‘Avatar’: Why do conservatives hate the most popular movie in years?
One one hand, it looks sweet! On the other hand…
– January 7, 2010
‘Avatar’: Why do conservatives hate the most popular movie in years?
About the Author
Richard Clark (Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief) has spent his entire life writing, reading, listening, and playing. He has a Bachelors in Theology from the Baptist College of Florida and has a Master of Arts in Theology and the Arts from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Louisville, KY where he is the classroom technology manager at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to writing at Christ and Pop Culture, he is also a staff writer for Kill Screen Magazine's website and has written for various other outlets such as Paste, Gamasutra, and Collide.
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I think Murty is basically right. Most people I’ve talked to who liked the movie spoke little to nothing of the story and loved the visual effects, which will transform the way hollywood makes action movies and uses technology. The politics didn’t come to mind.
I would tell conservatives not to get too upset. The movie as a story is, well, kind of dumb. Cameron has always been bad at plot and dialogue (consider Titanic) and this movie is no different. The plot is almost laughably predictable. The characters are mostly cliches with suprisingly little depth or distinction. The politics beats you over the head in such a overt way that, once again, you have to chuckle. A film that would make political waves is one whose story contains subtle, intricate, and thoughtful plot/characters. Such liberal films exist, but not now (nor probably ever) from the hand of James Cameron. Don’t worry, conservatives. Cameron is blowing people’s minds, not changing them.
I would note, too, that among the many positive reviews, most note that their approval comes more from the technological breakthrough and not from a great feat of story-telling. They usually admit that Cameron is as usual weak on non-visual fronts.
One last note. Why would a movie like this be so successful when so many people accept that is has bad plot/characters? Well, Transformers made over $400 million this past summer. People can love big battles and spectacular visual effects and therefore forgive other flaws.