The last film that I saw in a movie theatre was Avatar. Avatar is an epic science fiction film directed by James Cameron. The story takes place in 2154 and documents the relationship between employees of the RDA Corporation and the indigenous peoples of a moon-like planet called Pandora. The Na'vi are indigenous to Pandora and welcome one of RDA's employees Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) into their community, Hometree. Jake's primary purpose for getting close to the Na'vi is to gain intelligence so that RDA can wipe the Na'vi out and siphon their resources. However, Jake gets close to a young Na'vi women named Neytiri (Zoe Saldan) and can no longer betray the trust of the Na'vi in good conscience. A battle ensues between Jake and the Na'vai on one side and the humans from the RDA Corporation on the other.
One cannot deny the success of this film in terms of its visual and technical effects, however, one must also recognize the problematic messages embedded in the movie. Don't be blinded by the fancy graphics; Avatar repeats the "great white saviour" narrative. The final message of the movie is not about the victory of the traditional way of life and it is not a story of overcoming injustice and adversity, instead it is a story of the great white hope learning the "savages" culture and saving them. It mimics a common theme in post-colonial literature of colonized versus colonizer. A conflict exists between the colonizer (the humans - RDA Corporation) and the colonized (the Na'vi). The colonizer tries to destroy what he does not understand and the colonized resists domination but ends up requiring the help of the "great white saviour". One of the most offensive aspects of the movie is that the colonizer or "great white hope" infiltrates, mimcs the Na'vi culture and then ends up doing a better job at being a Na'vi than the Na'vi themselves. Avatar is simply a new version of an old story.
Visit http://www.avatarmovie.com/ or http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/6197/2010-01-05.html for more information on James Cameron's most recent blockbuster Avatar.
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