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Movie: "Avatar" from James Cameron

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Movie: "Avatar" from James Cameron

Unread postby mos6507 » Sat 12 Dec 2009, 18:02:01

James Cameron's "Avatar," Peak oil subtext? I've been waiting for this.$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;So certainly it is about imperialism in the sense that the way human history has always worked is that people with more military or technological might tend to supplant or destroy people who are weaker, usually for their resources," says Cameron. "We're in a century right now in which we're going to start fighting more and more over less and less. The population ain't slowin' down, oil will be depleted - we don't have a great Plan B for energy in this country right now, notwithstanding Obama's attempts to get people to focus on alternative energy. We've had eight years of the oil lobbyists running the country.
BTW, I wonder what the total carbon footprint was of rendering Avatar... Oh, the ironies.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Leanan » Sat 12 Dec 2009, 19:24:39

From this review of the movie:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')arth is apparently in an energy crisis and the mining of a rare mineral called unobtanium may be the only thing that can save it. Unobtanium can only be found on Pandora and unfortunately the largest Na'vi village, a tree the size of the Empire State Building, rests on the greatest deposit of the mineral on the planet.


:lol: "Unobtanium"!
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Plantagenet » Sat 12 Dec 2009, 22:34:22

Any movie with 7 foot tall blue-skinned alien babes wearing fur bikinis is OK with me.

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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Sixstrings » Sun 13 Dec 2009, 00:07:27

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'B')TW, I wonder what the total carbon footprint was of rendering Avatar... Oh, the ironies.


Well, actually Mos I'd say the carbon footprint of a digitally-rendered movie is infinitely less than an old-school epic employing thousands of extras, costumes for all of them, elaborate sets, exotic locations around the world, etc.

As for the message of the movie, it strikes me as a retelling of Pocahontas with a bit of Dances With Wolves. The moral lesson? Well for me, it would be let's either stop these wars altogether, or if we can't do that then we need to get honest and acknowledge these conflicts for what they are -- resource wars.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby frankthetank » Sun 13 Dec 2009, 01:58:39

Unobtanium-sounds like Thorium, but is most likely oil

That Na'vi village sounds like Iraq or Afghanistan ....

Hollywood isn't very creative these days. I heard this movie was very expensive to make... I'd rather go see "The Road" If they would actually play it at theaters.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby mos6507 » Sun 13 Dec 2009, 21:17:48

The na'vi culture sounds nothing like iraq or afghanistan, unless you think iraq or afghanistan are like the amazon rainforest.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Plantagenet » Mon 14 Dec 2009, 01:25:12

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'T')he na'vi culture sounds nothing like iraq or afghanistan, unless you think iraq or afghanistan are like the amazon rainforest.


Exactly right. You won't find many women in Iraq or Afghanistan wearing fur bikinis and free to canoodle with brave blue-skinned warrriors.

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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Ayame » Mon 14 Dec 2009, 03:21:19

Yes the story is more akin to the amazonians being driven off their land and killed in clashes because big business wants to mine their land for oil. Of course the amazonians are not blue or 10 feet tall and don't live in trees.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby rangerone314 » Mon 14 Dec 2009, 08:45:38

Well they might not be blue or live in trees, but going back to Star Trek (or earlier) science fiction uses disguises (sometimes thinly) current events by masking them with fantastic elements...
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby mos6507 » Tue 15 Dec 2009, 11:08:33

Ah, James Cameron the environmentalist.

Would you like fries with that?

When you have a movie that costs a half a billion dollars, I guess you have to do what you have to do.

Maybe Avatar-themed harp seal hunting is next?
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Rod_Cloutier » Sun 20 Dec 2009, 01:23:50

I saw it tonight and this film (in 3D), blew me away. James Cameron has another blockbuster, like Aliens or Titanic.

From a cultural perspective he has included cutting edge knowledge about what a habitable alien world actually might look like, with its own ecology, atmosphere (unbreathable by humans), and lower gravity. Forget that every planet that Kirk and Spock beam down to has the 'perfect' enviroment of breathable air, tolerable near Earth gravity, ect, this film sets the stage for what an actual landing on an alien planet might be like.

Cameron must also be familiar with James Lovelock's Gaia theory. An alternate world's Gaia lifeforce plays a major role in exterminating the Human invasion of its biosphere. Borrows a little too heavy on 'the dragonrider's of pern' novels from the 70's, and the plot was a little too predictable.

A firm warning about destroying our own home world, there's no place else to go, not now, not ever.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby mos6507 » Sun 20 Dec 2009, 02:08:58

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', 'I') saw it tonight and this film (in 3D), blew me away. James Cameron has another blockbuster, like Aliens or Titanic.
Ditto. It's everything a James Cameron fan would want out of him, just dialed up to 11.$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', 'A') firm warning about destroying our own home world, there's no place else to go, not now, not ever.
It wasn't clear what the role of unobtainium is. Going into the picture, it was implied in the reviews that earth is in an energy crisis and unobtainium is necessary to avoid disaster. In the film, they make it seem like it's just a very precious mineral (like diamonds) but there is no discussion of its utility. This wiki has more detail. I wish the film had more exposition along these lines. Maybe in an extended cut?

Without the exposition, it's hard to really draw a direct parallel between the human motivation and, let's say, post-peak resource-wars. It's not clear to me whether in this future world there is anything equivalent to malthusian concerns. If there were, I think exploring that would have engendered a little more sympathy for the human cause (being caught in the Malthusian trap) rather than just seeing them as simple greedy corporatists ala Aliens.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Ludi » Sun 20 Dec 2009, 19:52:57

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'N')ot so. In both cases liberal communistic Hollywood effete drug-taking Jew liberals are responsible for such endeavors so they all waste too much energy.



It's true, I personally waste too much energy!

<<<< liberal communistic effete drug-taking non-Jew liberal who works with, but not in, "Hollywood." With a side of liberal.
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Re: James Cameron's "Avatar," Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Cloud9 » Sun 20 Dec 2009, 20:37:09

Great flick. Don't spend too much time looking for meaning where there is none. Sort of like Dune in a forrest.
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Re: James Cameron's Avatar, Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby bratticus » Thu 24 Dec 2009, 17:04:31

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', ' '):lol: "Unobtanium"!


Engineers have long (since at least the 1950s) used the term unobtainium
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Re: James Cameron's "Avatar," Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby Narz » Fri 25 Dec 2009, 23:02:17

I'd like to check this one out.

Kind of ironic, they seem to be in cahoots with McDonalds. I heard the movie mentioned in an ad of theirs.
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Re: James Cameron's "Avatar," Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby bratticus » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 14:02:13

Another "White saves the Non-whites" movie.
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Re: James Cameron's "Avatar," Peak oil subtext?

Unread postby bratticus » Sat 26 Dec 2009, 15:03:52

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')e all need--American, white, black, Indian, Russian and Chinese, etc.--to develop a sustainable, steady-state-energy, and carbon-neutral industrial system now, while we have the energy left to switch over.


Do we have to do that Now? Don't you think we have time enough to build just one more desert ski resort?

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