The Avatar Review: Part 1: "Iconic Impact" (Intro)

Every generation or so there comes a movie so unique, so groundbreaking that it becomes iconic in its own time, for that era. Some are without question simply that, while others can be and have been debated for its status as one of these iconic films. Some samples of those that can be without question in regards to it uniqueness and its effect in society for its time in my opinion include: the original Star Wars trilogy, the Indiana Jones movies (well not so much the last one),The Godfather, The Ten Commandments, Jaws, The Shawshank Redemption, Casablanca, Roots, The Matrix, Dark City, E.T., The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Saving Private Ryan, to name a few. 

Others which I think were decent movies for their time but not nearly as ground breaking (but which I'll mention because if I didn't I could possibly get heat lol) might include: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Green Mile, Fantasia, Titanic, The Blair Witch Project, etc. Each of these ones did have a impact for its time. Big enough to be considered iconic? Well, that’s debatable.

This time however I wanted to talk about the movie Avatar. Yes the epic visionary movie by James Cameron. Since its debut, this movie has broken every previous record (including Cameron’s old record with Titanic) to be the highest grossing movie to date. Should this fact put the movie on the stage as an iconic film? This film has be reviewed critiqued, quoted, condemned, questioned, paraphrased, debated and praised from the simplest internet blogger (like myself) to major movie reviewers like Roger Ebert, the Bolivian President Evo Morales, Palestinian activists, and even The Pope to name a few. Should that be the reson why this film be iconic? There has been been social sites specificly for those that suffered ‘withdrawal depression’ from seeing lush forest of Pandora in Avatar in comparison to how our world is here in reality. Should this impact make this movie a candidate for an iconic movie? Or the fact that in China, they recently renamed the Qiankunzhu mountains, after the Hallelujah Mountains in tribute to Avatar? (BTW those last two are in fact true in case you were wondering).

It would seem to me that the impact of this film worldwide is quite evident. But again, should this film be considered one the iconic films for this generation? In my opinion, I would say yes. Clearly this film for many is more than your typical quick-money blockbuster. Its impact on media and society worldwide can be described as epic at best. Among movie goers both average and diehard critics, to self proclaimed patriots, politicians and political factions, religious leaders, people of religious faith, including Christianity have had this film come up in many conversations, and heated debates. Even with the recent (and slightly questionable) DVD release of this film, it still is making headlines with its re-release in the theatre, and future release of its deluxe DVD/Blu-Ray edition (more on that later).

This post is just a general introduction to my critique on the movie Avatar. I plan to look through not only the impact of this film, but the more dominant reoccurring themes in the film, (including militarism, political, philosophical, religious, social, and cultural themes). Also I will hopefully be addressing the method on how this film is portrayed and why it’s re-release later on this summer with “new scenes” seems somewhat hypocritical to one of the themes James Cameron is portraying in his film (not to mention why none of these “new scenes” are in the current bare-boned DVD/Blu-Ray release). I hope also to get some feedback from on this, and find out if there are any areas of this film anyone wishes to discuss that haven’t been addressed yet. Also not sure how many parts will be in this rather lenghty review, we'll see. Either way this should prove to be a very interesting review. I can’t wait! :)