Ponderings on Avatar

This isnt actually a review as such, because I'm pretty sure that all members of this blog have a) seen it and b)hated its guts. So this is more a collection of my musings whilst watching. I missed this one in 2009 because I was having a baby then coping with a newborn throughout the brouhaha. So here's my impressions, 2 years later:
- Firstly, I didnt hate its guts. I had fun. Loved the special effects. We laughed a lot. There's a lot to laugh at.
- Sam Worthington grew on me. At first I wondered why they'd cast a good looking Aussie bloke to play an all american marine. Still dont know why. Its not as if the USA isnt full of desperate american actors who are relative unknowns who wouldnt kill their own grandmothers for a chance to paint themselves blue and be tied to trees and yell great lines like 'Stop! No!' at big  tractor tree killers. Sam Worthington must have one hell of an agent. Having said all of that, he certainly rose to the occasion. But why did they give it to an Aussie boy?
- I occasionally drop into a forum run by native american indians (ndns) who are sick to death of whiteys misappropriating their cultures and traditions. Their forum is called 'New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans', link is http://www.newagefraud.org/ if anyone's curious. For the record, indigenous cultures as a rule never fully adopt outsiders into their tribes but it appears to be a burning fantasy in the western mindset, doesnt it? Yes yes I know, this was a fantasy tribe, but it ticked all of the boxes for a western wet dream of what indigenous cultures are meant to be, didnt it? Pretty coloured face paints, funky initiations, baring of teeth, mystical connection to the land....Us whiteys just cant resist it. The tribe not only takes the westerner in, but he gets to fly a bigger dragon thingy than any of the actual tribe members, he gets the girl and saves them all...how did they ever manage before he came along...see, knew he was superior...
- That colonel (king of the baddies) was a classic. He got to run through every, and I mean every cliched military line ever written in the history of fillum. He even got to wack on his oxygen mask and make like Dennis Hopper circa Blue Velvet and hyperventilate, just in case you were doubting that he was a complete psycho. Hubby suggested that maybe the reason he looked so bad tempered was because his lines were so bad. We were taking bets on how horrible his death was going to be and how drawn out it was going to be, so I'm glad they didnt let us down.
- In a way, it's nice that the one of the highest grossing fillums of all time is an anti - miltary orgy of western guilt about genocide and environmental atrocities......
- I wanna fly a dragon! Up around floating islands! Way cool!