So the Golden Globe nominations are out, and it turns out that the only nominated film I’ve seen is “Up.”
And you know, I really don’t care.
I don’t watch any of the nominated TV shows, either. Tried a few of the comedies, didn’t laugh, gave up. If you ask me, a comedy should make you, you know, laugh. Regularly. The only show on the air that’s doing that for me now is Wizards of Waverly Place. Yes, really.
The way I see it, it’s just another sign that Hollywood and I are at opposite poles of thought. I won’t be bothering with Avatar, and not just because it’s a three-hour lecture on war and imperialism. It’s because I think it looks, well, stupid. And the animation seems very unappealing.
As for the others, well, maybe I’ll catch Sandra Bullock’s films with On Demand. I like her stuff, and it’s almost never preachy. Hey, even The Lake House really grows on you if you watch it a couple of times. (Sort of like Must Love Dogs. Didn’t care for it at first, but it gets better every time I watch it. Chick flicks. Sigh. Love ’em.)
We have a sixteen-screen second run house within driving distance, Meryl, and that’s where I’m planning to see “The Avatar.” You’d be surprised how many movies would be truly lousy at nine bucks but for a buck or a buck-fifty look quite all right.
Both the Golden Globes and the Oscars lost my respect years ago. Not even a measly nomination for any of the “Police Academy” films. How could anyone take them seriously after that?
I’m withholding judgment until I see the film, and I actually think it sounds more like a Liberal spin than the actual message of the movie. Cameron is one of my favorite directors. I know he’s staunchly pro-Israeli (among other things, he co-produced and hosted the documentary The Exodus Decoded), has a no-nonsense attitude to war (Aliens, Terminator, Terminator 2) and is still one of the only big-time Hollywood directors who wasn’t afraid to take on barbaric Islamist terrorism (True Lies). His one film that can be said to have an anti-war message (The Abyss) was only specific to the Cold War and the stupidity of mutually assured nuclear destruction, a sentiment I share. So I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Also, anti-imperialism does not have to be specifically an anti-American agenda, but rather can be a universal one. Many other nations have employed it, some still do – for example, how else do you think the laughably-termed “indigenous” “Palestinian” Arab population reached and settled Israel to begin with?
Yeah, I guess chicks are cute. I mean, all those fluffy feathers and all. But honestly, it’s a different kind of fluffy I’m looking for about now… please, may we have some kitty zen?
Eh, when I saw the ad for Avatar a month or so ago (I think it was during a Cowboys game),
I figured I wouldn’t be seeing it.
My comment was, “I’ve seen enough movies where the US military are the bad guys”.
Alice H at Doubleplusundead had the best comment, “I won’t be seeing Dances with Aliens”.
Heh.
There is an interesting review that points out that the actual movie is a suicide fantasy by a disaffected teen. The Humans have a space station and can take out the tree at any time they want. Since they are observing the alien army forming, all they need is one missile from orbit to destroy it. They could “let” a meteorite hit and show up as “rescuers” to save the survivors and be granted the ore in gratitude. They could use their technology to appear as the aliens’ mythological heroes and be given the ore as a gift. They could even set up a site away from the tree in a location approved by the aliens and drill a diagonal tunnel to get the ore out without any alien realizing it.
The “villains” carefully attack in such a way that the aliens can win and feel that they did it all themselves.
This reminds me of a short story that I read decades ago and shows that there is one more scene missing from the end of the movie. It is set on a space station as the real fleet picks up the defeated Earth forces. The dialogue consists of two people discussing what has happened. One says to the other
‘Now that they have kicked us off the planet, they won’t be able to go back to their lotus land. They should be able to develop an actual civilization and eventually meet us as equals in space.’
‘Do you think that they will realize who we are when they meet us?’
‘No, since they think that Earth is dying, their legends will say that all the enemy have died. When they meet us, they won’t connect us with the legendary “war against the demons” that gave them their start. They won’t realize that all the “dead” demons were really avatars and that every dealing with them was conditioned to trigger the war.’
‘At least we can now restore the minds of the people so that they can resume their lives.’
‘Yes, we may have to provide “evidence” that Earth has been destroyed at some point and keep an eye on their development, but I think that in a few centuries we may be able to “discover” the planet and make “first contact”. They do have the potential to join us as equals now that they have been kicked out of their complacency.’
‘We will honor the memory of Jake Sully for having volunteered to give up his memories and become the Na’vi “hero”. At least he will be able to live happily now and the Na’vi will be steered in the right direction, even if he does not know what he is doing.’