A while ago, I mentioned that I enjoyed Avatar and that it was something I wanted to talk about. I realise that makes it sound like I’m looking for some sort of counseling or that I feel it’s something I need to confess as opposed to express, but I did find it a genuinely interesting film and I’m a little perplexed as to why it received so much hate and negative criticism from the greater geekdom. Perhaps it was just because it did really well and there’s an instinct to disregard anything that’s mainstream.
The theme is what interests me the most. I’m not talking about the basic plot of a man from an industrial and technological culture defecting to a more spiritual and romanticized tribal way of life in the style of dances with wolves or Space-Pocahontas or anything like that. What I mean the basic theme that underpins the entire film: that of escapism.