We went to see Avatar: The Way of Water yesterday. I’ve avoided all “takes” on it so I can produce my own. All takes but one – a writer at a Christian site I follow penned an article commending it for its depiction of Jake Sully as a model father. One who is concerned for and protective of his family. Who sacrifices. Is decisive. The kind of father that a lot of Disney offerings (and most sitcoms) seem to think has been non-existent for so long. That kind of thing.
And that helped me see it from a positive perspective. Thinking back on the movie (which Micha and I both liked more than the first Avatar), I couldn’t help but see a touch of Eden in the world it was showing us. Absolutely beautiful. Peaceful. Harmonious. And a wonderful depiction of the family. Refreshing.
In contrast, I got a different perspective from a twitter hot take (a great example of why you should avoid hot takes on the internet…unless you can look at them and take them for the BS that they are – which is what I’m hoping to show you here as you read on):
“Just walked out of Avatar: TWoW, a film that aspires to make you feel bad about humanity and being human. It plays off of tired tropes about indigenous people living in harmony with the land while genocidal white colonizers revel in brutality and cruelty. Boring and tired.”
Tweets like this are why I’m against censorship on social media platforms – they allow me to see such drivel and actually discern how it’s such a load of crap. “A film that aspires to make you feel bad about humanity and being human?” Really? Has this guy even seen what humans have done to each other, let alone to some fictional race on another planet?
I swear, the guy must have bought a cheap ticket just so he could walk out and virtue-signal with such a self-serving air of superiority. One of the most obvious things the guy (and he’s definitely not alone) forgets is the simple fact that it’s only a movie. Most movies I’ve seen (especially lately) have good guys and bad guys as a major plot point. It just so happens that humans are the bad guys in this movie, but this guy’s so sensitive that he can’t bear to watch. There’s a word for guys who get triggered by things like this: “Snowflake.”
As for the movie itself (in light of his fragility), face it: exploiters exploit, and history makes it pretty clear that humans lead the charge in this area. Although I can’t speak for every situation, I’d challenge the guy to find even one case of a valuable resource being extracted without some person, government, corporation, or organization resorting to some kind of degradation, violence, or trickery in its extraction (I can think of many cases where the opposite is true).
This whole approach reminds me of a writer’s lament that most of this past year’s top reads for the magazine Christianity Today – which you would think would lean toward the optimistic –dealt, rather, with the negatives of the Christian faith (sexual abuses, harassment, abuses of power and the like). That lament led to a discussion on whether it was the fault of the magazine or its readers. Sadly, it’s most likely a case where the magazine felt it had to write the works that would generate the most revenue, and those were the articles that reflected negatively on Christianity. Studies have shown that conflict and salacious content generate views, and generated views equal money (what an ironic example of human exploitation).
I’m sure that the author of the tweet that got me thinking about this all in the first place uses this to his advantage regularly. The tweet itself is an example: “Avatar 2 is horrible! It’s just another case of the woke left calling you deplorable!” – all the while ignoring that the movie (and the franchise) pretty much nails it when it comes to what humans have done throughout all of recorded history.
As for me, I really liked the movie. It was beautiful and imaginative. Sadly, the tweet I’ve talked about here is probably only a small sampling of the heat the movie is generating – on both sides. It’s either an unflattering depiction of humanity (for the virtue-signalers on the right) or lacking in diversity (for the virtue-signalers on the left). From both sides, it’s just a case of not being able to face reality on both counts – that we humans are masters of messing things up, and that there’s something appealing to many people in Cameron’s depiction of a non-dysfunctional family. I can only hope that all the outrage doesn’t make this the last time a movie of this kind can be made.
Humans are flawed.
you know, if the dude that tweeted was a genuine super-optimist who couldn’t bear to look on the dark side of humanity and own up to it (that we ARE flawed and that things like exploitation still happen regularly), i wouldn’t have a problem with him walking out. but i certainly got the feeling his walk-out was virtue-signaling BS to generate clicks.
Yup