I would say beware of spoilers below, but if you've ever heard or read a speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Osama bin Laden you already know the climax and ending of the movie Avatar.
For most of the movie I was hoping to be able to brush off the underlying message as just another "nature is nice, people are bad" story put to into an attractive 3D setting. A big bad mining company (strip mining no less) has somehow hired on the Marines to be the muscle for their operation. In true cliché fashion the magic money ore is right below the village of the nice peaceful nature loving natives. The natives don't want to move, the marines just want to shoot people, and so they fight. Did I mention that the earth by this time has no more green and is a dead planet? Yeah.
Unfortunately the script of this movie made it all too clear that this predictable story, while present, was not the real point to be communicated to the audience. The unescapable message of this movie is that the US armed forces are the trigger happy tool of corrupt corporations, anxious to invade and destroy peaceful people who just want to be left alone. Schools that are built and infrastructure that is provided are just con jobs to get foreigners to lay down so we don't have to waste bullets. Reality is that we really do deserve all of the aggression that terrorists throw against us as we somehow started it all in the first place by exploiting the innocent populace. Pre-emptive strikes are a facade to cover our attempt to kill the weak natives so they don't have a chance to get back at us for tricking them with our schools while taking their land and stealing the valuable resources buried underneath. But don't be afraid to fight back, natives. In the end, if you are willing to attack the corrupt white people and face certain death, technological superiority and overwhelming firepower will fail because your god will protect you.
Sound familiar? The first place I remember hearing it was from bin Laden. More recently we've heard it from the floor if the United Nations from Ahmadinejad. That is the story of Avatar. Neither "terrorists" nor "pre-emptive strike" is something read between the lines. They are the spoken lines of the movie. All of the corporation and Marine commanders were white people who go out of their way to show no respect for any form of life. They have nothing but a desire to kill and destroy a beautiful culture so they can make lots of money. Throw in a helping of euthanize-the-handicapped and you have the last 5 minutes of the movie to wrap up your evening. After all, what meaning does life have if you can't climb trees? This last message tossed in at the end seems to me more destructive than all the rest.
It is sad to me that such a foolish message has been put into such an attractive presentation. The presentation of such a grand setting in 3D was done very well. Until the true point of the movie could be ignored no longer, it was quite fun to watch and I hope other (better) movies follow suit. Avatar will no doubt be a great success at the box office due to the new technology used in shooting the movie, but I hope the underlying message is seen for the garbage that it truly is.
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