The World We Live In vs. Avatar

I don't watch many movies in the theatre. Mostly because I don't really like movies. Most of them are pretty lame. I do have a set of movies that I watch over and over again. Sometimes with french dubbing and/or subtitles.

But I did venture out into the big world to see Avatar at the cinema. I think it is worth it for BIG movies like that. By BIG I don't mean popular, I mean in need of a big screen. Amelie, which I love, is small screen. The Matrix, while also popular, needs a big screen and big sound.

Avatar was totally all it was hyped up to be. The graphics were beautiful and the 3D was subtle. I could have done without the whole "disabled American army hero saves natives after recognizing that their way of life is beautiful" plot line, aka Dances With Wolves aka Pocohontas. I also could have done without the big fight/army scene at the end aka the last half of the movie. I could've just watched 3 hours of them leaping through the forest.

Friends of ours bought the movie on Blu-Ray and it, inexplicably, came with a DVD version. They lent it to us to watch again. First of all, watching on our computer (because we don't have a tv) really doesn't do it justice. It looks a lot more CGI without the 3D. And the glowing magical world isn't quite as magical on the desktop computer screen.

But while I was watching it again, I had a not-so-deep realization. Our world is just as beautiful as the world of Avatar. It is not so exotic because we are familiar with it. Granted, we can't ride on dragon-like creatures after forming a connection with them. But we do have a range of other creatures that we can form less physical bonds with, like kitties.

Although we as people do not sparkle in the dark, we do have forests with a wide range of biodiversity. We even have phosphorescence. Our trees certainly don't tower over the forest like Home Tree but many are giants in their own right.

James Cameron definitely confirmed that the environmental message was not a coincidence or incidental. He definitely set out to project that message.

The belief system of the Na'vi, while portrayed respectfully, would seem naive and uneducated in today's world. Those with nature worshipping beliefs are put down as primitive and unscientific. We know that there is no soul in nature. Everything can be explained through biology. But in my opinion, biology and science aren't enough. If we had a personal relationship with our environment, we could never treat it as we do. But because we are so detached and look at it only for its elements - wood, oil, water, soil - we have no trouble destroying our own "Home Tree".

There are those that see and have seen nature this way. But we do not listen. I felt real pain in my heart watching Home Tree be torn (bombed) down. But this is happening everywhere RIGHT NOW. An easy example is the ever growing oil spill near Louisiana. We are raping and pillaging (the environment and people) in Nigeria and Ecuador for oil. We are stripping the bio-diverse havens of Borneo and Madagascar, primarily for their wood which, in reality, is trees. We flood areas to make damns for hydroelectric power. In short: we don't need to go to Pandora to see a beautiful environment be burnt and destroyed.

Perhaps the people singing the song about Mother Nature aren't as beautiful as the Na'vi. They may not be 10 ft tall, blue, sparkling and beautiful. Most likely, they are unattractive by western standards. They smell bad, don't dress stylishly (unless you consider tire sandals stylish), may have bad hair and teeth, sagging breasts, etc. They don't glamorize the cause. But their point-of-view may be the only way to save the world as we know it.