Avatar

I'm kinda late to this, but I just watched "Avatar" and it was awesome. I had always planned on watching it when it came out on DVD. I didn't make it a huge priority even though I figured it would be entertaining. I just thought it would be too cheesy to take seriously. I mean, c'mon, those graphics, it must be like watching a cartoon for two-and-a-half hours, right? Wrong.

There was so much that I really enjoyed about the movie, not to mention all the cool, not-so-subtle political stuff. Although, I heard a lot of talk about the movie's message being environmental, and while that was obviously there, I felt a lot more convinced by the arguments it made about imperialism and colonialism. I kept thinking about folks not just in Iraq and Afghanistan where we are basically unwanted occupiers, but people in places where our influence is more under the radar because its on the basis of "advisory" roles, or just with paramilitary American contractors (just like in the movie). Places like Columbia, Pakistan, or Nigeria (which got a mention early in the film).

Overall, it was a very inspiring movie. It inspired me to A) have crazy fiber-optic tentacles coming out of my hair that could connect with other species and B) to take up with some forest-dwelling resistance movement in a country where the government-elite interests have become intertwined with our governments-elites' interests. Neither of those are very likely to happen, I guess, so I'll settle for just chilling with Japhy while the Magic beat the Celtics.