a goaparty” :p
but to think it’s to religious that’s just ridiculous
The sex scene is relegated to the DVD. The movie has I think two or three kisses total, and an intense but very brief hug. Nothing that concerned me…
Definitely couldn’t shake the feeling I was watching 2 1/2 hours of visually stunning Fern Gully despite the lack of stereotypical disneyesk characters. Spent the whole time praying for a Tim Curry cameo.
I like neither na’vi nor klingon as the future global language. Especially when you have to dress up for it :D
We also need a future international language. One which is easy to learn, as well !
And that’s not English! Esperanto? Certainly yes!
Please look at https://www.lernu.net
Macro Consciousness?
Makes me think of an episode of ST:TNG where they combine DNA from differnt species in a tricorder, and it produces a holographic image of their “creators”
It’s not “superimposed on us”, it’s already there, right now.
yes
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