Avatar: The film is proving to be a kind of global Rorschach test.
De Standaard, Belgium
What Does Avatar Mean to You?
"It's
as if at the start of the second decade of the 21st century, we're really
arriving in a new world. I feel like a Neanderthal who has seen his first aircraft."
Douglas Coupland describes
in Lara's
Book, dedicated to Lara Croft, the heroin of the computer game Tomb Raider, how our dreams
become reality. In 1900, young people read the stories of Jules Verne and fantasized
of building airships and ultra-fast vehicles. When they got older, of course, they
built airplanes and cars. In the thirties and forties, many young people were
obsessed with science fiction stories about space, space travel and rockets, so
when these young people grew up of course, they built the NASA space program, satellite
TV and jumbo jets. In the fifties and sixties, young people read about robots,
government conspiracies, miniature James Bond-style espionage contraptions and
mutants. And now we live in a world of robots, clones, microchips and computer
games. In 2010, humanity watches the movie Avatar, about a mission to a paradise-like
planet called Pandora where humans, via their virtual alter ego, make contact
with the natives. Will this too become reality as well?
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The world is
swept up in this three-dimensional science fiction story. In Belgium, 600,000
people in two weeks went to see the blockbuster. I've never had the experience of
having to reserve a movie ticket three days in advance. For the first time in
my life, I'm sitting in a packed cinema. And never have I seen such a mixed
audience in a move theater. Grandmothers, body builders, adolescents and
intellectuals, all with 3D glasses on. It's quite an event. It's as if at the
start of the second decade of the 21st century, we're really arriving in a new
world. I feel like a Neanderthal who has seen his first aircraft.
Of course, a
movie that cost so much and was made to appeal to the widest possible audience
can count on the revenge of movie critics and snobs saying the story was stale and
flat. I think it better to absorb the movie and try to imagine what it means to
you. It's about the brutality of man, who shamelessly takes what isn’t his. He
destroys what's foreign to him. He cannot see the sensitivity of others because
he lacks it in himself. The parallel between the invasion of Iraq and Pandora is
abundantly clear, and makes the comparison no less striking.
And then there's
the phenomenon of the Avatar. The virtual alter ego isn't just a product
of science fiction or Hinduism,
but a psychological reality. Every human being has a secret inner world
invisible to others. The Avatar is part of the human story. Which side
of ourselves do we show? All men or women who have to tell their parents about
their homosexuality makes a choice of avatar. Will they still be loved? Can two
beings from different planets love one another intensely and even fall in love?
In this film it works.
Bring the story
back to this earth and suddenly it's about the here and now. It's good to think
about an idyllic world where everything is harmoniously connected. If we're
really honest, how much affinity do we have for such a world? How do we look at
the other and the unknown?
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
On Pandora, the indigenous
warriors fly on pre-historic animals. You must choose the animal most dangerous
to you - that wants to attack you most. To bring about harmony, you have to
make a connection with it by intertwining your braid with its tail. Your enemy
can be your ally if you really connect with him. Avatar shows how far
humans have strayed from mysticism and spirituality on this earth.
The search for
life in the cosmos continues unabated. Every once in awhile we read reports of
planets where life could exist. In December it was reported that 42 light years
away, a super-earth with water and ice may exist. But by focusing on the
cosmos, we often forget to observe ourselves. Here too, there is life and
inspiration. Pandora is here. It is alive and it thrives. There is life on the earth.
And in fact, you don't even need glasses to perceive it in three dimensions.
