--- In [email protected], Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: > > It really truly defines a new film genre.
It'll be interesting to see what Cameron thinks of the response to the film. He can't be displeased with the box office (highest ever for a non-franchise, non-sequel original film), but my bet is he's watch- ing to see what the "inner response" to the film is. He spoke in pre-release promotional engagements about his hopes that the film would affect audiences at a somewhat deeper level than your everyday SciFi shoot- em-up-adventure movie. From Wikipedia: At Comic Con 2009, Cameron told attendees that he wanted to make "something that has this spoonful of sugar of all the action and the adventure and all that". He wanted this to thrill him "as a fan" but also have a conscience "that maybe in the enjoying of it makes you think a little bit about the way you interact with nature and your fellow man". He added that "the Na'vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are" and that even though there are good humans within the film, the humans "represent what we know to be the parts of ourselves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future." There is much to be discussed about this film. My bet is that we will find little of that discussion here. Instead, people who have seen the film -- and at least one who has not and probably never will because it now has Barry's official seal of approval on it :-) -- will steer discussions of AVATAR to the "low ground." They'll use it to fight or perpetuate petty ego battles or political/environmental battles, or just rag on it because it's popular. Meanwhile, Cameron will be off making the two sequels to the film, probably wondering whether his deeper message about this alien planet will be as lost on the viewers of those films as the deeper message of our own planet was lost on the delegates in Copenhagen. All I can say is that it's a banner day when a new science fiction film pushes its way into my Top Five SciFi Films Ever Made List. Especially when the same director already had two other films on the list, and still does.
