The People's Panda

So I went to see Avatar a few weeks ago and loved it. And like the mildly obsessed fan I am, I've been reading up on the movie online. And this whole thing with the different interest groups being pissed off by it just irritates me. I don't really care if you like or don't like the movie. Nobody is going to make a movie that everyone likes. But the things they're saying are just crazy. Anti-smoking groups are upset that one of the main protagonists is a smoker. It sends a bad message. Personally I think it sends a much more realistic image. I am getting tired of this idea that in movies, only bad guys, slick players, and anyone pre-1960's should smoke. Newsflash. A mass amount of people smoke. Good people, bad people, neutral normal people. Saints and sinners and cops and criminals. The same doctors telling you to quit are lighting up in the Mercedes on the way home. They know its wrong, its not healthy, whatever. They smoke because they're addicted. Or because they just plain old want to. To say that we can possibly guilt an entire planet into quitting because the strong and protective Grace Augestine character doesn't smoke is just stupid. Plenty of protagonists don't smoke and its had no effect on our habits. Education and seeing our loved ones hacking up their lungs have stopped far more than Hollywood. Accept that people smoke, accept that the good guy is going to gave flaws. And be happy that thats the biggest flaw you can find with her.

And then there are the feminists saying that they're upset that the Na'vi males are designed to look more muscular and strong than the females. I'm sorry. I missed something here. Because I was under the impression that both genders were of a lithe, slimly muscular build, with very little excess muscle in the first place. Then I was pretty sure that the main Na'vi protagonist was a female who was more than capable of taking care of herself, as well as hunting just about everything. She did save Jake at the beginning of the movie after all. In any event, a person's build does not determine their strength, or their ability to defend themselves or others. The women of Avatar, as with all of James Cameron's movies, are strong minded, strong willed, and able bodied. To have HIS movie of all people's attacked by feminists is hilarious. This man brought us Rose from Titanic, who in the early 1900's would bare everything for a man she barely knew, and demand he sketch her honestly, not glaze over details to make her feel better. Then she abandons a gauranteed life boat to save him. He brought us Sarah Connor, a mother hell bent on protecting her son and averting global apocalypse (who remembers stopping off in the desert for guns in T2 eh? Ehhh?). And finally he brought us Ripley, arguably among the most, if not THE most badass of all female protagonists. She took down an entire fucking species and did it with style.

I won't even go into the conservatives who say he's attacking capatalism and blowing the enviormental issues we face way out of proportion. I'm too lazy to write that much. But to sum it up. This is a movie. A good movie. Which thankfully has a good story to go with a stunning look. End of Story. Like it or not, its succeeded already, and no amount of pitiful whining on your part is going to stop it.

-Panda Out