Worth the Price of Admission

The first thought that crossed my mind after watching "Avatar" was a mental chuckle. Many people right of center politically are going to snort, huff, and sneer in disgust from behind their 3D glasses. A friend of mine from way back in middle school whom I've re-connected with via Facebook (a story in itself) posted on his status update "Until watching Avatar I never realized how evil Americans are, and how noble all non-Americans are", to which a number of his friends agreed.
Personally, I never quite got the anti-American angle, and if the ol' memory is working correctly Avatar's hero is American. Not sure if he was by the end of the film, but he sure looked, talked, and acted like one. Until...well, no point in spoiling the ending, but if you've seen "Dances with Wolves" or "The Last Samurai" and films I probably have either forgotten or am ignorant of, then it doesn't take much to see how "Avatar" is going to end. Perhaps if they make a sequel, the Na'vi will get casinos and then things really turn interesting.
There is a thinly veiled ecological message throughout the film, which might have more to do with what rankles conservatives. But what I felt, watching this extraordinary film, was a re-telling of the settling of the New World. When the hero is introduced to a large group of Na'vi, they are riding horse-like creatures. And wearing skimpy leather loin cloths. It was kind of like a cross between New World indigenous people and Star Wars, which would make sense because Director James Cameron had been holding on to the idea of Avatar since the 1970's, or so I've read.
I guess this post isn't really going anywhere other than to illustrate that while cliched, Avatar is still very thought-provoking. If you agree with or at least don't mind the politics of the film, this is a movie going experience. While more people seem to have 40 plus-inch TV's and home theater systems, you'd still be missing out to wait for the DVD. That may be the real point of this post. You have to see Avatar in theaters, in 3-D. The total immersion cinematic experience is so intense that leaving the theater is almost depressing. Pandora, the planet, had so much to offer.