Pretty Poop

Rating: 1/10 (31 December 2009)

A wag once said Hollywood gave GHANDI the Oscar because he represents everything Hollywood isn't--thin, tan, and moral. For AVATAR, we should add "indigenous" to that list. It takes the noble savage fantasy to ridiculous lengths and then, offensively, uses it to lash out at the War Against Islamic Jihad. The story looks as though someone threw up DANCES WITH WOLVES on THE LION KING at a Moveon rally.
English-speaking earthlings are the baddies here, bent on destroying the harmonious moon-loving hunter-gatherers in pursuit of filthy strip-mining lucre. Never mind Western culture invented most of the ideas about fair play and tolerance that are turned against us in moronic pulp diatribes such as this, or that industrial civilization feeds a crowded planet of 6,692,030,277. Lines such as "We'll fight terror with terror." and "Shock and awe" make it pretty clear that the real target of Mr. Cameron is America, its values, and its industry.
Mr. Cameron (who controlled every iota of what made it to the screen) may think the plight of his N'avi is comparable to that of Islamic terrorists but I don't recall the part where the N'avi come to earth and kill 3,000 of our people. Or the part where the N'avi capture innocents and saw their heads off on video with rusty knives. Or the N'avi law that stones a woman who is raped as an adulteress unless three men support her accusations. We're fighting benighted, medieval darkness here on earth, not enlightened nature lovers, and if Mr. Cameron chooses not to get it, I suggest he go to Afghanistan and experience their film-making first-hand.
This is $300 million of scurrilous 3D poop. Skip it.