I Am A Citizen Of The WORLD

Stunning movie,

 به نظر من« آوتار» پیامهای زیادی را دربر داشت. تماشای از بین بردن «ناویز» مردمانی بومی، یاد آوار کشتار بومیان بخصوص سرخپوستان را در خاطرمان تداعی کرد. قسمتهای زبیای فلیم که مرا بسیار مجذوب کرد؛ شیوه زندگی انسانهای بومی بود که آوتار بخوبی بیانگر روابط انسان با دنیای درون و بیرون از خود، در ارتباط با کل هستی بود . انسانهای بومی که دور از دنیای تکنولوژی، در قلب طبیعت زندگی میکنند، خود بخشی از هوش هستی و جوهر زندگی و جدا نشدنی از تمام پدیده های اطراف خود هستند. حسی که در بین ما شهرنشینان از بین رفته، و ما با نوعی از خود شیفتگی، خود را برتر از همه موجودات دیگر میدانیم که این جدایی ما با دنیای هستی، هارمونی زندگی احساسی و عاطفی شهر نشینی را برهم زده.

و پیام دیگر فیلم که دردناک بود؛ اگر انسانهای عصر تکنولوژی، که مدعی تمدن هستند، روزی دسترسی به جایی مثل «پندورا» را داشته باشند،که موجودات متفاوتی دارد،  اول موجودات انجا را بصورت موشهای آمایشگاهی برای تحقیقات خود به اسارت میگیرند و بعد از انها برای برده داری استفاده خواهند کرد.

آقای شراب سرخ دیدن این فیلم رو به شما پیشنهاد میکنم.

Red Wine aziz

I think you may prefer Hollywood movies from 1940's era, i.e. love story's!  I assure you will like this sci fi, you should see how Jake Scully tame the beast, all because of Naytiri!  :-)

مسخ

خوشا آنان که این چنین در مسخی خود شادند و مسرور ! ما که بخیل نیستیم... مبارک است انشا‌الله.

Princess

Reviews

Monda jan, Ghroboune shoma beram. I can't write fiction to save my life. :)

By the way, I just checked out Avatar's reviews on the Hufftington Post, just out of curiosity. Apparently, it's against the law to not like this movie. One review in particular was great, not necessarily because of the review itself, but because of the comments left for Gregory Weinkauf, the chap who dared to write a negative review. Some of the comments made ma laugh out loud. Suffice it to say, IC seems rather civilized compared to HP for a change. :)

Anyway, I know, it's never a good idea to pick a fight with the world. I shall keep my opinion about this movie to myself from now on.

Shab khosh! 

Ari good point

Also I believe this was the first movie (that I know of), that the alien creatures were superior than human not in technology!

Plus Normally it is the alien who is fascinated by the earthlings, in this
case was the other way around. And I felt really good at the end. Another great point in the movie was that a person who is handicapt as human is a hero as those (Pandora?) beings. Maybe we are all handicaped by our lack of true identity and what's truly important.

It was a great movie.

Trudy Chacon: "Screw this.I didn't sign up for this shit!"

This moment is as politically significant as when Iranians started chanting "Death to Khamenei." For so long in the US, "support our troops" had been the big stick with which the neo-con baseej beat up American peace advocates. During the "support our troops" reign of terror, no anti-war film came out of Hollywood that somehow didn't offer whimpering apologies to the big stick of the treason label. Finally Avatar had the courage to say enough!

PS: 

Of course the movie was made when Cameron thought Obama was really Obama. Now that some view Obama as an Avatar of G.W. Bush created to infiltrate and disable the peace tribe, the movie takes on a different hue of meaning.  

I saw Enter The Dragon by Bruce Lee twice, but 4 or 5 times?

I saw that movie in Iran and the lines while not as long as Avatar they were pretty long.  I don't know if I have ever seen another movie twice, some on DVD but not in theatre. 

I can't imagine seeing a movie 4 or 5 times in theatre.  But since part of Avatar's success and big sales is due to people seeing it multiple times I thought to ask, how does it feel to see it 4 times?! Really. 

I'd like to see Avatar again, in IMAX 3D this time.

Everything is sacred.

Princess jan, Ekhtiyar dareen

kee behtar az shoma?  Taazeem :o)

Bubbly jan sorry for not sticking to your blog!  

Monda jan,

I wouldn't dare 'arze adab" next to all the talented writers in this forum, but I am very much looking forward to reading them. 

great movie

loved it and will watch it again. my dad got really scared by the 3D action! was his first experience of it.

Black & White ...

is the nature of political infrastructures in this lifetime. Immature and borderline! I agree as a race we cannot survive without shades of grey, so it's our choice/ responsibility to look into the operational black and whites, to create the grays as humanly possible.  

Hey have you thought about writing on a new sensisble system in other galaxies, see JJ's new blog on Iranians out of Space? 

:)

That's why I think you guys rock! You always find the positive in things... ;P

JJ jan, You are right, my mistake, I should have expected a cartoon. By the way, I completely agree with your last paragraph. :) And by the way, I was not trying to compare Odessey with Avatar, I was just answering Anomymouse' question.

Monda jan, I love you ,too. My problem with the core message was that it simplified things too much. You were either good or evil and the world is not like that. Just like Bush and Cheney, the movie painted a world in black and white. I think besides making the story boring, propagating that worldview is a bit dangerous. 

Hamsadeh jan, we might not be the only ones, but we are clearly in the minority.   

In any case, I am glad I went to see it because now I take part in discussing it.:)

Chief's son didn't have the training or vision to tame Simorgh!

Everything is sacred.

i see y'all

monda jan, in my opinion you're partially right on why they had to make the hero a white guy (as they did with john smith in pocahontas)? ticket sales.  i'm not sure on your "hope-inspiring" angle.  if you mean the same reason that obama got the noble peace prize or bernanke got the time's man of the year award, i have to disagree.  the trickle down compassion that seems to be the trend these days will be as effective as the trickle down economics that the reagan economists tried to sell to the american public in the early 80s.  are we to patronize the white people so that they show more compassion to those that are not of the same tribe as them?

princess jan, i'm sure we're not the only ones that were not fully satisfied with our avatar experience.  and indeed it could partly be a perefernce issue.  perhaps those that get more satisfaction out from a sci fi movie than the average person, have more tolerance for less developed characters and storyline.

anonymouse jan, i just wished the chief's son would have tamed the simorgh instead of the white guy who according to himself was out of element in that environment and was a bumbling idiot when it came to the blue people's ways.

bubbly jan, in no way am i criticizing those who liked the movie.  i just stated my case for why i didn't.  i'll look forward to your next movie review.

oh and I agree with JJ's point

Using Bush-era vocabulary hopefully brought it home for the viewers! We've been there, done that kinda thing.

so relieved that I'm not the only one...

seeing Avatar for the 5th time tonight :o)

Princess jan I still love your mind, no worries!

Is spite of the revolutionary technological work and awesomely creative efforts (to make it palatable to average movie goers), the character's image did share the overdone Hollywoody components.  To me though those were insignificant compared to the underlying (or explicit) core messages.  I forgave Cameron for many of his attempts while I felt more than content with his presentation of the reality of dictatorship/colonialism.

I don't believe in perfection, Good Enough is what I always search for.

I also loved the movie for its considerations of human emotional capacity in the "I See You" statement.  It may sound simple (or corny to my sister), but that is the most down-to-earth notion related to our "human" bonding experience, as we know it so far.  

Cartoonish

Princess, I understand your disappointment as well as hamsade ghadimi's. You have valid points.

First, allow me to admit that I saw Avatar for the fourth time two nights ago! I did yawn and fall asleep a few times, but only because I was really tired :)

Avatar is a cartoon, be it a fancy one. And cartoons tend to be essentially battles between good and evil, with obvious good and bad guys. Other examples are Superman, Batman...

By contrast, Kubrik's "2001: A Space Odyssey" was a work of fantasy too, but infinitely deeper and more insightful than Avatr.

Still I really enjoyed Avatr for what it was. And I have new respect for the director precisely because he included Bush-era language and doctrine to discredit and condemn American militarism.

Oh my god! That big bird, Toruk Makto, was so damn cool! And those giant colorful flowers, and fluorescent vegetation, and floating jellyfish-like seeds, and giant home tree, and that little flying lizard, and that bad-ass marine commander, and...

Don't get me going... to see it for a fifth time! :)))

Anonymouse Jaan

Ironically, although I am not much into action movies, I liked the action scenes in this movie. 

As for, sci-fis, I am not big on them either. My favorite to this day remains 2001: A Space Odyssey. I liked 12 Monkeys as well, so you might be right, it might have been a genre thing.

Princess jaan you didn't like the guy jumping on Simorgh?!

I think some people who generally don't watch sci fi of any kind (I only like Star Trek and some Star Wars, hated lord of the rings) won't be able to enjoy these movies.  For example, did you like this last Star Trek movie?

I liked Avatar's one liners and individual points some of which transformed to more.  Like in the beginning all those animals were just weird but in the end they ended up saving the planet with sheer numbers.  How else are you going to defeat such an advanced military machine?

I liked jumping on simorgh the best.  But it's ok you either like a movie or you don't.  I may not like a movie based on solely the actors who play in it.

Everything is sacred.

Hamsade ghadimi

I feel relieved to read your review here, I was beginning to think something was wrong with me. Thank you.

I went to see this film because of the good reviews by some of my favorite people on this site, but unfortunately I was very disappointed. The only thing I liked was the imaginative scenes and the animation.

I found the story line extremely predictable, the dialogue appalling, and the characters mere caricatures. Cameron seemed to have lifted lines from Bush and Cheney's speeches and news headlines of Bush's era to insert in his dialogues and in the end created some boring black and white characters.

Of course politically I sympathize with the ideas behind the story and the motives, but as far as good story-telling and developing interesting and complex characters goes, I found the movie rather banal. After all, I don't go to the theatre to just have my (political) beliefs confirmed, I need something to chew on as well, figuratively speaking of course. I was so bored that I started yawing halfway through.

Sorry JJ, Monda, Ari, and everybody else who loved it. Please don't beat me. :)

And Bubbly thanks for your piece. You and I just don't seem to have the same taste in movies. I remember our disagreements over Slumdog millionaire as well. Peace! :))

bubly jan, I love your write up!

You brought out all the good points. My only problem is your comparison of Avatar to Titanic.  I really think Cameron has existentially matured a lot since his corny Titanic. 

hamsadeh ghadimi, the saviour role of the white man had to be in there for hope-inspiring purposes and ticket sales. In the colonialist world that we live in Who could handle the idea of the natives defending themselves against evil forces?  Evil forces being the Whites to begin with.

...

حیف چشم،وقت و پول آدم که حرام همچین چیزی شود !

While Avatar is making $$$, a stoning movie is a big hit in Iran

I will definitely go to see Avatar.  I am a fan of science fiction too, and Avatar is being hailed as the culmination of the best in animation and imagination. 

But, it is interesting that while Avatar is making the big bucks everywhere, the Stoning of Soraya M. is also getting excellent reviews in film festivals, being banned by IRI and cheered in Iranian homes.  The bootleg DVD of Stoning of Soraya M. film is a hit in Iranian homes and is a constant reminder of why people want change. 

Although it sounds like I will be saddened to see The Stoning of Soraya, I have to rent it just to lend my support. 

 Here is one reviewer said about it:

Revolution in Iran: ‘Soraya’s’ Message of Defiance an Underground Hit

I hear there is a sex scene (using tails :-) in the DVD version!

Everything is sacred.

Vatican's Critique

Vatican does not like the message in the movie that promotes the worship of nature over god.

Shocking!

____________________

IRAN BEFORE ISLAM 

____________________

The movie was great

I had a blast watching it. It was great and had many good points.

cameron's style: shock and awe

i believe there were 2 other glowing posts on the movie avatar on this site.  although i don't like sci fi/futuristic type movies, i was also excited about the movie as i had only heard good reviews.  even though, the director of the movie cameron had, in my mind, previsouly had made a horrible movie in titanic (which by the way was a popular hit).

i paid the $42 for myself and two nephews, got the popcorn and drinks and sat in the comfortable theatre seat.  the movie starts with such promise, showing novel depictions of far away earth-like planet with fantastic creatures that include the blue native population.  the "earth" people were stereotypical of the characters that you seem in any movies in the present or the past.  with sigourney weaver, the head scientist in planet pandora (they could not have picked a more cliche name) was chain smoking in the lab.  while the top marine there reminisced with jake on their many "platoon-type" conflicts in oil rich parts of the world (nigeria, venezuela).  somehow, the human race had advanced so far as to reach the periphery of outer space and still maintained the gung-ho attitude of your average marine.  well, it's still plausible that a marine will always stay a marine.

the movie went south on me when cameron's version of the often too-much played hollywood formula came into play.  the natives, with all of their advanced senses and senibilities, were not equipped to defend themselves.  they had to rely on the white american to come and save their blue butts.  in a scene out of rambo meets pocohantus, jake in his blue avatar body, was firing a machine gun at the incoming soldiers and screaming from the top of his lungs much like stallone.  mind you, he was the only native with the machine gun.  and the arrows that were deflected off the fancy helicopters early in the movie were now going right through the window panels like steel shafts.  and jake proves that he's the baddest and smartest of all the blue natives, and perhaps it takes the no nonesense attitude of an american marine that can make you the best that, how do you say it, there can be?

by the time the movie was over, many people were clapping and oohing and aahing over the movie and i felt that i was in the minority much in the same way when i left the movie theater after watching titanic.