When Cameron’s Avatar came out, I could find no-one to go and watch it with. The price of being steeped in Seattlelite counter-culturalism, probably. Personally, I thought it would be cool to go and watch a mainstream film. (I call this inclination counter-culturalism-squared.) Anyway, when, months later, I was finally afforded the possibility of viewing it with a couple of 5-year-olds, this is what I thought:
“Avatar is awesome”.
That’s right. And on this issue, I’ll take on any of you tree-huggin’ hippies out there. (First, I’d kick your ass at tree huggin’).
Next, I’d agree that, yes, Avatar is a block-buster movie and thus part of the unsustainable capitalist empire etc. etc. And yes, no trace of artistic nuance graces the leveraging of archetypes (good|evil; hero-stranger|chieftain’s daughter; etc.|etc.) in Avatar’s rather planar plot.
But consider which entities occupy the archetypes. Consider the themes that Avatar uses to exploit emotional capital. Wait, humans as the bad guys? Indigenous rights, anyone? Resource exploitation? These are the issues which speak to the 21st Century’s global audience?
Sure, I’ll go out and say it out loud: Avatar is symptomatic of … of … the changing World Spirit, if you will. The tide is on Our side.
