BY CHERALYN BARRINGTON
Lions’ Pride Assistant Layout Editor

Courtesy of Perezhilton.com

Official movie poster for Avatar.

James Cameron’s movie masterpiece has received much more than praise following its December release.

The gorgeously constructed 3-D film Avatar that portrays life on the alternative world of Pandora, has stirred controversy in many directions. The film is centered on ex-marine Jake Sully, a paraplegic that telepathically connects to an artificial blue 9-foot body modeling the Na’vi people who inhabit Pandora. The Na’vi are generally peaceful creatures that live like savages but are slightly more intelligent. They rely on nature for their needs and worship a type of “Mother Nature” referred to as Eywa.

Jake’s mission is to get to know the Na’vi and essentially become one of them so the humans can form an alliance with them. The United States Military that reside on the same base as the scientists working with Jake have other intentions. They seek to destroy the Na’vi’s home so that they can acquire precious soil. In the film the military acts quickly and does not think twice about destroying the whole Na’vi people.

Avatar has been controversial in many aspects. The Vatican has publicly insulted the film making many points against it.

“Anti-imperialistic, anti-militaristic parable which doesn’t have the same bite as other more serious films,” Said the Vatican’s Newspaper when describing Avatar.

The Vatican’s newspaper has also said that the movie is bland and insinuates that it relies on special effects to impress because the storyline is lacking.

“Numerous captivating special effects but little true emotion. Visually there is impact but the plot is stale,” claims Vatican Newspaper writer L’Osservatore Romano when referring to Avatar.

The main point they criticized though, is that the film gives people the impression they should worship nature instead of religion. In addition to criticism from The Vatican, the United States Military is also taking offense to the movie. Some people consider the movie to be taking a stab at the American Military and portraying them as uncaring tyrants that attack innocent groups of people.

In addition to The Vatican and the United States Military, other groups have also blacklisted Avatar for various reasons. The campaign called Smoke Free Movies has complained that Avatar character Grace Augustine, played by Sigourney Weaver, smokes too much throughout the film. Liberals have also accused the film of being racist because the white Jake Sully comes off as the heroic savior of the Na’vi who are mostly played by people of different races.

Although many different groups are attempting to yank Avatar’s popularity, its enormous fan base continues to grow making it the highest earning movie to date.

Sources:
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/atthemovies/22214400/detail.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/avatar-under-attack-from-vatican-us-military-liberals/article1428912/