Corporate Oppressors

Released now, calculated to bring as little benefit or press to the film as possible, Curtis and I break down as much of “Avatar” as we can stomach. We lay the entirety of the blame at James Cameron’s doorstep – he really ought to know better. We do some side trails into the fad that is the current generation of 3D movies, “Prince of Persia” – which we both really enjoyed, in spite of my frustrated rant about the ending, and then plug upcoming RPG projects here at Critical Press Media. Hey, it’s worth repeating: look for OpenD6: Agents to hit digital download and POD before the end of the summer!

In the meantime, stick around and kvetch about “Avatar” with us – and if you’ve seen the film, you know exactly why we’re so dissatisfied with the movie – or if you haven’t seen it yet let me get right to the bottom line. Skip it.

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Last 5 posts by Winston Crutchfield

2 thoughts on “Corporate Oppressors”

  1. Hey Winston:
    I was really looking forward to hearing (or reading) you kvetch about Avatar. I even brought my kvetcher’s mitt. Where’s the rest of it? If you meant to tease me, it worked.

    I put Critical Press on my blog roll, BTW. 🙂

  2. OK–I tried a different browser and it worked.

    Yeah: it was Dances With Wolves in Space. Or a mission statement by Cameron and his fellow travelers, with all the subtlety of a buffalo stampede. And they went way beyond native American shamanism into hardcore New Age nonsense about nature (all of creation, in the microcosm of this planet) being a networked sentient being. Of course the heartless capitalist warmongers would probably want to destroy it just out of cruelty, even if there was no precious mineral under Mother Earth’s sacred green carpet. And speaking of “unobtanium,” I’m rather miffed at Cameron for taking a word I use in comedic contexts and installing it in the vocabulary of this allegedly serious film.

    Regarding the CGI, though, I was impressed with how it was able to capture nuances of human expression well enough to convey convincing emotional reactions from the actors. There’s a scene when Zoe What’s-Her-Face is teaching Jarhead Alter Ego how to ride “horses” that impressed me in this regard. Kudos to Lt. Uhura for some flashes of understated brilliance, IMO.

    This omnipresent leftist cultural/political conditioning–sometimes encoded and sometimes shamelessly blatant–is one reason I almost never watch movies or TV anymore. I wrote an article about the Watchmen on my blog (http://twofistedblogger.blogspot.com/p/watching-watchmen-double-entendres-are.html) in which I grouse about this a little. I’m far more politically candid there than I am on 95% of my blog posts, so be advised.

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