“You Saw What in ‘Avatar’? Pass Those Glasses!”

We noted the ‘controversy’ here:

From the LA Times blog “Big Picture,” hosted by Patrick Goldstein “Right wingers launch new attack on ‘Avatar’”:

It seems as if the more money “Avatar “ makes at the box office (it’s now officially the second-biggest-grossing film of all time), the more incensed its critics on the right become. The best example? Die-hard right-wing blogger/columnist/anti-Islam crusader Debbie Schlussel has now weighed in on the Jim Cameron blockbuster, which managed to drive her so around the bend that she ended up comparing it (I kid you not) to the writings of Noam Chomsky and the speeches of Hugo Chavez.

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So what’s her take on “Avatar?” She calls it bloated, highly overrated, an incredible waste of time and “just like a million diatribes from Daily Kos, Democratic Underground and every other far-left outlet about how we invaded Iraq for oil … yes, cinema for the hate America crowd.” After spewing out a host of other barbs against the film (she describes the Na’vi as smurf-like natives who “looked like Jar Jar Binks with arrowheads,” she ends with this coup de grace: “Why drive to the movies, pay for tickets and spend hours in a dark room when you can just as easily read Noam Chomsky or the speeches of Hugo Chavez in the comfort of your own home and couch? Same difference. ‘Avatar’ is an intelligence test. If you fell for it, you failed.”

Now the NY Times jumps in with this article:

Since its release in December, James Cameron’s science-fiction epic has broken box office records and grabbed two Golden Globe awards for best director and best dramatic motion picture. But it has also found itself under fire from a growing list of interest groups, schools of thought and entire nations that have protested its message (as they see it), its morals (as they interpret them) and its philosophy (assuming it has one).

Over the last month, it has been criticized by social and political conservatives who bristle at its depictions of religion and the use of military force; feminists who feel that the male avatar bodies are stronger and more muscular than their female counterparts; antismoking advocates who object to a character who lights up cigarettes; not to mention fans of Soviet-era Russian science fiction; the Chinese; and the Vatican. This week the authorities in China announced that the 2-D version of the film would be pulled from most theaters there to make way for a biography of Confucius.

Look, a story should be about something. And it will invariably piss off somebody. Perhaps the extensive brouhaha over Avatar speaks more about the universality of its story than anything else.

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