Movie Review: Avatar

I almost didn't bother writing a review of Avatar due to the overabundance that have already been posted and published... but then I realized that I have additional critical comments that I've yet to read anywhere else, and I thought the world would be interested in hearing them.

My first observation during my private theatre viewing (Siskel and Ebert style) of this film was that this has been a great year for big naked blue characters. My thoughts fell back to Watchmen, the popular superhero movie from 2009. It is my belief that they are all trying to rip of Captain Planet (see comparison below):Now, any one who knows me is aware that I'm a student of colors (I googled the word colors about 45 minutes ago), and I consider myself an expert on the Pantone Color Chart, so I know all of the above superheros are blue. I also know that historically, the natural color of the blue sky gave primitive societies a commonality in which to relate to each other. Even in modern cultures blue is often significant in religious beliefs, brings peace or is thought to keep the bad spirits away. This theory on blue obviously doesn't apply to the primitive culture in my home of Cleveland where the sky is eternally gray (Go Cavs!), but I have a sneaking suspicion that Avatar was trying to use what the creators of Captain Planet had already beat them to failing at.

There has been some critical debate over the possibility of references to Native Americans in Avatar and a possible parallel between the culture of aboriginal peoples and the Na'vi. I disagree with this opinion and see no similarities between the imaginary people of Pandora and Native Americans. I do like the na'vi style however, and have began adjusting my own style accordingly (see below).Having visited the attempted metaphors extended in Avatar, I came to the personal determination that while Cameron's project succeeded in luring in the masses with exciting new special effects, its obvious attempt at making a creative or social statements was lamentable. However, the goal of luring in the masses with exciting 3D special effects was highly successful. Avatar was able to use it's vast resources to produce a casuistic film that stunted the evolution of creative expression through film media. For that I applaud it.