A friend took me to see "Avatar" yesterday afternoon. I had not been to a movie in I don't know how long ... adult admission was $9.50, it was $9.50!
The movie was kind of a mix of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and all the stories that are based on Tolkien.
Even now, I'm not sure what I think about it. The visual effects were certainly very pleasing, except that the 3-D made me feel dizzy for about half the movie (as it did my friend). I wasn't very thrilled that the adults sitting behind us brought 3 little kids with them - it's a long movie - but I forgave the little girl when towards the end, she sighed and said, "I love Jake (the hero guy)." It was just too cute.
6 comments:
Jordan's Imax charges $12.50. You did fine.
I would say that the basic themes in the movie are right out of the Bible and Dance's with Wolves, not to mention any number of Boy Meets Girl musicals.
It was a lot of fun to watch, even if a bit exhausting.
It was kind of exhausting, wasn't it? Didn't think of that until you wrote it.
Three hours of flying around on Teradactyls (sp?) and blowing stuff up tires even the most stalwart viewer.
I saw it here in san Jose, CR and the overall impression is it is quite a negative, metaphorical, portrayal of the US`and Us foreign policy.
That was the opinion of both those who like and dislike the US here.
Pro US folks were offended, US critics felt vindicated and affirmed.
It's always interesting to watch an American "blockbuster" in another country and hear how non-Americans view it.
macsurf, I think it could be viewed as a negative portrayal of any (Caucasian) civilization seeking to take over another (non-Caucasian) civilization's natural resources. Of course, the (Caucasian) rebel comes along and saves the poor tree-hugging blue people who can't defend themselves and haven't got the brains to even run until he comes back and screams "RUN!"... and of course he comes back riding in on the big old flying thing that no one else has figured out never looks up (!) and yada, yada. :-)
That very thing you describe is, in a slightly different form, happening here in Costa Rica right now.
Last Friday, I had a column in the Tico Times titled "Is Costa Rica Being Colonized?"
Down here the sense of arrogance and entitlement displayed on the part of so many Americans toward Costa Rica and Costa Ricans, especially among those Americans who've arrived in the last three or four years as a result of the slick rea, and often false, estate marketing campaign by advertisers like International Living Magazine, is classically that of a colonizer who believes the culture they are colonizing is inherently inferior to their own.
I's been a fascinating and troublng phenomenon to watch over the last decade, not to mention embarrassing for me as a gringo who lives among Ticos and hears how they REALLY feel about the modern day "colonizers" on a regular basis.
I don't know if you ever post another person's work beyond a response to a post of your's, but I will forward the colimn to you.
If you did post it, amybe it would make some folks realize that when we, even though we are AMERICANS, are in another counry, it behooves us to treat that other country and its people with respect, ESPECIAllY if you're planning on moving there and caling it home.
To read it in the TT on line, I believe you have to pay a subscription fee. You can read LTE's on line for free, but not guest columns on the editorial page for some reason.
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