'Avatar': Why do conservatives hate the most popular movie in years?

[liberal N proud]

It's no secret that "Avatar" has been stunningly successful on nearly every front. The James Cameron-directed sci-fi epic is already the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, having earned more than $1 billion around the globe in less than three weeks of theatrical release. The film also has garnered effusive praise from critics, who've been planting its flag on a variety of critics Top 10 lists (it has earned an impressive 83 score on Rotten Tomatoes). The 3-D trip to Pandora is also viewed as a veritable shoo-in for a best picture Oscar nomination when the academy announces its nominees on Feb. 2.

But amid this avalanche of praise and popularity, guess who hates the movie? America's prickly cadre of political conservatives.

For years, pundits and bloggers on the right have ceaselessly attacked liberal Hollywood for being out of touch with rank and file moviegoers, complaining that executives and filmmakers continue to make films that have precious little resonance with Middle America. They have reacted with scorn to such high-profile liberal political advocacy films as "Syriana," "Milk," "W.," "Religulous," "Lions for Lambs," "Brokeback Mountain," "In the Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," saying that the movies' poor performance at the box office was a clear sign of how thoroughly uninterested real people were in the pet causes of showbiz progressives.

Of course, "Avatar" totally turns this theory on its head. As a host of critics have noted, the film offers a blatantly pro-environmental message; it portrays U.S. military contractors in a decidedly negative light; and it clearly evokes the can't-we-all-get along vibe of the 1960s counterculture. These are all messages guaranteed to alienate everyday moviegoers, so say the right-wing pundits -- and yet the film has been wholeheartedly embraced by audiences everywhere, from Mississippi to Manhattan.

To say that the film has evoked a storm of ire on the right would be an understatement. Big Hollywood's John Nolte, one of my favorite outspoken right-wing film essayists, blasted the film, calling it "a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC cliches that not a single plot turn, large or small, surprises.... Think of 'Avatar' as 'Death Wish' for leftists, a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you freakin' hate the bad guys (America) you're able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all."


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/01/avatar-why-do-conservatives-hate-the-most-popular-movie-in-years.html



LOVE IT!

:rofl:

[BOSSHOG]

1. Conservatives hate dental hygiene

They are insane.

[lame54]

7. Don't you mean 4 out of 5 conservatives

[David__77]

2. It's an anti-imperialist message encouraging desertion.

It's a positive message, and goes far beyond "ecology."

[anonymous171]

49. It's more anti-militarism than anti-imperialist.

The main bad guy wasn't the corporate suit but the merc commando.

[Lint Head]

3. Conservatives hate the color blue because it signifies Democrats.

The Na'vi are blue.

[rcrush]

4. I'm not gonna see it.

I dont trust something that uses a shit gimmick like 3D to hypnotize so many people into seeing this thing. The aliens are lame ass CGI. I fucking hate that. And James Cameron doesnt need anymore money.

[rainy]

8. What is CGI? nt

[LeftinOH]

9. Computer Generated Imagery -n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. The theater I work at (P/T) and at which I saw it does not have it in 3D

and it still knocked my socks off. The digital facial mapping developed just for this picture makes the Na'Vi as human as the human characters.

It is bullshit to claim 'the aliens are lame ass CGI' when you haven't even seen the film.

[sharp_stick]

12. The CGI isn't lame ass

it's the best CGI I've ever encountered. Compared to the washed out crap that was The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, this 3D rendering is something else.

As for trusting it, shit it's a movie, nothing more nothing less, I don't need to trust it. The dialog is lame and Cameron needs better writers, you can see the ending coming a mile away. Technically and geek speaking though it is an amazing site on a really big screen.

[TrogL]

16. 3D is no longer a gimmick

(Full disclosure - I grew up 5 blocks away from his house and was over there fairly regularly. I petted the iguana and saw a lot of his early art work.)

I remember back to the early days of red-green-glasses 3D and the stupid stuff they would do to exploit the nascient technology. I saw the preview for Alice in Wonderland with the big drop down the hole.

Avatar contains little or none of that. There's no creepy things zooming at your head to make you duck. It just looks, really, really, ...errr... real. I spent the first five minutes of the movie feeling really nauseous 'cause my sense of balance got all messed up but that went away. A little later on I got kinda confused by audience members going to the bathroom (or fetching drinks) wandering around inside the ship until I realized they weren't in uniform.

For the very first time in a long time I wasn't distracted by the technology (although I was ready to kill the lady next door who wouldn't fucking shut up). Regular movies give me a headache because I can see the screen flicker, the wagon-wheels-going-backwards effect and I'm distracted by audience movement (out of the corner of my eye) and the speakers. In 3-d, all this went away - I was fully immersed in the movie.

For reasons above, I have to be dragged kicking and screaming to go to a theatre at all. I haven't seen a movie in a theatre more than once (excluding Rocky, which is a cultural event) since the first Star Wars.

I'm going back to see it in 3-D IMAX. I'll take some anti-nausea pills ahead of time.

[Trajan]

20. It is an amazing movie ... To discount it like this is your loss ...

It is a fantasy: How can someone 'trust' a fantasy ?

There will always be those who reject something because it is popular ... They want to be seen as 'above the pack', and I respect that ...

But in this case: It seems more misanthropic than culturally discerning ...

SEE this movie ..... It is an amazing breakthrough ...

[liberal N proud]

That gimmick is the future of entertainment

Including your future television screens.

It's ART!

[Fleshdancer]

34. The actors trained for months actually

All the facial expressions and body movements are from the actual actors. I watched a behind the scenes look on Avatar and the technology and training used to create this film was intense.

on edit: here's a youtube video of what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_vB7zx_SQ

[mrfrapp]

55. Wow

I've only seen the trailers and I thought it looked terrific. I had assumed however that the "alien" characters were simply people in prosthetics. Now you're telling me that those characters are rendered by the computer and I'm blown away. Cameron and his team have really raised the bar with this one. Wow.

[janx]

58. That is amazing!

I had no idea it was made that way.

[SteveG]

35. Go see the 2D version

The multiplex that I saw it at (twice now) is showing both the 2D version and the 3D version. Neither my wife or myself, due to vision problems (I am blind in one eye, she has severe Astigmatism) we cannot get any benefit out of 3D, it just doesn't work for us.
All I can say is that even the 2D version is visually fantastic, and well worth the time.

[Shandris]

56. I realize it would not help you quite as much...

...but your wife could likely still enjoy the 3D. I, too have extreme astigmatism and still managed to get the effect of the 3D technology. Perhaps it wasn't as much as it was to other people (I have no frame of reference, obviously) but to me, it was still magnificent. :-)

[Chulanowa]

38. Know what I hear?

"Consarn it, Watchin' Betty Boop shuffle around frame-by frame was good enough for us back in my day, an it oughtter be good enough for all these dangfangled whippersnappers nowadays!"

Accompanied by much cane-waving :D

[Dogtown]

44. " Why do conservatives hate the most popular movie in years?"

Hmmmmmmmm?

[Control-Z]

47. Wow.

What is there to trust?

It was a movie. A stunningly beautiful movie with remarkable (lame ass) CGI's.

I saw it in 2D.

[lame54]

5. The original Death Wish was good actually thought provoking

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Why shouldn't they hate it?

Non-Christian people of color from a foreign planet fighting and evil corporate empire. What's not to hate if you're a small minded bigot?

[janx]

10. The last paragraph is the best:

"Avatar" has, of course, far more on its mind than its politics. It's a triumph of visual imagination and the world's first great 3-D movie. But it is fascinating to see how today's ideology-obsessed conservatives have managed to walk away from such a crowd-pleasing triumph and only see the film's political subtext, not the groundbreaking artistry that's staring them right in the face.


:rofl:

[stubtoe]

24. Idiological conservatives can politicize absolutely anything.

Pollutes their entire world view.

[Chulanowa]

39. Spongebob, for instance

[janx]

46. I had forgotten about that one!

:rofl:

[Xithras]

13. It's a demonstration of conservative hypocrisy.

I heard a conservative ranting the other day about this. I pointed out that the soldiers in the movie were all in a futuristic private corporate Army, and not a national army. They were paid guns for a private company, nothing more.

I then asked him if he supported the idea that private companies should have private armies, and whether those armies should be able to just take whatever they want and kill whoever they want without government permission. He stammered out an "Of course not!" and then refused to answer me when I asked why he would object to a movie demonstrating someone fighting back against just that sort of thing.

It turned out that he hadn't seen the movie, and like so many other Limbots, had simply assumed that the soldiers were all American. It's understandable that he'd think that, since every single conservative talkshow host in the country is pushing the meme that it's the "cliche natives against the American soldiers".

[janx]

14. Is that where the meme is coming from?

I've wondered!

[Xithras]

17. I beleive so.

Aside from one local yokel, I don't really listen to conservative talk radio (the local guy, sadly, has the only show dealing with our local political scene in this region). I live in a fairly conservative area however, and I've noticed that MANY people saying anti-Avatar things are punctuating their conversations with : "I heard on Hannity..", or "I was listening to someone on Rush this morning...", or "Savage said...".

My guess is that the radio yappers are all pissed that a "liberal" movie is doing so well and are smearing it. The tragic thing is that the fundamental story isn't really all that liberal. It's a story about oppressed civilians driving out a fascist foreign invader. If that's liberal, then the History Channel is the most liberal channel on television with all of that WW2 footage they show.

[janx]

21. Exactly!

The movie is political, but there's nothing especially liberal about it. Moral, yes.

[liberal N proud]

23. You can't expect conservatives to make up their own mind

They must get their beliefs from a talking head who is acting as a surrogate of the party line.

[janx]

33. I want to find out which talking heads are taking this on!

:rofl:

[Ignis]

32. "Savage said..."

I love it when people say things like that. I really do, no joke.

It's like seeing a red frog in the jungle: It jumps out at you and says, "DANGER, POISON!"

[damntexdem]

15. Because it attacks what they stand for.

Whether or not it does so well (I haven't seen it yet), I enjoy their screams.

[janx]

19. Once you see it, you'll realize how ridiculous it is for anyone

to criticize it this way. ;-) It's laughable!

[DavidDvorkin]

18. It sucks

Some liberals hate it -- my wife and me, for example.

The fact that conservatives hate it because of its message doesn't make it a good movie.

[kpominville]

22. Great Entertainment

Its a mediocre plot, but it makes for great entertainment, especially if you see it in 3-D

[liberal N proud]

26. I was at a convention in December, they showed how they filmed it

The technology is amazing and worth the trip for that alone.

I didn't know if I was going to see it even with the technology, but well worth the trip and the story was fair considering it was conveying the technology more than a story line.

[el_bryanto]

25. Avatar is pretty simplistic

You know where every character will be by the end of the movie within 3 minutes of screen time.

Bryant

[janx]

28. It's a perennial theme, sure.

Done well, IMO. Art is full of these.

[el_bryanto]

31. It's poorly written - the Sci Fi is actually pretty ok, but the story itself is tired and overlong

Granted it is saying something we might fight political palatable, but is that worth the simplicity?

Bryant

[rcrush]

36. +1

"Granted it is saying something we might fight political palatable, but is that worth the simplicity?"


Thank you sir!

[Joanne98]

27. I going to see it tonight. I can't wait

[janx]

29. Will you see it in 3-D? n/t

[frebrd]

30. Maybe they're as sick of hearing about it as I am. n/t

[LaPera]

37. Anti war & pro environment has to be discouraged - for corporations health & profits.

[mwb970]

40. Conservatives: always the wrong answer.

Always.

[Beacho]

41. There some lefties I know that hate it too

The whole 'Great White Bwana saves the day' theme rubbed a lot of people I know the wrong way. The Noble Savage meme isn't liked too much either, myself included. I love whiz bang special effect like any other nerd, but I need story/character development more.

[proteus_lives]

42. I'm a liberal and I hate it.

Shallow, stolen script. (Badly re-written) One-dimensonal characters and wooden acting.

An empty box with shiny wrapping paper.

I'll save you $10.

Avatar in five panels:

[dana_b]

51. lol

oh noes!! I am supposed to see it this weekend. eek! We're going to make Mr. Cameron even richer.

[gopwacker_455]

43. because they're f_cking stupid. simple

[anonymous171]

45. Avatar's political message is 7 years out-of-date. Also, I hated how the corporate guy got off. nt

[daleo]

50. Really important political messages don't go out of date

Though their topicality can vary.

[TrogL]

53. *** SPOILER***

That's right - blow the ending of the movie.

Actually, the corporate stooge looked really, really unhappy like he'd have to face a hostile board (or Mafia bullet) when he got home.

[anonymous171]

54. -Spoilers within-

The Corporate stooge still survived though, unlike his merc captain. Also, the movie treated him sort of like a tragic figure. They seemed to be implying that if the evil brutish military guy wasn't there, the corporate suit would totally have put more effort into negotiating with the Navi (sp?). They let him off imo.

[Bjorn Against]

57. The message is not out of date at all, the war profiteers are still at it.

And considering this movie was planned as the first chapter in a trilogy I would expect the corporate guy will get what's coming to him eventually.

[liberal N proud]

59. It's ageless

Man has done what they did time and time again and corporate interest has always won over interest of the indigenous people.

It will happen again and again.

[ShamelessHussy]

48. the artistry is simply stunning in this movie

the CGI is the best i have ever seen. and it is not gratuitous (transformers) it is expertly crafted, and perfectly blended in to the scene.

well done to his team and i hope they get the oscar that in this case would be richly deserved.

I saw it in 3D and can't wait to see it again in HD.

[deaniac21]

52. Avatar is as ground breaking as Holy Grail!