A few things:
You haven't read some earlier posts I made that said I wanted to see this movie.
I made it clear that I was not agreeing with the review of the film I was commenting on. Only to say that it touched on a common trope that I agree with about many movies—and science fiction in particularly—where unbelieving atheists and leftists side often root for groups they have nothing in common with for the sake of seeing The Man (In the movie "The Corporation") get their comeupance. In short: my comment wasn't about Avatar but about a trend in Hollywood films.
Anyway, I'm tired of the "evil corporation" as sci-fi film bogeyman—and its hand-maiden, the Ugly American
Did you see 'Moon' this summer? Evil corporation puts clones on moonbase to mine their rare element. Then incinerates them after telling them they are "going home."
'District 9?' Evil corporation wants the DNA of an alien so they can conduct weapons research.
'Aliens?' Evil corporation wants to bring back an Alien for bio-weapons research.
'Alien?' Evil corporation plants an android among a human crew to assess a deepspace horror.
'Silent Running?' Evil corporations take over earth and order the crew of the Valley Forge to jettison its cargo of bio-diversity eco-domes because they "aren't needed" on a world that survives on synthetics.
(Can you at least tell by now that I actually like science-fiction films and am sympathetic to how protagonists and antagonists are portrayed?)
In an earlier time, Ayn Rand decried the role of the "evil scientist" in films like Frankenstein and the Island of Dr. Mareau baecause a scientist is a seeker of knoweldge, not a perverter of it. It was a stupid, hackneyed Hollywood cliche then and made legitimate researchers look bad.
Ultimately, Hollywood has settled on a new cliche: that all in-movie corporations are bad. It's an easy straw dog to set up and, because there are bad ones you can point to, it has a superficial believeabilty—but that's not the reality.
Wouldn't you like to see a science fiction movie where there's a corporation that isn't bad? Cortez and Enron can't be the models for the majority of human behavior and corporations in sci-fi films can they?
So anyway, I saw the movie twice today and loved it. It was visually stunning and the first half of the film, to the point where Jake and Nateri mate, is the best half and the heart of the film.
The last reel was also a riveting and spectacular action film all on its own. 'Revenge of the Jedi' just aged 10 years overnight—Avatar really is that much more sophisticated. Still, the ending rings a bit hollow. I thought the film went out of it's way early on to make the characters of Miles Quaritch ("The Colonel") and Parker Selfridge "the corporation's Project Manager) into typical straw dogs. There isn't an ounce of nuance to them, so they're easy to hate and hiss at; then cheer when they finally get theirs at the hands of the well-defined and sympathetic Na'vi. That, I thought, was cheap. If they had had mustaches, I'm almost certain they would have twirled them.
And I shouldn't get into the jargon that the mercenaries use on Pandora to paint the green-suited troopers in red-white-and-blue: "Oorah", "Roger that", "Copy that", "I'm from Jar-head clan", "Goin', hot", "Death from above", "Let's boogie", "Alright, let's dance." There's more, I know. Does anyone else but Americans really say things like that in those words? And would they still say those things in 2154???
If they're mercenaries, which the movie goes to pains to state, let's hear some foreign military idioms to round out the force as "from Earth" and not "from America." The French Foreign Legion has some, I'll bet.
So, no, my comment wasn't knee-jerk. I just didn't think it necessary to pull out my homework. But here it is now.
Let me guess... in the back seat of a car a la _Titanic_? Thanks for the heads up as to the family friendliness of this film.
If they're mercenaries, which the movie goes to pains to state, let's hear some foreign military idioms to round out the force as "from Earth" and not "from America." The French Foreign Legion has some, I'll bet.
And don't forget that the name of the "mercenary group" in the movie was SecFor, a direct take-off from US military jargon. As to why no foreign military idioms were used, the answer lies in the nature of propaganda and how a propaganda film "constructs" its target. And it's pretty obvious what the target is here; you don't have to be a hippy-dippy with pinko leanings to get the message.
I wouldn't have wanted to see Reifenstahl's _Triumph des Willens_ until after the Nazis were soundly deafeated in '45; looks like I might have a looong wait before I would feel right about watching this "Al-Gore-Seal-of-Approval" piece of sh.. I mean, work.