hello again

i paid money to see that horrible film, Avatar 3D. and i will apologize in advance for what might seem like an incoherent rant.

starring a young white disabled ex marine twin who utilizes an avatar in order to infiltrate an indigenous community and resistance movement. and throughout the course of the film our white saviour - through a number of couragous able bodied hyper masculine acts- is accepted by the community and finds affinity with their cause. he is seen and sees.
(call and response interpellation ?)

what the fuck. what the fuck. what the fuck.

1. why are the scientists left free of blame? excuse me. sigourney weaver being brought to the navi diety as the entire community prays for her human spirit to enter a native body. are you kidding me!

2. the discourse surrounding jake sully's romance with female lead, zoe saldana was disgusting.
and the part at the end when she holds his human self as a baby made me want to vom.

3. the part where jake sully dominates the giant bird thing and ascends to the symbolic throne of leadership and gains the silent respect of the new warrior king - dick fest.

4. jake sullys video diaries. fuck off.


the scariest thing about this film for me was the fact that it encouraged the very same kinds of multi-culti diversity post racial bullshit that perpetuates US imperialism in a very very real way and it does so through a weird retelling of indigenous struggle led by a white US marine.
the arc of the film pulls the audience in to empathetically identifiy with jake sully as a race traitor and with the indigenous people as spiritually pure underdogs. it focuses on jake sullys ability to become one with the navi people through his avatar. let me say that again.....
THE MOVIE REVOLVES AROUND THE FACT THAT (through technology) THE MAIN CHARACTER A FORMER MARINE CAN UTILIZE A NATIVE BODY IN ORDER TO BECOME A SYMBOLIC AND POLITICAL LEADER FOR AN ENTIRE ANTI-COLONIAL MOVEMENT. and this is the highest selling movie in America baby.

as you probably can see i have only half formed thoughts and fairly good amount of anger.
so for the purpose of furthering the convo to bring something good out of it... i will pose some reflective questions to help think through it all

how does this film make meaning out of bodies and which bodies, and what is that meaning used to do?

how is the nobility and innocence of scientific discourse upheld through the film in order to differentiate between good colonialism and bad colonialism. sigourney weaver wants to educate the natives and mine delicately for research whereas the big bad white dudes just want to mine for precious natural resource and kill anyone in the way. how do these two seemingly different approaches push and pull with each other to create good guys and bad guys and for what reason?

jake sully is taken as a joke by weaver for not being smart or well studied enough and by the marine general for being in a wheelchair. when do we get to see him shine with courage, quick wittedness, physical prowess, and sweltering romance? oh yea. thats right.

and of course there is more. but we will talk of it in later times i am sure.

and even more interestingly....
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/avatar-on-the-west-bank/